People & Company Updates

CorPower Gains World-First DNV Wave Energy Prototype Approval

CorPower Ocean has been awarded the world’s first DNV Prototype Certificate for a wave energy converter (WEC), marking a leap towards bankable, utility-scale wave energy.

The CorPower C4 has been certified by DNV under DNV-SE-0120, Certification of Wave Energy Converters and Arrays, following independent verification.

The certificate confirms the technology meets DNV’s requirements for structural strength, reliability and safety, establishing a new international benchmark for the wave energy industry. It also establishes a reduced technology risk, unlocking the project finance, insurance and institutional investment in commercial deployment.

The news comes as CorPower Ocean advances its first two industrial wave farms, in Portugal and Scotland. It forms part of a broader ambition to elevate wave energy into the world’s third-largest renewable energy source, complementing wind and solar to deliver the lowest-cost clean energy mix around the clock.

The Prototype Certificate follows a seven-year process with DNV, which began with establishing the design basis for the CorPower C4.

Throughout the program, DNV independently reviewed and approved concept development, detailed engineering, structural strength and fatigue analysis, manufacturing, assembly, dry testing, installation, operations and maintenance, and device performance in extreme conditions with storm waves of up to 18.5 meters.

The CorPower C4 features a spherical composite hull measuring nine meters in diameter, stands 18 meters tall, and has a mass of approximately 100 tons. The wave energy converter is installed in 45 meters of water around four km offshore Aguçadoura in northern Portugal.

It has been operating in ocean conditions since 2023 across three deployment cycles, including autonomous operation, power export to the Portuguese grid, and survival of Atlantic storms with waves of up to 18.5 meters during Storm Domingos in November 2023, a regional record according to the Hydrographic Institute of Portugal.

Unique Group Provides Subsea Engineering for Open-Ocean Human Habitat

Unique Group, providers of subsea technologies and engineering, has successfully delivered the engineering, survey and infrastructure systems supporting Vanguard, the first open-ocean subsea human habitat deployed in United States waters in more than 40 years. Developed by ocean engineering firm DEEP and installed on the seabed at Tennessee Reef within the Florida Keys National Marine Sanctuary, Vanguard is designed to enable crews of up to four aquanauts to live and work underwater during extended scientific and operational missions.

The project presented a subsea engineering challenge, creating infrastructure capable of supporting long-duration human habitation while operating safely within a protected marine environment and withstanding extreme weather conditions over a 20-year design life.

Unique Group was responsible for delivering the engineering lifecycle of the habitat's supporting infrastructure, spanning geophysical and geotechnical site investigations, structural and foundation engineering, fabrication, installation support and life-support systems integration.

The company carried out geophysical and geotechnical surveys across multiple candidate locations, including bathymetric mapping, sub-bottom profiling, seabed sampling and laboratory testing. The survey data enabled the team to identify and validate a suitable installation site based on seabed characteristics, slope stability, environmental sensitivity and operational requirements. A metocean assessment, including extreme storm and cyclonic modeling, established the environmental design basis for the project, defining the structural load cases required to ensure long-term integrity under Category 5 hurricane conditions.

At the center of the project is Vanguard’s engineered seabed foundation system, designed by Unique Group to meet DNV subsea standards. The gravity-base foundation combines ballast and drilled tethered piles to provide long-term stability throughout the habitat’s operational life. Unique Group also engineered the habitat interface structure, managed fabrication in Louisiana, and supported construction and installation activities.

In addition to the structural works, Unique Group designed and supplied integrated fluid and gas control panels, emergency life-support provisions (part of the habitat's diver rescue strategy), safety refuges, the mooring spread and surface buoy umbilical. The company also delivered the bespoke interior fit-out, including furniture designed specifically for extended subsea occupancy.

The project delivery drew upon Unique Group's engineering capability across the United Kingdom, United States, South Africa and the United Arab Emirates. The UK engineering hub led structural and habitat design and fabrication oversight; the US team in Louisiana managed fabrication and on-site execution; the team in South Africa designed and supplied the gas panel systems; and the effort was coordinated through Unique Group's UAE headquarters. Structural engineering, habitat design, fabrication management, offshore execution, life-support systems, survey operations and project management were coordinated as a single integrated program, enabling multiple engineering workstreams to progress simultaneously while maintaining DNV compliance throughout.

