The Geco Sapphire, one of the smaller 3-D ships in the company's large fleet, was docked for routine servicing at Mjellem and Karlson of Bergen when it took on water and partially sank on Monday. There were no reported injuries among the 29 crewmembers. The incident is not expected to have a significant financial impact on the company.

WesternGeco management and Norwegian authorities are continuing to investigate the incident. The investigations, which are expected to take several weeks, will focus on the cause of the incident and determine cost responsibilities. All parties are insured.

WesternGeco provides worldwide seismic acquisition, processing, and multiclient services, and is a joint venture between Schlumberger and Baker Hughes. Contact: Rhonda Boone Tel: + 44 (0) 1293 557132.

Full [ Norwegian ] press story and images can be found Courtesy BA.no at http://www.ba.no/48/61/70/9.html

The member meeting will concentrate on the relationship between E&P data management and emerging eBusiness Web Services. "Our member meetings provide an open forum for collaboration that facilitates the development of eBusiness and data management standards for the energy industry," said Bob Decker, vice president for business development for POSC.

Paul Maton, director of POSC Europe added, "Now that much of the early hype has cleared, eBusiness is considered here to stay in E&P. POSC embraces, develops, and provides the industry with long-term solutions for standards, both in E&P information, as well as in IT infrastructure. The increasing maturity of both technologies, as well as POSC's member-focused collaborative forums, provides the opportunity to achieve these standards.

" Presentations from all sectors of the energy industry -- oil companies, service providers, software companies, and government agencies -- will provide a perspective on how eBusiness, and specifically Web Services, can make a positive bottom line impact across the industry. Speakers will include Stewart Robinson of the UK Department of Trade and Industry, Tony Fricko of IBM, John Shields of Baker Atlas, Antonio Carlini of ENI, Alan Smith of Paras, and Ken Landgren of Schlumberger. Speakers will explore Web Services in the context of well site and other E&P technical service delivery, regulatory reporting, data management, and reference standards. Updates are planned to address Web Service technologies, XML technologies, and POSC's plans for 2002. POSC will hold the Annual Member Meeting and Board of Directors election on Nov. 15, 2001 in Houston, Texas.

To register for the Fall POSC Member Meeting, visit http://www.posc.org/meetings and complete the online registration form. POSC is an international membership organization focused on the rapid development, implementation and use of Energy eStandards -- information exchange and interoperability standards in support of eBusiness for the energy industry. For more information and registration criteria, please visit http://www.posc.org or contact POSC at info@posc.org. Contact The Thompson Group, Houston Kim Padgett, 713/225-3005 Kim@Thompson-Group.com or POSC, Houston Bob Decker, 713/267-5142 Decker@POSC.org. More by clicking here...

The survey was accomplished in cooperation with Texas A&M aboard their research vessel Gyre. The ship is equipped with an Acoustic Doppler Current Profiler and satellite communications enabling real-time data to be sent to Horizon's clients.

The eddy was formed eight months ago when it detached itself from the Loop Current. Although now an "old" eddy, it still packs currents strong enough to concern drillers. Horizon's clients (a consortium of oil companies) received current measurements as the ship steamed in a pattern in and out of Millennium Eddy. More from Horizon Marine, Inc. 163 Front Street, P.O. Box 1050 Marion, MA 02738 Tel: (508) 748-1860 Fax: (508) 748-1525. Email: horizon@horizonmarine.com

Several severe tropical storms have pounding the beaches on the North Texas Coast over the past few years. These storms have depleted sand from large areas of the coastline. The State of Texas is actively looking into ways to replenish these eroding beaches.

Dr. Timothy Dellapenna of Texas A&M said he plans to use the newly purchased EdgeTech X-STAR system to investigate for coastal sand resources for beach nourishment projects. He also said he also plans to use this new chirp sub-bottom profiling system to investigate the architecture of the lower shore-face and offshore shoals along the Texas coast. He also has scheduled the system for up coming projects in New Zealand and Lake Michigan. We will also use the system as a classroom tool for High Resolution Geophysics and Seabed mapping classes he stated. More from Roger L. Caron Sales & Marketing Manager Survey Equipment Services 1424 W. Sam Houston Parkway North Suite 160, Houston, TX 77043 T:713-827-0430, F: 713-827-8093 or visit thier website at http://www.ses-services.com

The RDI Workhorse DVL is a multi-function sensor that gives precise velocity and altitude updates by measuring the speed of underwater vehicles over the seabed. RDI DVLs are installed on over 90 per cent of the world AUV fleet and on over 100 ROVs, on many of which they are integrated with other navigation and positioning systems, Patented bottom detection algorithms in the RDI DVL, together with single-ping bottom location, allow robust and reliable bottom tracking even over uneven terrain. Multiple ping averaging is not required to get highly accurate bottom readings and so the vehicle receives more frequent positioning information than with other navigation systems. This means that precise positioning is available during station-keeping (hover) modes and also in holding position on survey lines.

