A network for commercial divers about commercial diving.

Independent merchant bank Quayle Munro Holdings PLC said one of its investee companies, Submersible Technology Services Limited (STS), has been acquired by Australian oil and gas service group Neptune Marine Services Ltd for £16 million with a further performance-linked paymenmt due in the future.

Perth headquartered Neptune Marine Services is one of Australia’s largest marine engineering services. The company supports a range of marine based projects primarily for the oil and gas and renewable energy industry. Its service divisions include subsea and pipeline engineering, commercial diving, specialist fabrication, inspection, repair & maintenance, ROV, and vessel supply services. Read the rest of this entry »

One hundred special guests were invited to a special ceremony at Nutall Drive in the King Bay Industrial Estate, Dampier, last Friday the 6th of November.

Local company Oceanic Offshore were celebrating the grand opening of their fabulous new office and base. The impressive new offices  are an exciting step forward for the locally owned company and the result of their many years of hard work, planning, determination and success. Read the rest of this entry »

Technip and Schlumberger announce the signing of a global cooperation agreement to jointly develop subsea integrity and surveillance solutions for flexible pipes used in deep offshore oil and gas production. The new agreement extends the collaboration between the companies that began in 1998. 

The agreement is initially focused on surveillance systems activities for new and challenging flexible pipe applications such as those required in the deepwater pre-salt environment in Brazil. Several key Schlumberger technologies used in subsurface applications have been identified for integration into Technip’s new Ultra Deepwater flexible pipe designs. Read the rest of this entry »

Harvey Bisso Subsea has launched operations to provide subsea services to the energy and maritime industries. The new subsea venture combines the expertise, resources and experience of Bisso Marine and Harvey Gulf International Marine.

The centerpiece of the venture is a new, fully-classed 12-man Saturation Diving System with a working depth of 1,000 feet. The portable SAT system will be deployed from the Harvey Discovery, a 265 x 58-ft, DP2 certified multi-purpose support vessel outfitted with a 65-ton crane and moon pool. The vessel provides accommodations for up to 53. Read the rest of this entry »

ABERDEEN, UK — Hallin Marine’s West Division will take delivery next spring of the $50 million newbuild subsea operations vessel Windermere, having signed a long-term time charter with the marine operations division of parent company, Hallin Marine Subsea International. The West Division will look to operate the new vessel in the Middle East, Mediterranean, and West Africa areas.

The Windermere, to be managed out of Aberdeen, is fitted with a 15-man saturation diving system, an air diving spread, two heavy duty work-class ROVs, and an inspection class vehicle. The 80-m (262-ft) long, diesel electric, Voith propulsion DP-2 vessel has a 50-metric ton (55-ton), active heave-compensated crane and accommodation for 120 crew and operational staff.

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Global Industries has become the ninth International Contractor Member (ICO) of the International Marine Contractors Association (IMCA). Other ICOs – a membership category established in 1996 – are Acergy, Allseas, Heerema Marine Contractors, Helix Energy Solutions Group, J Ray McDermott, Saipem, Subsea 7 and Technip.

“Our ICO member companies are involved with IMCA on a world-wide basis, supporting all aspects of the association’s work and with representation on IMCA’s Council, which provides political direction and support for the Association,” explains Hugh Williams, Chief Executive of IMCA, which has over 650 member companies in more than 50 countries. Read the rest of this entry »

Near Miss: Unexpected Lowering of a Suspended Load

A member has reported an incident in which there was an unexpected lowering of a suspended load during a lifting operation which had the potential to cause significant injury. During maintenance of an ROV winch system, a yoke was being supported in position by a shore crane to allow a specific task to be conducted. The shore-side crane was provided by the port authority which had sub-contracted it in, along with a rigging team from the port authority. As the end of the working day approached, the crane operator sounded the crane horn to indicate that time was running out. The vessel team agreed with the banksman that all persons would work for an extra thirty minutes to complete the task. However, this agreement was not communicated to the crane driver. Five minutes later the crane operator sounded the horn again as he wished to lower the load. The vessel team and banksman gave little acknowledgement to this. Shortly after this the crane operator lowered the load and shut down the crane as his working day was over.

