ISOPE-99, the Ninth Annual International Offshore and Polar Engineering Conference, was held at Le Quartz Convention Center in Brest, France, May 31-June 4. A huge success, it broke the all-time attendance record of ISOPE-97 Honolulu. Gaining worldwide recognition for high-level technology, this annual conference continues to receive broad support from industry, academia and government. It was, again, the world’s largest technical program of its kind with refereed papers, attracting even more industry participants than in previous years. Concurrent events were the Osates exhibition with 90 booths and Technomer.

In 1998, the conference convened in Montreal. For 2000, the Call for Papers has been issued for the 10th annual conference in Seattle, May 28-June 2. The advance registration fee is expected to remain at the level of the Brest conference. This fee was kept low: $510 for the authors and co-authors, which included tickets for the Sunday reception, the Annual Banquet and Breton Night as well as a 4-volume set of the conference proceedings. The 11th conference will move back to Europe, where it is scheduled for Stavanger, Norway.

The ISOPE-99 technical program featured 96 technical and opening sessions and 6 plenary sessions. Leading experts from 45 countries gave 445 refereed-paper and 30 oral presentations; these generated an abundance of in-depth technical discussions in the sessions among the participating researchers, engineers and managers. The papers were selected from more than 700 abstracts. Conference proceedings (3,061 pages in 4 volumes) are available from ISOPE.

ISOPE-99 Brest was sponsored by ISOPE — the International Society of Offshore and Polar Engineers — and organized with the cooperation of 20 major international engineering societies and organizations (see the list below). It was hosted by Brest Urban Community (CUB) and Ifremer.

Started in 1991 as an international forum with organizers from more than 20 countries, the annual ISOPE conference has been held with the world's largest technical program with peer-reviewed papers since its second annual conference, held in San Francisco in 1992. ISOPE was granted the status of a tax-exempt, nonprofit, scientific organization in 1989.

Jin Chung, as President-Elect, welcomed the participants, and stated, "All of us have been very busy every year in organizing our successful annual conferences for the past 9 years. We have made room for every new colleague all over the world to join and contribute, introducing new research and engineering fields to the conference." Chung added, "Working with the Board of Directors, and the way we have operated, we have established and will continue to establish a frame for the Society."

On Monday, the first day of the conference, Brest City Mayor Pierre Maille delivered the Conference Opening Address in Le Quartz Grand Théatre. Dr. Samouilidis of the European Commission reviewed the program support of European oil and gas technology, including deepwater technology, concluding with the statement that, "Technology is a key to balancing and reconciling the need for growth, a cleaner environment and secure and moderately priced energy supplies." The U.S. Navy Office of Naval Research’s program of Mobile Offshore Base (MOB) was presented by Dr. Robert Zueck, who highlighted some possible research spinoffs. Previous and ongoing research for Japan’s Very Large Floating Structures (VLFS) for floating airports, Mega Float, was reviewed by Kiyoshi Inoue of the Hitachi Zosen Corporation. Both presentations received great attention from the audience and the media, and were followed by a series of in-depth technical presentations.

Technical visits were made to laboratories and shipyards in the Brest region. The spouse program took place every afternoon; for the Friday event, two buses took spouses to Mont St. Michel. Sunday arrivals received shuttle bus services courtesy of the CUB (Brest Urban Community). Also, the CUB provided complimentary buses in the morning and afternoon for those who had found Brest hotels fully booked as early as March and had out-of-town accommodations.

On the closing day of the conference, the dinner event was held in the Academy Hall of the Ecole Navale (the French Naval Academy). Courtesy of the Ecole Navale, two ships carried the conference participants across Brest Bay, where Rear Admiral Hubert Pinon welcomed them.

The dinner event was followed by Brest City Mayor Pierre Maille’s Welcome to Breton Night. Jin Chung and Pierre Maille exchanged memorial plaques. Breton Night was a memorable event, highlighted by the well-known Bleizi-ru Celtic music group and spontaneous gavotte dancing by Ifremer authors and staff.