More information from Graham Lester, RD Instruments, 9855 Businesspark Avenue, San Diego, CA 92131-1101, USA.Tel: +1 (858) 693 1178 Fax: +1 (858) 695 1459 or Email: news@rdinstruments.com or visit their website at http://www.rdinstruments.com

The first contract is for pipeline repairs on the Aasgard field for Statoil and is valued at $100 million. Ships owned by both Stolt Offshore and Halliburton Subsea will be used on this project which commences in mid October and is expected to be completed in April 2002.

The second contract is for pipeline repairs on the Tune field pipeline for Norsk Hydro and is valued at $6 million. This contract will use the pipeline repair system owned by the Statpipe Licence and the Oseberg Transporation System and administered by Statoil. The repair programme will be undertaken in parallel with the Aasgard field repair work.

Bernard Vossier, Chief Executive Officer said "These complex deepwater contracts make good use of the combined construction fleets that both Stolt Offshore and Halliburton operate in the North Sea. Our joint venture has a proven track record of providing high quality construction, repair and contingency services to Statoil, Norsk Hydro and Esso." Mr Vossier concluded.

Stolt Offshore is a leading offshore contractor to the oil and gas industry, specialising in technologically sophisticated offshore and subsea engineering, flowline and pipeline lay, construction, inspection and maintenance services. The Company operates in Europe, the Middle East, West Africa, Asia Pacific, and the Americas. Contact Stolt Offshore Julian Thomson julian.thomson@stoltoffshore.com or Tel: US +1 877 603 0267 (toll free) UK +44 1224 718436. For the complete release, click here...

Shell officials said this seismic survey is part of the company's commitment to further expand the energy base of New Zealand by examining oil and gas exploration potential of some of the higher risk exploration plays that are present in the country. For the complete press release, click here...

Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution recently took delivery of their third Knudsen 320BR for installation on the R/V Atlantis. Other Woods Hole vessels - the R/V Knorr and the R/V Oceanus both have a Knudsen 320BR installed. A follow-on order for a second unit will be delivered to Oregon State University in October. Other October deliveries of the 320BR Deep Water Echosounder include the Naval Research Laboratory in California and an integrated hydrographic system to the Hydrographic Office of the Algerian Navy.

The 320BR, developed for full ocean depth requirements that demand chirp and correlation processing, has gained a steady following since its introduction. Its popularity is attributed to the high performance / low cost ratio as well as ease of installation and interface to existing ship-installed low frequency transducers. Since delivery of the first prototype unit to the Scripps Institution of Oceanography, 65% of the North American UNOLS vessel community have now upgraded their vessels with Knudsen 320 echosounder systems. In addition to many UNOLS vessel installations, other North American 320BR customers include NOAA’s Pacific Marine Center, Raytheon Polar Services, Clearwater Environmental Inc., and the US Geological Survey. A Knudsen 320BR User Forum will be held at the UNOLS RVTEC meeting at the University of Rhode Island in late October.

Contact: Judith Knudsen Vice President Operations / Marketing Knudsen Engineering Limited Tel: +1 613) 267-1165 ext 105 judith@knudsenengineering.com

BHP owns a 44 per cent stake in Atlantis, which is operated by BP of the UK, the remaining equity holder. Mad Dog is a three-way partnership between BP, the operator with 60.5 per cent, BHP with 23.9 per cent and Unocal of the US with 15.6 per cent. The fields are expected to produce a total of 230,000 barrels of oil a day between them, lifting BHP's production by 85,000 barrels a day, about a quarter of its current output rates.

The group said sanction for development of Mad Dog was expected to be agreed by the end of the calendar year and Atlantis would be sanctioned during the first half of 2002. Atlantis is expected to be fast-tracked and both fields are anticipated to start production by the end of 2004.

BHP, which took the decision to move out of maturing oil and gas fields to concentrate on high-impact new finds, said it had also encountered oil in two exploration wells in other parts of the ultra-deepwater Gulf of Mexico.

The Boris well, in Green Canyon block 282, was being evaluated as a tie-back development to the Typhoon field, owned 50 per cent by Chevron, the operator, and 50 per cent by BHP. The Frampton-1 well in Green Canyon block 872, owned 56 per cent by BP and 44 per cent by BHP, was considered non-commercial and had been plugged and abandoned.

BHP's Australian-listed shares rose 4.2 per cent on the news to A$9.24 by the close. The group's London-listed shares were up a more modest 1.7 per cent at 302p in early trading while BP's shares were 1p a share better at 591p. Full press release by clicking here...

The agreement will allow businesses to build and deploy sophisticated, high-performance location-based services. The service provided by the partnership includes the delivery of many high-volume LBS transactions such as locating addresses, displaying maps and more. IntelliWhere’s LocationServer software and Terra Map Server’s geodata Web portal, http://www.terramapserver.com, will provide the foundation for the service. LocationServer provides advanced georeferencing, shortest path routing, points of interest searches and other functions. Terra Map Server provides hardware infrastructure and more than 10 terabytes of European geodata.

Combining these with the NAVTECH navigation database, basic geographic data of state and regional authorities and the ANDES raster map database, Terra Map Server will deliver services to a range of European countries. Click here for complete press release...

*** POSTPONED Oceanology Int. Pacific Rim, Singapore, Dec 4-6 ***