A network for commercial divers about commercial diving.

Mermaid Secures Sub‐Sea Services Call out Contract With Chevron In the Gulf Of Thailand
Friday, Feb 26, 2010

3 year call out contract for turnkey sub‐sea services valued at approximately USD 15 million positions Mermaid as Chevron’s first point of contract for call‐out work to support its offshore facilities and offshore fields in the Gulf of Thailand.

Mermaid Maritime Public Company Limited is pleased to announce that its wholly owned subsidiary Mermaid Offshore Services Ltd. (“MOS”), one of the region’s leading provider of sub‐sea engineering services to the offshore oil and gas industry, has secured a three (3) year contract to provide call out turnkey diving and remotely operate vehicle (“ROV”) services and call out turnkey saturation diving vessel services to support our oil & gas client’s offshore facilities and offshore fields in the Gulf of Thailand (“Contract”). The Contract allows Mermaid to offer any of its available vessels and related sub‐sea services (specialized ROVs, equipment and personnel) to this client depending on its call‐out requirements, with current planned work scope for the first year expected to be performed utilizing the M.V. “Mermaid Performer” and M.V. “Mermaid Supporter”. MOS has been providing this client with turnkey call out sub‐sea services since 2006.

Financial Effects

Assuming that the Contract had commenced and had been completed within the most recent financial year (the Company’s last financial year ended 30 September 2009), the performance of the Contract would not have had a material effect on the earnings per share of the Company for that financial year since the Company was already performing such services for this client at that time, and would not have had an effect on the net tangible assets per share of the Company for that financial year since the Contract will be utilizing existing assets and resources.

Interest of Directors and Controlling Shareholders

None of the directors or controlling shareholders of the Company has any interest, direct or indirect, in the Contract. There are also no new directors proposed to be appointed to the Company in connection with the Contract.

http://www.yourindustrynews.com/mermaid+secures+sub%E2%80%90sea+services+call+out+contract+with+chevron+in+the+gulf+of+thailand_46076.html

Fugro Synergy awarded Support Vessel of the Year
Thursday, Feb 25, 2010

Fugro Synergy is declared as the Support Vessel of the Year 2010. The ship, build at Bergen Group Halsnøy, represents a new generation high technology drillship built for an increasing demand for cost effective drilling units.

Fugro Synergy received the award as Support Vessel of the Year at the annual OSJ conference in London Wednesday evening, February 17th.

The award goes to the owner, designer and builder of an offshore support vessel delivered in the past calendar year which is considered to have set an industry benchmark through innovative design and efficient operation.

Fugro Synergy represents a new generation high technology drillship built for an increasing demand for cost effective drilling units. The dynamically positioning vessel is capable of operating with a drilling package geared towards the drilling of geotechnical wells.

Fugro Synergy is owned by Fugro Well Services Ltd, designed by Marin Teknikk and build by Bergen Group Halsnøy.

http://www.yourindustrynews.com/news_item.php?newsID=46043

Optical system promises to revolutionize undersea communications
February 23, 2010

An artist’s conception of how the optical modem could function at a deep ocean cabled observatory. Autonomous underwater vehicles (AUVs) collect sonar images (downward bands of light) and other data at a hydrothermal vent site and transmit the data through an optical modem to receivers stationed on moorings in the ocean. The moorings are connected to a cabled observatory, and the data are sent back to scientists on shore. Scientists, in turn, can send new instructions to the AUVs via the optical modem as well. (E. Paul Oberlander, Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution)

(PhysOrg.com) — In a technological advance that its developers are likening to the cell phone and wireless Internet access, Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution (WHOI) scientists and engineers have devised an undersea optical communications system that — complemented by acoustics — enables a virtual revolution in high-speed undersea data collection and transmission.

Along with the “transfer [of] real-time video from un-tethered [submerged] vehicles” up to support vessels on the surface, “this combination of capabilities will make it possible to operate self-powered ROVs [remotely operate vehicles] from surface vessels without requiring a physical connection to the ROV,” says WHOI Senior Engineer Norman E. Farr, who led the research team. This will not only represent a significant technological step forward, but also promises to reduce costs and simplify operations, they say.