ISOPE's comprehensive program included high-interest presentations on timely frontier topics in the offshore, marine, oceanographic and polar industries:

Some of the Key Presentations

• Damage Analysis of Super Large Floating Structure in Airplane Collision

• Research on Hydroelastic Responses of VLFS: Recent Progress and Future Work

• Offshore and Arctic Geotechnical Engineering—Prediction and Performance

• Viscous Forces on Offshore Structures and Their Effects on the Motion of Floating Bodies

• Variability and Trends in the Wave Climate of the North Atlantic: A Review

• Recent Advances in Wave Measurement Technology

• Climate Changes of Wind Waves in the North Atlantic over the Last Several Decades

• 10,000-Meter Class Deep Sea ROV KAIKO and Underwater Operations

• Sea Trials of the Deep Scientific System VICTOR 6000

• Seabasing Naval Operations: The Challenges Ahead

• Uncertainties in the Response of Offshore Structures to Explosion Loading

• Driving Fatigue Damage Estimation for Ursa TLP 96" OD Piles

• IMBAT3000: A New Deep-Towed Fish System for the Offshore Oil Industry

• Successive Learning Track-Keeping Control (SLTC) Algorithm for Seafloor Vehicle

  From SIRENE to SWIMMER - Supervised Unmanned Vehicles: Operational Feedback from Science to Industry

• Conceptual Design of an Autonomous Biogeochemical Monitoring Platform

• Application of Neural Network to Control Penetration in Arc Welding

• Environmental Atlas of the White Sea

• On Slowly Drifting Sea Ice with a Corrugated Underside

• Applications of Satellite Data for Coast Monitoring

• Long-Term Comparison of ERS, TOPEX and POSEIDON Altimeter Wind and Wave Measurements

• USCGC HEALY (WAGB-20): A Modern Platform to Support Polar Research

  Study on Ice Loads Acting on Marine Structures: Interim Report of JOIA (Japan Ocean Industry Association) Project

• The Blue Stream Project: A Large Diameter Deepwater Pipeline Project in the Black Sea

• HOTPIPE Project: Design Guideline for High Temperature/High Pressure Pipelines

ISOPE-2000 Seattle, The 10th (2000) International Offshore and Polar Engineering Conference, will be held at the Seattle Sheraton Hotel (USA), May 28-June 2, 2000.

For information regarding the ISOPE-99 Brest conference proceedings and the ISOPE-2000 Seattle Call For Papers, contact ISOPE, P.O. Box 189, Cupertino, California 95015-0189 USA (Tel. 1-303-420-8114; Fax 1-303-420-3760: E-mail meetings@isope.org). As a reference point, the ISOPE-99 4-day advance registration fee was US$510 for authors and co-authors, which included a complete 4-volume proceedings set (3,061 pages), reception, tea breaks and annual conference banquet, and Breton Night tickets.

Centre d'Etudes Techniques Maritimes et Fluviales, Centre de Géographique, Centro de Estudios de Puertos y Costas del CEDEX, CETMEF, CFER Technologies Inc., China Classification Society, CNRS, Comite d'Etudes Petrolieres & Marines, Commission of the European Communities, Conoco Inc., CYBERNETIX, Marseille, Daewoo Shipbuilding, Daqing Petroleum Inst, China,David Taylor Model Basin, U.S. Navy, Defense Academy, Japan, Delmar Systems, Inc., Houston, Det Norske Veritas, Deutsches Zentrum für Luft- und Raumfahrt (DLR), Dillinger Hütte GTS, DLH, Turkey, Dong-A Geological Eng. Co. Ltd., Seoul, DORIS Engineering,

ECOH Corp, Yokohama, EDF¾ Laboratoire National d'Hydraulique, Electric Power Industry, Japan, Elf Exploration Production, Engineers India Ltd, ENSG Laboratoire de Géomécanique, ENST Bretagne, Environment Canada, ETPM, European Commission, Exxon Production Research Co., Exxon Research & Engineering Co., Forest Works, Ltd., Fukken Co., Ltd., Gazprom, Russia, General Dynamics Advanced Technology Systems, EPS Eco-System, Moscow,

GeoProbing Technology AS, German Military Geophysical Service (GMGS), Giprospetsgas, St. Petersburg, GKSS Technologiezentrum, Groupe d'Études Sous-Marines de l'Atlantique, Guangzhou Institute of Energy, H2 Offshore Engineering Ltd., Halliburton as, Halliburton Brown & Root Ltd., Hokkaido Development Bureau, Horiba, Ltd., Hydro-Québec, Montréal, Hyundai Heavy Industries Co., Hyundai Inst of Construction Tech,