For DEEP, Vanguard provides a platform to advance coral reef restoration, long-term environmental monitoring, marine science, human performance research and future underwater operations. For the wider offshore industry, the project demonstrates how integrated engineering disciplines can enable safe, long-duration human presence beneath the ocean surface.

Jaia Robotics to Deliver Aquatic Drones in US Marine Corps Contract

Jaia Robotics, Inc., a developer and manufacturer of micro-sized autonomous aquatic drones that deliver real-time data products and mission-specific payloads, announced a $6.1 million firm-fixed-price contract to deliver JaiaBot-HYDRO systems in support of U.S. Marine Corps (USMC) hybrid littoral maneuver and amphibious operations.

This contract includes the procurement of JaiaBot-HYDRO systems, training and support as well as continued development and commercialization of an acoustic bathymetry variant in collaboration with the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers (USACE).

This contract will provide the USMC with an initial operating capability to rapidly characterize beach landing sites and other littoral environments while keeping the warfighter out of harm's way.

The award supports the Department of Defense's mission to accelerate the deployment of advanced technologies that are force multipliers for our warfighters. Designed for rapid fielding, JaiaBot systems allow operators to scale from single Rasset missions to synchronized, multi vehicle operations within minutes. Their low cost and minimal training burden enable Marine units to collect large quantities of environmental, hydrographic, and surf-zone data at a fraction of traditional system costs.

Baker Hughes to Supply Subsea Systems for Kutei Northern Hub

Baker Hughes has been awarded a contract to deliver subsea production systems and digital solutions to support safe, efficient and optimized production for the Kutei Northern Hub development offshore Indonesia.

The contract with Searah North Ganal (a subsidiary of Searah Limited, a joint venture company between Eni and Petronas), will see Baker Hughes supply 17 deepwater horizontal tree systems, along with associated manifolds and connections, control and distribution systems, for the integrated development of the recently discovered Geng North field and the Gehem field.

Baker Hughes will also deploy its Cordant asset protection and condition monitoring systems to proactively identify and mitigate risks to critical equipment and prevent unplanned downtime.

Baker Hughes will leverage its operational and manufacturing capabilities in Indonesia to enhance supply chain resilience, project delivery efficiency and ongoing production performance, delivering trees from its Global Manufacturing Center for Subsea Trees in Batam. Baker Hughes’ Balikpapan facility will provide additional operational and service support.

This contract builds on Baker Hughes’ support of the Kutei Northern Hub development: In 2025, the company was awarded a flash gas compressors order for the new FPSO which can process over 1 billion standard cubic feet per day of gas and 90,000 barrels per day of condensate, with a storage capacity of 1.4 million barrels.

MSC, Jotun Sign Hull Cleaning Agreement

Mediterranean Shipping Company (MSC) and Jotun have entered into an agreement for the installation and operation of Jotun's Hull Skating Solutions (HSS) onboard MSC Daniela.

The agreement includes the full HSS package, combining Jotun's SeaQuantum Skate coating with robotic hull inspection and cleaning technology designed to maintain a clean hull throughout vessel operations.

Jotun's HSS combines antifouling technology with proactive robotic inspection and cleaning. The company recently received independent verification from DNV, verifying an always clean hull for vessels using HSs, with no measurable speed loss.

The installation was completed during the vessel's drydocking in China in June 2026. By maintaining a continuously clean hull, HSS supports vessel efficiency while helping preserve fuel, cut carbon emissions, and limit transfer of species from one harbor to the next.

Petroseismic Deploys Sercel Seismic Survey Technology in Chile

Sercel announced that a suite of its seismic acquisition technologies is being deployed by Petroseismic, on behalf of Chilean national energy company ENAP, to acquire a large-scale, high-density land seismic survey in Chile.

To help ensure a smooth project startup and optimal operational performance, Sercel supported ENAP and Petroseismic with specialized survey services, including a vibrator audit program and its Train & Launch services, providing technical and geophysical expertise, operational guidance and workforce training throughout the mobilization phase. As the project progresses, Sercel will provide further specialized services to optimize survey execution and ensure the highest level of data quality.