Their report will be presented Feb. 23 at the 2010 Ocean Sciences Meeting in Portland Ore.

Compared to communication in the air, communicating underwater is severely limited because water is essentially opaque to electromagnetic radiation except in the visible band. Even then, light penetrates only a few hundred meters in the clearest waters; less in sediment-laden or highly populated waters.

Consequently, acoustic techniques were developed, and are now the predominant mode of underwater communications between ships and smaller, autonomous and robotic vehicles. However, acoustic systems—though capable of long-range communication—transmit data at limited speeds and delayed delivery rates due to the relatively slow speed of sound in water.

Now, Farr and his WHOI team have developed an optical communication system that complements and integrates with existing acoustic systems to enable data rates of up to 10-to-20 megabits per second over a range of 100 meters using relatively low battery power with small, inexpensive transmitters and receivers.

The advance will allow near-instant data transfer and real-time video from un-tethered ROVs and autonomous underwater vehicles (AUVs) outfitted with sensors, cameras and other data-collecting devices to surface ships or laboratories, which would require only a standard UNOLS cable dangling below the surface for the relaying of data.

This would represent a significant advance, Farr says, in undersea investigations of anything from the acidity of water to indentifying marine life to observing erupting vents and seafloor slides to measuring numerous ocean properties. In addition, the optical system would enable direct maneuvering of the vehicle by a human.

He likens optical/acoustic system possibilities to the world opened up by “your household wi-fi.”

Co-investigator Maurice Tivey of WHOI adds that “underwater optical communications is akin to the cell phone revolution…wireless communications. The ability to transfer information and data underwater without wires or plugging cables in is a tremendous capability allowing vehicles or ships to communicate with sensors on the seafloor.

“While acoustic communications has been the method of choice in the past it is limited by bandwidth and the bulkiness of transducers,” Tivey says. “Today, sensors sample at higher rates and can store lots of data and so we need to be able to download that data more efficiently. Optical communications allows us to transfer large data sets, like seismic data or tides or hydrothermal vent variations, in a time-efficient manner.”

When the vehicle goes out of optical range, it will still be within acoustic range, the researchers said.

Because it enables communications without the heavy tether-handling equipment required for an ROV, the optical/acoustic system promises to require smaller, less-expensive ships and fewer personnel to perform undersea missions, Farr said.

This July, WHOI plans the first large-scale deployment of the system at the Juan de Fuca Ridge off shore of the Northwestern United States. The WHOI team will employ the human occupied vehicle (HOV) Alvin to deploy the optical system on a sub sea data concentrator to collect and transmit geophysical data from wellheads situated at the undersea ridge.

Ultimately, Farr says, the system will “allow us to have vehicles [at specific undersea locations] waiting to respond to an event. It’s a game-changer.”

WHOI scientists collaborating on the research with Farr—who is in the Applied Ocean Physics and Engineering (AOPE) department—and Tivey, chair of the Geology and Geophysics department, are Jonathan Ware, AOPE senior engineer, Clifford Pontbriand, AOPE engineer, and Jim Preisig, AOPE associate scientist.

The work was funded by the National Science Foundation’s Division of Ocean Sciences.

Provided by Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution

http://www.physorg.com/news186164138.html

Oceaneering Announces the Promotion of Kevin McEvoy to Executive Vice President and Chief Operating Officer
February 23, 2010: 04:59 PM ET

HOUSTON, Feb. 23 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ — Oceaneering International, Inc. (NYSE: OII) announced the promotion of M. Kevin McEvoy to Executive Vice President and Chief Operating Officer. In this capacity, Mr. McEvoy will have the responsibility for all of Oceaneering’s business operations.

Mr. McEvoy has been with Oceaneering for 31 years, serving most recently as Executive Vice President. He started his offshore career as an officer in the U.S. Navy working in the areas of diving, salvage, and submarine rescue. Kevin has held a variety of progressively more responsible domestic and international positions in marketing, administration, and operations.