A member has reported an incident in which there was an unexpected lowering of a suspended load during a lifting operation which had the potential to cause significant injury. During maintenance of an ROV winch system, a yoke was being supported in position by a shore crane to allow a specific task to be conducted.

The shore-side crane was provided by the port authority which had sub-contracted it in, along with a rigging team from the port authority. As the end of the working day approached, the crane operator sounded the crane horn to indicate that time was running out. The vessel team agreed with the banksman that all persons would work for an extra thirty minutes to complete the task. However, this agreement was not communicated to the crane driver. Five minutes later the crane operator sounded the horn again as he wished to lower the load. The vessel team and banksman gave little acknowledgement to this. Shortly after this the crane operator lowered the load and shut down the crane as his working day was over.

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Near Miss: Loss of a Small Crane (‘Cherry Picker’) Wire

A member has reported an incident in which a crane winch wire was lost during light subsea lifting work. The winch wire and the load dropped on to the seabed near to working divers.

A small crane, sometimes referred to offshore as a ‘cherry picker’, was being used to deploy a small tool basket to a diver working on a subsea manifold. It had been identified on the previous shift there was insufficient wire on the crane winch drum to reach the seabed; however there was sufficient winch wire to reach the roof of the manifold. The deck crew and dive supervisors had been briefed by the previous shift regarding the short length of wire.

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Hand Injury: Injection of Hydraulic Fluid

IMCA has received information about a hand injury caused by leaking pressurised hydraulic fluid on a drilling rig. A person was searching for the source of a small hydraulic leak. The leak was located and a request made for the hydraulic pump to be shut down so that the damaged hose could be replaced. The pump was duly shut down. Then the person involved placed his index finger (whilst wearing double gloves) over the damaged spot on the hose so as not to lose the location of the leak.

The person involved was unaware that hydraulic pressure remained on the system following shut down of the pump and that this pressure had actually increased for around two seconds after the pump shut down (owing to back pressure). Hydraulic fluid burst through the damaged spot on the hose and was injected through the double gloves into the person’s index finger.

Surgery was required to find and remove the injected oil from the finger and hand of the person.

This incident serves as a timely reminder to maintain vigilance and awareness of the very serious potential hazards and risks associated with working with pressurised hydraulic fluid.

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Tumble Dryer Fire Onboard a Vessel

A member has reported an incident in which there was a small fire inside the drum of a tumble dryer on a vessel offshore. A burning smell was detected on the bridge of the vessel concerned and an investigation into the source was commenced. It was traced to the laundry where a small fire in the drum of a tumble dryer was observed. The fire was extinguished and the dryer contents removed and doused to cool.

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Bell Bottom Door Hydraulic Operating System Failure

A member has reported the failure of a bell bottom door hydraulic operating system. The failure occurred while carrying out standard bell recovery operations using the port dive bell on a twin bell system.

While attempting to close the dive bell bottom door, it was noted that the bottom door did not fully close and that the bottom door had castellated. Further attempts were made to close the door fully which exacerbated the situation, resulting in the bottom hatch being jammed more solidly.

The divers carried out an internal dive bell inspection and found that the hydraulic control system had failed due to hydraulic system oil loss.

Several unsuccessful attempts to rotate the bottom door were made including topping up the hydraulic oil system tank and also removing sections of the internal hydraulic operating pipework in an attempt to rotate the bottom hatch manually.

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Near Miss: ROV Fuse Bolt Failure

A member has reported an incident in which a crew member was narrowly missed by the head of a fuse bolt which had been shot out of a remotely operated vehicle (ROV) manipulator arm at high speed. It occurred as normal pre-dive checks were being completed on the ROV. The manipulator arm being tested was cycled and, during the test, the fuse bolt securing the jaws of the manipulator failed. This caused the head of the bolt to shoot out of the manipulator arm at high speed. The head of the bolt passed close to an ROV technician who could have been severely injured had it hit him. There were no injuries.

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Schilling Safety Bulletin

Affected products: All Rigmaster, Conan, and Orion slave arms and manipulator systems, Tital Manipulator Systems.