IFM, IFREMER, IFRTP, INRIA, INSEAN, Institut Français du Pétrole, INTEC Engineering, IORAS, Moscow, Ishikawajima-Harima Heavy Industries, Istituto Studio Dinamica Grandi Masse, J A, Maple & Assoc, J P Kenny A/S; Japan Marine Science and Technology Center, Japan Marine Science Inc., Japan Ocean Industries Assoc, Japanese Association for Steel Pipe Piles, JP Kenny Ltd., JSC "Primorskuhgol", Vladivostok,

Kawasaki Heavy Industries, Ltd., KDD R&D Laboratories, Kimoto Electric Co., Ltd., Kobe Steel Co. Ltd., Kodama Concrete Co., Ltd., Korea Institute of Construction Technology, Korea Institute of Machinery & Materials, Korea Research Inst of Ships & Ocean Engineering, Krylov Shipbuilding Research Institute, Kvaerner Oil & Gas, Laboratoire de Mécanique, Groupe Mécanique des Fluides et Génie Côtier, Laboratoire des Ecoulements Géophysiques et Industriels, Management Unit of the North Sea Mathematical Models (MUMM), Brussels, Marathon Upstream Sakhalin Services, Maritime Research Institute Netherlands, Mega-Float, Hitachi Zosen, Metal Mining Agency of Japan, Ministry of Energy, Iran, Mitsubishi Heavy Industries, Ltd., Mitsui Engineering and Shipbuilding Co., Mitsui Zosen, MTL Engenharia,

NKK Corp., Nansen Environmental and Remote Sensing Center, Narasaki Co. Ltd., NASA/Goddard Space Flight Center, National Engineering Lab, National Institute for Resources and Environment, Japan, National Institute of Ocean Technology, India, National Research Council Canada, Naval Facilities Engineering Service Center, Naval Research Laboratory, NewJec Ltd., Japan, Noble Denton Europe Ltd, Norsk Hydro E&P Research Centre, Norsk Hydro Research Centre, North Japan Port Consultants Co. North Transgas Oy, Norwegian Geotechnical Institute, Norwegian Marine Technology Research Institute A/S,

Obayashi Corporation, Oceanographic Instruments, OCEANOR ASA, Office of Naval Research, Optimer, Osaka Soil Test Laboratory, Pacific Consultants Co. Ltd., PeterGaz, Russia, PETROBRAS, Petroleos Mexicanos, Phillips Petroleum Company Norway, Port and Harbour Research Institute, PRINCIPIA R.D., Public Construction Commission, Puertos del Estado, Madrid, Raytheon, REINERTSEN Engineering ANS, Russian Academy of Sciences,

Sakhalin Oil & Gas Institute, Samsung Corp., Satellite Observing Systems, Sato Kogyo Co. Ltd., Shell Deepwater Development Systems Inc., Shell Exploration and Production Technology Co., Shell Global Solutions, Shimada Construction Co. Ltd., Shimizu Corp, Ship Research Institute, Tokyo, SINTEF, Snamprogetti, Soletanche Pumyang Co. Ltd., Seoul, Southampton Oceanography Centre, Soza & Company, Ltd., State Navigation & Hydrographic Institute (GosNINGI), St. Petersburg, Statoil, Stolt Rockwater Joint Venture, Stavanger, Stork Engineers & Contractors Malaysia, Sumitomo Electric Industries, Sumitomo Heavy Industries, Taisei Corp,

Tebodin Consultants & Engineers, TECHNIP Geoproduction, Technological Research Association of Mega-Float, Tension Technology International, Texaco, The Norwegian Power Grid Company (Statnett), The Yokohama Rubber Co., Thomson Marconi Sonar, Toyo Construction Co. Ltd., Toyobo Co. Ltd. Research Center, U.K. Health & Safety Executive, U.S. Army Cold Regions Research and Engineering Laboratory, U.S. Coast Guard, U.S. Department of Energy, Albany Research Center, U.S. Minerals Management Service, Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution, Yue-Hsiung Enterprise Ltd. Co., Taiwan.