T. Jay Collins, President and Chief Executive Officer, stated, “I am pleased to have such a capable and experienced individual as Kevin to take over the additional operating responsibilities for our two largest business segments, Remotely Operated Vehicles and Subsea Products. I am confident he will continue to provide excellent leadership as we respond to the increasing demand for our products and services.”

Oceaneering is a global oilfield provider of engineered services and products, primarily to the offshore oil and gas industry, with a focus on deepwater applications. Through the use of its applied technology expertise, Oceaneering also serves the defense and aerospace industries.

http://money.cnn.com/news/newsfeeds/articles/prnewswire/DA59668.htm

Salvors remove navigational hazards in Haiti

18 February 2010

A TITAN Salvage team is working in Haiti to remove navigational hazards following the devastating earthquake, including the collapsed Washington gantry crane, in Port-au-Prince for the U.S. Transportation Command (USTRANSCOM), in an effort to increase the cargo throughput in the heavily damaged port.

TITAN’s team, led by Salvage Master Roy Dodgen and Project Manager Leo McDonough, is using Resolve Marine Services’ 142ft crane barge RMG300 to help clear debris and other navigational hazards. Additionally, TITAN has hired Associated Marine Salvage’s 150ft crane barge MB1215 to support the marine construction needed to position two 400ft by 100ft Crowley deck barges in the port. The barges will be used as floating piers for discharging cargo.

In January, the TITAN team conducted an extensive survey of the port to map navigable routes into the port and determine what underwater obstacles needed to be removed to allow cargo to enter the country directly via vessel. During that survey, TITAN determined that a cargo lightering operation was possible in Port-au-Prince whereby a Crowley containership could transfer full container loads to a smaller vessel offshore and deliver that cargo over a beach. Since then, Crowley has delivered approximately 935 containers of relief cargo using this lightering method.

‘We’re working closely with USTRANSCOM to re-establish port functionality, said Dan Schwall, managing director of TITAN. ‘The faster the port becomes more usable, the faster relief and commercial cargo will make it into the hands of the people of Haiti.’

TITAN, a wholly owned Crowley subsidiary, is a worldwide marine salvage and wreck removal company based in Pompano Beach, Florida, which also has offices and equipment depots in Newhaven, UK and Singapore.

http://mercator.build.3-24-3.squiz.co.uk/mj/news/salvors-remove-navigational-hazards-in-haiti

Ex-Garda diver appeals Isle of Man dismissal

LORNA SIGGINS Marine Correspondent

A FORMER Garda diver who won several bravery awards and a United Nations medal for service in Bosnia is appealing his dismissal from a diving post he held with the Isle of Man transport department.

Sean O’Connell, who also participated in an international diving expedition to the Titanic, claims he was sacked by the Isle of Man department because of concerns he had raised about safety and management issues.

Bernard Moffatt, who recently retired from the Unite trade union and has been representing Mr O’Connell, says he has never witnessed anything like the treatment of him in more than a quarter of a century of trade union work.

Mr O’Connell left the Garda diving unit in 1999, a year after he received the Scott medal for bravery. Following service with the UN in Bosnia, he began working on contract as a commercial diver for the Isle of Man transport department.

In July 2006 he was taken to the Douglas hyperbaric chamber for decompression sickness, known as the “bends”, following a work-related dive at a reservoir.

He returned to duty almost immediately but in September 2006 was diagnosed with a hole in the heart and says he was threatened with dismissal. After intervention by Unite, the transport department agreed to pay for his successful heart surgery.

He returned to work in February 2007, but in October of that year developed a prolapsed spinal disc and was on sick leave until the following April. By this stage he was concerned there had been no official investigation into the July 2006 diving incident.

He lodged complaints in February 2008, having discovered that the log for the dive in July 2006 had been altered to show different start and finish times.

He remained off work on special leave, but matters came to a head at his return-to-work interview in October 2008, when he lodged a data access request. The issue was referred to the Whitley council, a wages and conditions negotiating body for the Isle of Man public sector, but the department dismissed him last spring.

