Offshore staff

PARIS --The Bourbon Horizon 2010 strategic plan provides €1.2 billion ($1.6 billion) in investments in its Offshore Division. Bourbon plans to double its workforce by recruiting over 4,000 seamen, half of whom will be officers, by 2010.

To facilitate training, Bourbon, in collaboration with Aalesund Univerity College, Offshore Simulator Center AS, has developed anchor handling simulators to train captains, chief engineers, and bridge officers in all maneuvers and exercises in almost-real conditions.

The simulator systems allow "full mission" training, where all crew members may engage in the simulation. Bourbon says simulation makes it possible for critical operations to be tried and investigated under safe conditions before they actually take place. The relevance of new ideas and technologies, and novel modes of operation, may be explored adequately.

There will be two simulators, one at a training center in Marseilles, France, and the other in Manila, Philippines. The Bourbon-Hydro Offshore Oil Training Center in Marseilles is scheduled to be operational by the end of 2007 and will include an anchor-handling operations simulator for AHTS specialized vessels.

In 2008, an identical system will be developed in Manila in the Philippines. This center will give Bourbon a centralized and standard training policy in its recruitment and operational zones in Asia.

Bourbon also operates three "school-vessels" for training purposes in the operating zones of West Africa, Asia, and Latin America. Certified by the Nautical Institute of London, the mobile training centers give Bourbon flexibility in meeting training needs in these high-growth zones.

4/3/2007