War & Weather Keep Commodities Unsettled
The wars in Iran and Ukraine are sustaining oil price volatility. Is the Strait of Hormuz open or closed? Are tankers escaping from the Persian Gulf under cover of darkness, without their identity transformer on, and escorted by US warships? Is Iran allowing favored nations’ ships to pass? If yes, how much oil is being exported, and how is this supply impacting oil prices?
Engineering the Future of Underwater Living
How do you engineer a structure that allows people to live and work safely and responsibly on the seabed for extended periods? That was the engineering challenge behind Vanguard, DEEP’s pilot subsea human habitat, installed 17 meters below the surface at Tennessee Reef in the Florida Keys National Marine Sanctuary. Vanguard is designed to accommodate up to four aquanauts for multi-day research and training missions, marking the first open-ocean subsea human habitat built, tested and deployed in the United States in 40 years.
TAKE 5: The ON&T Interview with John Gibson
Leaders in the development of offshore digitization and automation have moved beyond conceptual promises and are now reshaping how subsea tasks are planned, executed, and monitored. Few companies embody that shift as directly as Nauticus Robotics™, whose Aquanaut® AUV and vehicle-agnostic Nauticus ToolKITT™ software are proving that autonomy isn’t just about replacing divers or reducing vessel time— it’s about closing the gap between raw offshore data, and the decisions operators need to make. This month we sat down with Nauticus Robotics’, John Gibson, President & CEO, to find out where this technology is genuinely headed.
Oil & Natural Gas Resources Stressed by War & Heat
The story of the crude oil market is the war in Iran. As this month’s oil price chart shows, when the war commenced in February, oil prices soared and remained elevated as the US and Israel bombed Iran, which was firing missiles and drones at Persian Gulf neighbors and the combatants. Once military activity slowed and diplomatic negotiations began, oil prices began falling in anticipation of the reopening of the Strait of Hormuz that had shut off 20 percent of the world’s oil flow.
USVs for Nearshore CUI Survey In Restricted Waters
Critical underwater infrastructure (CUI), including subsea pipelines and nearshore energy assets, often sits in areas that are difficult to survey with conventional crewed vessels. Shallow water, restricted access, terminal operations, and safety requirements can all limit how close survey teams can work. In these conditions, USVs equipped with hydrographic sensors such as multibeam echo sounders (MBES) offer a practical platform for inspecting subsea assets and collecting seabed data while reducing personnel exposure.
TAKE 5: The ON&T Interview with Dawn Massa Stancavish
With over 170 US Patents awarded, Massa Products Corp. (Massa) has been designing, engineering, and manufacturing sonar and ultrasonic products for use in water, air, and other mediums for over 80 years. This month we caught up with Dawn Massa
Stancavish, the company’s President, CEO, and Chief Innovation Officer to find out more about how this family owned and operated pioneer of electroacoustics continues to act as the “eyes and ears” for key naval defense assets at a time of heightened geopolitical uncertainty.
Air Sensor Data for Climate Restoration
Researchers at DeepGreen Solutions (DGS) have developed a new system to measure CO2 levels in the air near the surface of the ocean in support of marine carbon dioxide removal (mCDR) projects. Several emerging mCDR approaches are showing real promise as practical tools for mitigating global warming.
Iran War Dominates Commodity Markets
After soaring in response to the outbreak of hostilities in the Middle East in late February, crude oil prices appear to be drifting and marking time as the war continues. When the world lost 20 million barrels a day of oil supply with the closure of the Strait of Hormuz, the shock sent prices from the $60s to well over $100 per barrel.
TAKE 5: The ON&T Interview with Mark Wood
The conception of Ocean Sonics, officially inaugurated in 2012, dates to 2005 when Co-Founder and CEO Mark Wood set out to achieve the seemingly impossible: create a hydrophone that could process large amounts of real-time data where it was needed. Fast forward 21 years, Ocean Sonics is an established leader in underwater acoustics technology serving a wide range of industries and applications. We caught up with Mark to find out how Ocean Sonics is tuning in to new and emerging opportunities.
Oil & Gas Markets Upended by War & Hormuz Closure
After nearly two months of fighting, a ceasefire was negotiated between Iran and its adversary allies, Israel and the US. Initially, the ceasefire was upset by Iran’s demand that it include a ceasefire agreement between Israel and Iran’s proxy, Lebanon, parties that have been fighting for decades. While the public was attempting to understand the peace negotiations, which revealed that the Iranian negotiators were not empowered to negotiate an agreement, they began to assess the economic upheaval underway due to the continued closure of the Strait of Hormuz.
TAKE 5: The ON&T Interview with Chris Gibson
The fast-moving portable ROV market continues to expand, advancing subsea exploration efforts across the ocean sector. Few companies have been more active in this space than Video-Ray in recent years. This month, ON&T caught up with CEO Chris Gibson to discuss future product plans, software development, and his company’s ongoing integration into Aero-Vironment.
Greyshark
The convergence of evolving undersea threats and the limitations of traditional naval assets—particularly in remote and contested regions such as the Arctic, Baltic, North Sea, and chokepoints in the Mediterranean—is creating serious challenges for European undersea security. The situation is sobering: Europe is struggling to maintain persistent surveillance against incursions targeting critical infrastructure and subsea cables.