He has appealed his dismissal to an employment tribunal which will be heard later next month. Ian Litherland of the department of transport said it had no comment.

http://www.irishtimes.com/newspaper/ireland/2010/0218/1224264713854.html

Navy SEAL dies during dive training in Key West

BY CAMMY CLARK
cclark@MiamiHerald.com

A 26-year-old Navy SEAL died in Key West waters during intensive dive training in preparation for an overseas deployment, according to the Naval Special Warfare Group.

Ronald Tyler Woodle of Waynesville, N.C., was part of a small group of Navy SEALs undergoing routine training at Truman Annex Harbor when he was reported missing by his teammate about 9 a.m. Monday.

Within minutes, he was found unconscious. Training for that day was in fairly shallow waters. CPR was administered and Woodle was taken to the Lower Keys Medical Center, where he was pronounced dead.

The cause of death was not immediately known. An autopsy and investigation into his death is under way. Results are not expected for two to three weeks.

“We will really go through the autopsy thoroughly, the gear thoroughly and interview everyone who was there to find out what exactly happened and why this unfortunate tragedy happened,” said Chief Petty Officer Stan Travioli, spokesman for the Naval Special Warfare Group 2.

Travioli said Navy SEAL dive training deaths are “very rare” because of strict Navy diving policies.

“Civilian diving is based on the Navy’s tables and Navy’s research that has gone into training and equipment,” Travioli said.

Navy SEALS often use closed-system gear to eliminate bubbles that could set off explosives or give away their location. It is not clear if Woodle was using that specialized gear or more conventional diving equipment.

Navy SEALS have to be in top physical shape and good health to make the squad.

The last SEAL to die during dive training was Eric Shellenberger, 36, who drowned in May in waters off Bremerton, Wash. He had trouble underwater, signaled for an emergency ascent but was unconscious when he was pulled to the surface and never recovered.

The SEALs have held dive training in Key West for many years because of nearby military housing, access to ships in the area for training and the clarity of the water.

Woodle, a star soccer player in high school, was a fairly new SEAL. After attending a two-year college on an athletic scholarship, he enlisted in the Navy in 2007 with the goal of joining the elite SEALs.

After a two-month boot camp, he reported to the Basic Underwater Demolition/SEAL training in Coronado, Calif. In October he joined the SEAL team at the Joint Expeditionary Base Little Creek in Virginia Beach.

“He wanted to do what was the most challenging and toughest thing to do, which was to be a SEAL,” his sister, Jerica Woodle, said in a statement.

Woodle’s commanding officer, Capt. Colin Kilrain of Naval Special Warfare Group 2, said Woodle was an exceptional SEAL operator, the SEAL’s term for a soldier.

“Petty Officer Woodle was an example of a generation of young Americans who have unselfishly answered our nation’s call over the past nine years,” Kilrain said. “He will be truly missed.”

Woodle’s mother, Kathi, said she will miss her son’s smile: “He had such a big smile and a beautiful heart.”

http://www.miamiherald.com/2010/02/18/1486946/navy-seal-dies-during-dive-training.html

3rd find for Husky in S. China Sea
by: Jennifer Pallanich,
jpallanich@offshore-engineer.com
OilOnline Manager posted on 2/9/2010

Husky Energy reported finding a 145m gross gas column with its Liuhua 29-1 exploration well drilled in 723m of water in the South China Sea. Liuhua 29-1 – drilled 43km northeast of the Liwan 3-1 gas field in 1450m of water and 20km northeast of the LH 34-2 gas field – also found an oil zone in a deeper reservoir. The well – drilled to 3331m TD – tested natural gas at an equipment restricted rate of 57mmcf/d, with indications that deliverability of the well could exceed 90mmcf/d, Husky said on 8 February 2010. Field partner CNOOC said the well encountered gas pay zones with net total thickness of 70m. The find is Husky’s third in the South China Sea.

