Offshore staff

ABERDEEN, UK -- KCA Deutag has teamed with Robert Gordon University in Aberdeen to provide drilling and rig training from the University’s new Energy Centre at its Garthdee campus.

This will involve relocating KCA Deutag’s proprietary DART (Drilling and Advanced Rig Training) simulator facility from the company’s offices to a new complex within the Energy Centre, expected to open in 2013.

DART provides a full-scale reproduction of an offshore platform or land rig, with touch screen consoles for both driller and assistant driller. The 3D graphics of the rig’s drill floor and automated or remotely-controlled equipment are projected onto a 60-ft (18-m) long cinema screen in the drilling control room cabin.

As the driller operates rig floor equipment, the graphics and associated sounds to simulate what the driller would see and hear on the rig.

Robert Gordon University will use the transferred facility for postgraduate training programs. KCA Deutag will use it to provide training courses both to its own employees and to clients, but expects to gain exposure to the wider drilling community via the university connections with national oil companies. Tailored courses may also be developed for the University to suit oilfield drilling industry requirements.

KCA Deutag operates further DART simulators in Russia, Sakhalin, Azerbaijan, Libya, and Dubai.

01/11/2011