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The U.S. Navy’s newest nuclear-powered aircraft carrier John F. Kennedy (CVN 79) was christened Saturday during a ceremony at Huntington Ingalls Industries’ (HII) Newport News Shipbuilding division.The second aircraft carrier in the Ford Class, John F. Kennedy (CVN 79) is also the second aircraft carrier built by Newport News Shipbuilding named for JFK. Like its forerunner CVN 78, Kennedy is a truly electric aircraft carrier, with many of the systems powered by steam on Nimitz-class carriers now powered by electricity.

Anyone who has been around the Offshore Oil and Gas or the Marine industries for long has heard of plans for mining various minerals located on or just below the seafloor. In fact, when Howard Hughes built the Glomar Explorer in 1972, the cover story for its true mission – recovering a Soviet submarine - was that the rig would be used to mine manganese nodules from the deep ocean floor.  This cover story was so effective that it had the unintended consequence of stirring great interest in ocean mining among offshore companies and the general public.In the years since, there has been a great deal of research and exploration in this field.

The offshore wind industry in the United States is growing exponentially, with multiple projects in the development stages off of the Atlantic coast. The total megawatt capacity of U.S. offshore wind farms is anticipated to reach 22,000 by 2030 and 43,000 by 2050. To support this growth, U.S. Department of Energy reports estimate over 40,000 new jobs will be created by 2030.The new jobs anticipated to support the offshore wind industry include a wide range of types, including engineers, trade workers, surveyors, scientists, technicians, managers, and seafarers. Wind turbine technician has been one of the fastest growing occupations in the United States in recent years.

The U.S. Coast Guard said is searching by air and sea for two people aboard an overdue helicopter believed to have crashed in the U.S. Gulf of Mexico.The Coast Guard said its watchstanders received a report at 10:37 a.m. on Saturday from the helicopter's owner, Panther Marine, that the aircraft crew did not reach their destination when transiting from one offshore platform to another.Panther Marine said it lost communications when the helicopter was 10 minutes from landing. The crew's last known position was 13 nautical miles west of Southwest Pass, La.Coast Guard air and boat crews are involved in the search.

The environment in oil patches onshore and offshore alike has been challenging throughout 2019; worries about an economic slowdown – whether cyclical or induced by a trade war – have weighed heavily on oil prices, even in the face of reduced production by the big producers. Though storm clouds persist, there appears a clearing on the horizon.The fate of Offshore Service Vessels (OSVs) is, naturally, closely tied to the price of oil. Seacor Marine’s John Gellert, in reviewing its Q2 results, said: “Activity levels in the U.S. Gulf of Mexico remain tepid as customer demand is highly sensitive to oil and gas prices.