Diving and Improved Diver Safety

12 February 2014 Aberdeen Evening Meeting

Chairman Paul Williams, Subsea Projects and Operations Manager Apache North Sea

Flyer

Presentations

SUT+ Pre-talk
Dave Smith, Managing Director, National Hyperbaric Centre, Aberdeen
SUT+ Pre-talks are targeted at developing professionals and newcomers to the industry, with the aim of providing attendees with additional background subject knowledge to enhance the main SUT presentations which follow.
Dave will provide general introduction to the requirements of diving & diving services in the industry and a general overview/introduction to commercial diving in the North Sea.

Diver Training & Hyperbaric Evacuation
Don McPherson, Subsea Operations & Projects Advisor, Apache North Sea
Diver “On Site” Training and Hyperbaric Evacuation are hot-topics in the world of diving at the present. The presentation will give a general overview of steps which Apache have taken to enhance operational diver training and safety assurance.
This will be followed by an overview of Hyperbaric Evacuation & Hyperbaric Receiving Facilities Available to the industry currently.

Cobra Extended Endurance Saturation Diving Emergency Bail-Out System
Derek Clarke, Joint Managing Director, Divex, Aberdeen
A new extended duration saturation diving “Secondary Life Support/Bail Out” system which provides fully autonomous gas supply, to a Saturation Diver, in the event of a loss of his Surface Gas Supply has been developed by Divex.
The system is designed to provide a low-cost and simple to operated emergency breathing system which allows all divers to have adequate time to return to safety – regardless of working depth.
The new system is named COBRA – Compact Bailout Rebreathing Apparatus. The device will be described and a dummy demonstrator will be set up.

Diving Within An Anchor Pattern
Martin Dane, Diving Advisor, Apache North Sea
Diving within an anchor or mooring pattern is becoming more frequent in the Industry due to the utilisation of FPSOs, FPUs and the increase of subsea based production.
The operation often requiring Bells and Divers to be deployed to carry out work at levels situated well below the catenary of the host installation’s mooring system, inside the rotation circle of a freely rotating FPSO/FPU or inside subsea housings/structures which result in limited work space and restricted access.
The discussion will discuss the risks involved; show how these can be mitigated by careful planning and execution and run through planning and operational checks to ensure as safe an operation as possible.