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Subsea World News has put together a recap of the most interesting articles from the previous week (December 29 – January 04).

Russia’s Gazprom has signed an agreement for the acquisition of the remaining 50% stake in the South Stream gas pipeline project (South Stream Transport BV).

South Stream Transport was owned by Gazprom with a share of 50%, by Eni with a share of 20%, and Wintershall and EDF with a share of 15% each. Following the transaction, EDF, Eni and Wintershall will recover the capital invested to date, calculated coherently with existing agreements.

China’s first multifunction underwater engineering ship “Offshore Oil 286” with operating water depth of 3000 invested and constructed by COOEC kicked off operation on Sunday, Xinhua reports.

Built by Guangzhou Huangpu Shipbuilding “Offshore Oil 286” is a multifunctional underwater engineering vessel with an operating water depth of 3,000 meters, which combines functions including deepwater installation of large underwater structures, hose laying and diving support.

At the beginning of December 2014, BOURBON signed an agreement with Minsheng Financial Leasing Co. (MFL) for the sale and bareboat charter of 8 vessels for a total amount of approximately US$202 million.

The ownership of the first 3 vessels has been transferred for approximately US$57 million. The remaining 5 vessels will be transferred to MFL during 2015. This agreement provides for a bareboat charter rate of 9.68% of the sale price per year for 10 years.

More than 40 bodies have been retrieved from the Java Sea off the coast of Kalimantan where the AirAsia plane went down with 162 people on board on Sunday, December 25.

In the earlier reports today, Indonesian officials confirmed six bodies were found in Java Sea waters about 10 kilometers from Flight QZ8501’s last communications with air-traffic control.

On December 24, 2014 the Antarctica 100 expedition of the Russian Geographical Society’s Branch in the Republic of Tatarstan returned from the Antarctic.

Russian divers led by Dimitri Schiller went to the South Pole. The project’s objective was to develop relatively safe methods of deep diving in the Antarctic conditions to improve the effectiveness of underwater exploration.