Subsea World News has put together a recap of the most interesting articles from the previous week (April 18 – April 24).

Italian contractor Saipem has been awarded new E&C (Engineering & Construction) contracts valued at approximately €430 million ($487 million).

The first is a contract with Statoil, for the lift and mating operations of offshore floating wind turbines for the Hywind Scotland project. In addition, Saipem secured additional works related to the installation of multi-phase pipelines in the Caspian Sea.

Norway’s Statoil has presented a new subsea concept at the Barents Sea Conference in Hammerfest, designed to reduce cost and increase efficiency.

The new concept, called Cap-X, is estimated to cut costs by as much as 30% compared with conventional technology. The Cap-X is based on a suction anchor technology which facilitates the installation on the seabed. It is ¼ the size of today’s subsea templates and enables more operations from vessel instead of rig, the company explained.

DOF Subsea has been awarded several IMR and subsea installation contracts the past months, with a total contract value in excess of NOK 500 million ($61.4 million).

The contracts will secure utilization of the subsea project fleet in the regions. In the Asia Pacific region DOF Subsea has been awarded an LOI from an undisclosed client for a EPCI project with the offshore phase during first half 2017.

Subsea specialist Aker Solutions has confirmed plans to reduce its UK subsea workforce capacity for about 280 permanent positions mainly in Aberdeen and London.

The company has already started consultation with employee representatives, claiming a continued market slowdown as the main reason behind its decision.

NERC (Natural Environment Research Council) has closed the online poll which was launched to allow public to name UK’s new polar research ship.

On the official poll website, which drew a lot of public attention after a few funny proposals, the leading name remained “RRS Boaty McBoatface”. The name was submitted by James Hand, who afterwards tweeted an apology after his suggestion went viral and caused the poll website to crash.