The project combines deployment of Sercel's land acquisition solutions, including vibrators, vibrator control electronics and wireless land nodal technologies, enabling efficient operations while delivering the high-density data required to image complex geological environments.

Vatn Systems, Taiwan's NCSIST to Explore Subsea Autonomy for Maritime Defense

Vatn Systems, a defense technology company building autonomous underwater vehicles, and Taiwan's National Chung-Shan Institute of Science and Technology (NCSIST) announced an agreement to explore joint naval defense projects on behalf of Taiwan's Ministry of National Defense.

The Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) establishes a framework for Vatn and NCSIST to jointly:

• Develop AI-enabled command-and-control systems

• Field autonomous underwater vehicles including Vatn’s S12 AUV

• Build supply-chain and sustainment support based in Taiwan.

The agreement reflects growing interest from allied defense ministries in Vatn's modular, low-cost approach to undersea autonomy, which allows its AUVs to be tailored to mission-specific ranges, accuracy, and sensor requirements without the cost structure of legacy systems.

This agreement comes on the heels of Vatn's recent launch of SIGURD, an autonomous mine countermeasure system built on its Skelmir S6 platform.

Prysmian Cable Manufacturing Expands North Carolina Facility

Prysmian, a provider of cable manufacturing, is investing over $1 billion and adding 385 jobs in an expansion of its facility in Catawba County.

Prysmian, headquartered in Milan, Italy, operates in over 50 countries and specializes in cabling solutions. Its North American headquarters are located near Cincinnati in Highlands Heights, Kentucky.

The company currently employs about 680 people at its Claremont facility in Catawba County, a 1.2 million-square-foot manufacturing operation where it produces both the glass used inside fiber optic cables and the cables themselves. The expansion will more than double the company's U.S. fiber optic production capacity, including the glass preform and fiber manufacturing processes. Construction is expected to take 20-24 months.

Demand for fiber optic cable is growing across North Carolina as data centers, telecommunications companies, and other industries invest in the infrastructure needed to support the growing need for high-speed connectivity. Employment in the state’s fiber optic cable manufacturing sector has grown 84% since 2015, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics.

In addition to the North Carolina Department of Commerce and the Economic Development Partnership of North Carolina, other key partners in this project include the North Carolina General Assembly, Commerce’s Division of Workforce Solutions, the North Carolina Community College System, Catawba Valley Community College, Duke Energy, Piedmont Natural Gas, Catawba County, the City of Claremont, and the Catawba County Economic Development Corporation.

SubSea Craft Makes 40% Investment in LORILLION

SubSea Craft has completed an investment for a 40% equity interest in LORILLION to strengthen the UK's sovereign capability to design, industrialize and manufacture specialist battery systems for defense, marine and automotive sectors.

Building on an existing technical relationship between the two companies, the investment combines LORILLION's battery engineering with Subsea Craft's maritime platforms. The agreement will advance UK technology, manufacturing capability and supply-chain resilience.

The partnership is particularly important to the development of VICTA, SubSea Craft's advanced dual domain maritime platform, intended to provide global special operations forces with a new generation of covert maritime insertion. Through the investment, SubSea Craft will gain closer control over a critical element of the platform's performance and supply chain while retaining the ability to adapt the system as technology and customer requirements evolve.

Saronic, Samsung Heavy Industries Collaborate on Autonomous Marine Systems

Saronic and Samsung Heavy Industries (SHI) announced a strategic partnership to accelerate the development of autonomy-capable maritime systems and technologies to strengthen America’s shipbuilding industrial base. Through this partnership, the companies will harness technology and expertise to build the maritime industrial capacity and workforce needed to deliver on American and allied shipbuilding needs.

The companies unveiled the partnership at the launch of the Korea–U.S. Shipbuilding Partnership Center (KUSPC) in Washington, D.C., a new organization designed to deepen shipbuilding cooperation between the two allied nations and sponsored by the U.S. Department of Commerce and Republic of Korea Ministry of Trade, Industry, and Resources (MOTIR).

The partnership also brings together the companies’ strengths to deliver autonomous vessels for both government and commercial customers. The partnership will explore the development of autonomy and AI-powered digital solutions and will encompass collaboration on production infrastructure, including robotics-based process automation across Saronic’s shipyards.