‘The three natural gas fields, Liwan 3-1, Liuhua 34-2, and Liuhua 29-1, have confirmed the resource potential as a major gas development project in the South China Sea and supports an earlier estimation of petroleum initially in place of 4 to 6tcf for the block,’ said Husky president and CEO John C.S. Lau.

The well is in the Pearl River Mouth Basin in the Eastern South China Sea.

The front end engineering design (FEED) for the Liwan 3-1 deepwater project is complete, and Husky expects to submit the plan of development for the project to the regulatory authorities early this year. Husky said it anticipates developing the Liwan 3-1 and Liuhua 34-2 fields in parallel with first gas from targeted in 2013. The new Liuhua 29-1 field, to be appraised later this year, will use the Liwan field infrastructure, Husky said. The West Hercules deepwater drilling rig is preparing to spud the first delineation well on the Liuhua 34-2 discovery.

Block 29/26 covers about 2230km2. According to the production sharing contract, CNOOC has the right to participate in up to 51% working interest in any commercial discoveries on Block 29/26.

http://www.oilonline.com/News/NewsArticles/articleType/ArticleView/articleId/28018/3rd-find-for-Husky-in-S-China-Sea.aspx

Diver breaks barriers in cold waters of Alaska
Underwater welder relishes working in extreme environment

By Melissa Campbell | Alaska Journal of Commerce

ANCHORAGE – Most people would have said, “Heck with this.” But for Jennifer Sullivan, that first dive in the freezing-cold waters in Whittier on that Thanksgiving weekend sealed the deal.

“I came out of the water, pulled off my hood and my hair froze like that,” she said, snapping her fingers. “I knew then that this was what I was going to do.”

Underwater welder. It’s not the first profession that comes to mind when one first meets Sullivan. She’s petite: around 5 feet tall, and not much heavier than 100 pounds. The 30-year-old blond has a quick smile, but a firm handshake.

She’s worked hard to break into a field that employs only a handful of women in an already narrowly specialized group of workers. And she’s has impressed even the longtimers, like Steve Stuart, her boss and mentor at American Marine Corp.

“She can keep up with the best. She’s a good hand,” Stuart said. “This lady, of all the people who came along trying to break into this industry in the last few years, she is in the forefront of the next generation. She’s taken it upon herself to do a huge amount of training, she’s aggressive. You can tell she really wants it.”

Sullivan’s ultimate goal is to work in Cook Inlet, considered among the toughest places to work in the world.

It’ll be years before she’s ready, but Stuart said she’s got a good shot.

Raised in Fairbanks, Sullivan took to the water early. She was on the swim team in school, winning several medals over the years.

A car accident put her on the sidelines. A truck rolled over her leg, crushing her femur when she was 14 years old. She spent a month in the hospital and nearly two years on crutches.

After graduating high school, she attended the University of Alaska Fairbanks for a semester, and figured out pretty quickly it wasn’t for her. She wanted to be an underwater welder.

Sullivan said she can’t remember exactly what put that notion in her head; she just knew it was what she wanted to do.

“I knew I could either be a marine biologist, and never get into the water, or I could do this and dive,” she said. “Plus, the money is better.”

She got her recreational divers certification, making that first dive in Whittier on that Thanksgiving weekend.

She was accepted into a diver’s academy in New Jersey. While waiting for classes to start in a few months, she and her family took a vacation to Hawaii. There, she found the National Polytechnic College of Engineering and Oceaneering had a commercial divers school, and that one started in a few days.

Her family came back to Alaska without her. The 52-week divers program had finals every five weeks. “It was brutal, but I loved it,” she said.

When she finished up in Hawaii, Sullivan moved to California for about a year, doing inspections of buildings and other structures on land, but wasn’t diving.

She came home to visit family in 2008, and meantime, recalled a representative from the American Marine Corp. visited one of her classes in Hawaii. On a lark, she applied for a job in the Anchorage office.

They scooped her up, getting her on the payroll and into the apprenticeship program in the Piledrivers, Bridge, Dock Builders and Divers Local 2520, a trade union affiliated with the United Brotherhood of Carpenters and Joiners of America.

