200 participants from 60+ companies attended the 2000 seminar, coming from around the globe to take part in this draft, held against the backdrop of a raging North Sea storm on the Dutch coast.

Chaired to acclaim by Curtis Lohr of Shell Deepwater, the event built on previous successful seminars by bringing personnel from across the industry - managers, operational personnel, manufacturers and designers - together to discuss key developments in and topics of interest to the industry.

With the sub-title of sharing Practical Experience and New Ideas, the two-day seminar provided various ways for ideas and opinions to be put forward and discussed, from presentations by leading experts in their fields, followed by question and answer sessions and debate from the floor; including a number of topic-specific workshops, with lead-in presentations, wide-ranging discussions and report-back sessions to the seminar as a whole; to the informal opportunities provided by the preceding evening reception and the seminar dinner.

Seminar Papers

• DP incidents with emphasis on thrusters
  Chris Jenman, Global Maritime/IMCA
• Managing the risks of Class 1 DP vessels near oil installations
  Michael Taggart, Amerada Hess
• Thruster repair by underwater replacement: How to execute the operation efficiently
  Bjørn Utseth, Techno Dive AS
• Thruster feedback problems and their solution
  Klaas Faber, John Crane-Lips
• DnV's new DP rules: The reason for change and the problems they solve
  Jon Ole Overrein, DnV
• Statoil requirements for deepwater drilling units and recent experience offshore Norway
  Bjorn Abrahamson, Statoil
• Experience from new deepwater drill ships working offshore Angola
  Olivier de Bonnafos and Chris van Liefde, Pride International
• Latest systems and the proven performance from deep and shallow water
  
- Donald Thomson, Nautronix
- Jan Erik Faugstadmo, Kongsberg Simrad
- Nigel Kelland, Sonardyne
• Presentation ona new laser position reference
  Allan Meahan, Alstom
• The latest Racal DGPS and DARPS
  Angus Cooper, Racal
• The latest Seastar DGPS
  Arne Norum, Fugro Seastar
• The new Mark V Artemis
  Nico van Woerkom, Racal

Workshops

• DP drilling alerts, responses and annual trials
• Thrusters
• Man-Machine
• Class rules, FMEAs and proving trials
• Training: High voltage, position references and DP

Exhibition

For the first time, the accompanying exhibition by seminar sponsors was tied in to the programme, with exhibitors demonstrating key new equipment in front of groups of delegates, answering questions and taking away a great deal of constructive feedback for their teams.

• DP control systems
  - Alstom - Allan Meahan
  - Kongsberg Simrad - Bjorn Gjelstad
  - Nautronix - Chris Rose
• Acoustic positioning systems
  - Kongsberg Simrad - Jan Erik Faugstadmo
  - Nautronix - Donald Thomson - Sonardyne - Nigel Kelland
• Surface Position References
  - Alstom (laser) - Allan Meahan
  - Fugro Seastar (DGPS) - Arne Norum
  - Racal (DGPS and DARPS) - Angus Cooper
  - Racal (Mk V Artemis) - Nico van Woerkom