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French oil industry engineer Technip SA said intensifying competition would make 2010 a difficult year, sending its shares lower on Friday.

It said it would meet targets for 2009 but chief executive Thierry Pilenko told a conference call that competition from new ship companies and Korean onshore companies would hit Technip’s profits in 2010. Read the rest of this entry »

GALVESTON, Texas — Bisso Marine has buried a pipeline 16 ft (4.9 m) below the hardened seabed of the Gulf of Mexico.

Working in 54 ft (16 m) of water, the crew of the DLB Big Chief installed a hot tap and used a Super Jet Pump System to bury 13,893 ft (4,235 m) of pipeline 10 mi (16 km) off Galveston Island.

“Burying a pipeline in 4,500 psf soil is not an easy operation, especially to a depth of 16 ft (4.9 m),” says W.A. “Beau” Bisso IV, president and CEO of Bisso Marine. “I am very proud of the crew of the DLB Big Chief for their safe and efficient execution of this challenging project.”

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Trapped Diver Umbilical Incident Resulting in Diver Fatality

A member has reported an incident where a trapped diver umbilical resulted in his death. During the surface supplied diver operation, the diver was deployed to the bottom (56m) to locate fixing points for davits which required him to travel along the pipeline and for the barge to be moved into position.

During the diving operation the barge moved astern. It is thought that this movement caused the diver’s umbilical to become snagged on an object on the seabed cutting off his gas supply. On the diver’s umbilical there were two ‘D’ rings – one at 39m (~130’) and one at 50m (165’). The 50m ‘D’ ring was attached to the bell lift wire controlling the maximum excursion of the diver; it was the 39m ‘D’ ring that became snagged on the seabed. The diver went on to bail out, reported that his umbilical was fouled and made his way back to the wet bell where he appeared to have been attempting to put the bell pneumo tube into his helmet when he was found by the standby diver who had been deployed from the surface. Both video and audio communications were lost soon after the diver reported his umbilical was fouled. Soon after the standby diver arrived at the wet bell attempts were made to recover it and the divers to the surface. As the wet bell was being recovered, since the diver’s umbilical was fouled on the seabed, he was dragged out of the wet bell. This occurred twice before the standby diver freed the trapped umbilical and eventually the diver was recovered to the surface but was pronounced dead by the doctor on board the vessel.

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Lost Time Injury: Gangway Deployment

A member has reported an incident in which a person suffered a broken leg during gangway deployment. Prior to arrival at the quayside, a vessel’s double sectioned gangway (see Figure 1) was lowered and extended, in readiness for use, in accordance with onboard procedures.

Approaching the quayside, the bridge was informed that berthing plans for the vessel had changed. The change of berth required the use of a different gangway and the bosun was instructed to recover the now partly deployed gangway. The bosun and an able seaman (AB) started work on this task but failed to follow established procedures.

The recovery procedure required the gangway to be initially lowered to allow tension to come off the lifting wires and at the same time allow the securing pins to be removed for stowing, before then raising the gangway back up to the stowed position.

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Helicopter Task Group Update: Briefing on S-92 Helicopter Fleet

The Helicopter Task Group has published the attached briefing concerning Sikorsky S-92 helicopters.

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Importance of Inspecting Fall Protection Equipment

IMCA has been made aware of a number of examples of fall protection equipment failing owing to poor or sub-standard equipment:

♦ Safety Alert 09-17 – Near Miss – New Fall Protection Equipment Failure – published by the International Association of Drilling Contractors (IADC) (attached), notes that a new ‘pass-through tie-off adapter’ was only hot-glued and did not have the required stitching.

♦ Whilst teaching a fall protection class an instructor found a new piece of fall protection equipment that was not properly sewn. This equipment was brand new, still in the bag and made by a reliable manufacturer. One of the lanyards was improperly sewn and the webbing could be pulled apart by hand.

♦ In another similar instance, it was discovered that the rivet from the secondary lock on the snap hook of a lanyard had become damaged and allowed the secondary lock to come free from the hook. The hook was not involved in a fall event.

Members are encouraged to re-emphasise to their personnel the importance of thorough inspection of all fall protection equipment before and after use.

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