It’s a four-year apprenticeship program: Sullivan is in her fourth year in terms of her diving hours, and her second year in terms of her class completion schedule classes aren’t available as often as she’d like.

Sullivan is breaking ground in underwater welding. She is the only woman on the diving staff at American Marine’s Anchorage office, and the first female underwater welder to sign up at Local 2520.

The lack of women in her newly chosen career field struck her in school in Hawaii. There was only one other woman in her class. Another had graduated the year before.

“I’d eventually like to see more females, but it takes a different breed of female to do it,” Sullivan said.

Another woman recently signed for the apprenticeship program, and looks like she has what it takes, Sullivan said.

It’s hard life, though. There are weeks away from home, and it’s rough and dirty work. She hangs around with a bunch of men all the time. There’s no pampering. Modesty goes out the door pretty quick.

Relationships often don’t last; the industry has a fairly high divorce rate, Stuart said. Sullivan was in a relationship for a while – he killed her plants once. It’s over now.

“I’m not a homemaker, a wife. I made that choice in high school,” she said. “I do everything I can to further myself in this field.”

And she’s had to learn to do the job a little differently than her male counterparts, who can muscle gear and materials around. Sullivan said she has to use her head more, figuring out ways to maneuver heavy blocks of concrete using the water, for example.

A longtime diver himself, Stuart has taken Sullivan under his wing, teaching her some of the tricks of the job. Always, a safety lesson is first. He’s seen two friends die in the water and doesn’t want to experience it again, he said.

Sullivan did her first official commercial dive for American Marine last spring, doing maintenance and replacing concrete blocks at the Northstar terminal, a manmade facility on the North Slope located in the Beaufort Sea.

“I think they put me in just to shut me up,” she said.

Sullivan eventually wants work on the platforms in Cook Inlet. Divers around the world know about the Inlet divers.

It’ll take at least five years of steady work before she reaches the level of experience needed to even be considered for the Inlet, Stuart said.

“In the Inlet, you have to use your brains and finesse. It’s the mental more than the physical,” Stuart said. “You have to want it, but you have to respect it.”

Cook Inlet is a 200-mile stretch of water in Southcentral Alaska. Oceanographers say Inlet tides are among the strongest, largest and fastest in the Americas, with bore tides, rip tides and fast spots under the water that could suck a diver away in a few seconds.

And those fast-moving waters are intensified in the areas where several Cook Inlet platforms are built, thanks to narrower land masses nearby. That stirs up the glacial silt on the sea floor, offering zero visibility. Temperatures average 60 degrees in late summer and 30 degrees in winter.

Why would Sullivan want to do that kind of work?

“It’s the hardest diving in the U.S.,” she said. “No female has ever done it before and I want to do it. And, you know, when I went to school, you could never tell me a female couldn’t do something.”

http://www.juneauempire.com/stories/021710/sta_564132639.shtml

Two days of Trade Show walking and here’s the new stuff that we here at cDiver.net have seen:

• Seabotix unveiled a brand new model of ROV, the vLBV300.  We will have additional information on this next week along with photos.  Here is the model info for now: http://www.seabotix.com/products/vlbv300_overview.htm
• With the industry being so slow and a lot of guys leaving diving for other work, there are a lot of helmets being sold amongst divers.  These are great deals for divers, but it makes it rough on small manufacturers like Gorski.  If you have a few extra bucks, show him some support and buy from him directly rather than re-sale.
• Fisk Marine Insurance (not to be confused with J.W. Fisk Insurance) wins our award for “Best Tradeshow Display Booth”.  We’ll post pictures in a few days so you can see why.
• In a big move, cDiver.net will no longer be charging employers for access to our resume system.  This means that employers around the world will have free access to post jobs, search our resumes and contact divers directly for work.  Our goal is to be the central source for companies to find divers and put you guys to work.

We’re now off to the Integra Party on Bourbon St.  We heard a rumor that they downsized it to just the upstairs area this year.  Bummer…this economy thing really needs to turn around!

Lots of photos and more details to come when we return home and have time to write it all up!