Offshore staff

HAUGESUND, Norway -- DeepOcean has a contract to repair deepwater flexible risers serving various fields offshore Brazil.

The company is providing a vessel equipped with an A-frame and work ROV to recover to the vessel’s deck flexibles in need of repair. A team from a specialist riser manufacturer will come aboard to implement the repairs.

The Norwegian-based contractor is currently bidding to provide further IRM vessels for projects off Brazil. Over time, the company hopes to replicate here its current arrangement with Statoil in the Norwegian sector, where it is supplying three vessels for IRM/intervention duty on long-term contracts.

One of those jobs involves upgrading the scale squeeze capability on the Edda Fauna vessel for chemical injection downhole to reduce scale build-up on tubing in Statoil’s subsea fields. More routine duties for Statoil include replacing subsea control pods, or manual activation of malfunctioning valves using ROVs.

Another of DeepOcean’s current projects in the North Sea involves supporting an oil pipeline inspection program for a major UK operator. “The pipeline cannot be smart pigged,” says CEO Bart Heijermans, “so we use an ROV to measure the wall thickness with an ultrasonic device in order to validate life extension.”

DeepOcean also provides offshore pipeline trenching via its subsidiary in Darlington, UK, formerly known as CTC Marine.

Although the company mainly trenches flowlines and pipelines in the North Sea region, it recently won a 250-day contract from COOEC to trench around 174 km (108 mi) of a 30-in (76-cm) pipeline for the Liwan field development in the China Sea.

This covers the section of the pipe extending to the production platform in 205 m (672 ft) water depth. For this job, the company’s MSV Volantis vessel is equipped with two ROVs and what it claims is the world’s most powerful jet trenching ROV, the 2.4 MW UT-1.  

This will jet the pipeline down to a depth of 3 m (9.8 ft) into the seabed in one pass. Installation work will start later this year, after the current survey phase has been completed.

6/18/2012