Beneath the surface

At the same time you are trying to direct a crane to land a 15 metre stretch of pipeline in a 15 metre gap between two other pipes. One mistake and you could incur millions of dollars worth of damage and put your life on the line. Not exactly a mundane nine to five job.

Diving for eight hours each day may sound fun, but the job leaves little time to admire the surroundings. Rather it is a time to work and get things done, big things done. Just as hoards of workers construct and inspect the oil and gas industry’s infrastructure above water, the same must also be done subsea, only without the hoards to help.

With the aid of regulations, technology and training, divers today find themselves in safer hands than in the past. The Middle East needs to step-up though and establish its own training centres, pay the day-rates that divers demand and resolve visa issues.

Danger

“There is a big element of danger involved in subsea work, of course; you are in an alien environment where the human body is not supposed to be working. Nowadays most of the danger has been minimised, but there is a clear potential for accidents,” says David Bastow, manager of projects at Dulam Subsea Solutions.

Doubtless, safety has improved in an industry that Bastow declares used to take the lives of nine or ten divers per year 20 years ago. The International Marine Contractors Association (IMCA) now dictates health and safety regulations to the diving industry, determining the length of time that divers can work for, the frequency to which equipment is maintained and the extent and nature of a diver’s training.

“IMCA has done a lot of good work in regulating the industry and providing a huge number of guidelines that have made the commercial diving industry much safer than in the past,” says Ram Moordhy, procurement director of Seaswift.

For some within the industry, however, safety regulations have gone too far, to such an extent that they are getting in the way of getting the job done. “Safety regulations have gone over-board in my opinion. Safety is good and I am all for it, but when safety actually gets in the way of doing the job properly, then to me it has gone too far and the safe becomes unsafe,” declares Bastow.

“For example, regulations dictate that you have to wear safety glasses when diving and if you do not, and subsequently have an accident, you will not be covered by insurance. There is a reason for wearing safety glasses, which is that they protect you, but when you are diving in the North Sea and it is raining and dark, they become more of a hazard than not.”

The know-how

Gaining sufficient training and experience is a critical factor in providing for a safe working environment. Working offshore comprises a considerable portion of gaining the know-how to get the job done. It is not, however, always easy for divers straight out of dive school to get the foot-hold that they need in the industry.

“Initially you train as an air diver and then, if you choose to, you move on to train to be a saturation diver. The move to become a saturation diver involves gaining a high degree of familiarity with physiology and physics so that you can understand the science behind the gas that you are breathing and how you body is reacting,” says Bastow.

“All of the divers that we employ are registered with IMCA and have to be trained at a centre that is IMCA certified,” explains Ashutosh Chaudhary, director business development at Marine Engineering Diving Services.

“At present there are not any IMCA registered commercial diving training centres in the Middle East, instead people mainly train in the UK, US and South Africa. I have heard that Abu Dhabi’s Navy is looking to set-up an institution here and had been in contact with IMCA, but the news is not yet official.”

While an engineering background is not a prerequisite for people entering the diving industry, most divers have some familiarity with engineering and construction principles before embarking on training. This is critical since divers are underwater to do a job, just as they would be onshore.

“Anyone can dive, but it is what you can do when you are down there that counts. You have to know that you are going there to work, and it is hard work and dangerous work, so common sense is critical. You may be able to cut and weld above water, but below it is ten times more complicated, because what you do on the surface with five people, you do underwater with one person,” says Bastow.

In order to meet its demand for supervisors on board the dives, MEDS has sought to help divers gain extra training to become supervisors.

“Everywhere there has been an insufficient number of supervisors, so in reaction we helped people to re-train. There were many senior divers who had never had the chance to go up to the next level and train as supervisors so we sent four or five of our divers off to Singapore to train. The training takes four or five days and after they completed we give them the experience that they need being a trainee supervisor,” says Chaudhary.

“Many people do not train as supervisors because companies are often unwilling to employ people who do not have a great deal of experience. In some cases, divers would do a course, but then would not be able to find work.”

In-transit

Divers are transitory and move around the world wherever work should take them. Rather than being employed on a permanent basis, they are paid a daily rate for the duration of the contract.

“We could not possibly employ them full-time, it would be far too expensive and impractical. Offshore projects do not take anywhere near 365 days of the year, so what would we do with the divers the rest of the time? Besides, most divers seem to enjoy being employed freelance since they can they decide when they want to work and have time off and get paid a huge amount on a daily-rate,” says Moordhy.

Despite the distance the separates the Gulf of Mexico and the Middle East, the region has still been affected by Hurricane Katrina. Larger diving companies now struggle to find sufficient numbers of diving personnel since the Gulf of Mexico has diverted many workers away from the Middle East with the lure of bumper pay-packets.

“Here in the Middle East, we have not caught-up with the rest of the world in terms of the rates that we offer, which is a major problem. Oil companies do not want to pay more and still expect you to give them the same rate as two years ago. This is causing major problems for many regional dive companies who are struggling to compete with the Gulf of Mexico and North Sea and find workers,” declares Bastow.

Problems in finding personnel are only compounded by the struggles at-hand in getting visas. The visa system is forever changing; an issue that needs to be resolved if diving companies are to be run efficiently and cost-effectively.

“Visas are a major problem here in the Middle East and it has constrained our workforce flexibility and delayed many of our projects. Even if we have not won a project yet, we generally need to start the process of getting a visa regardless, to ensure that if we win the contract, we have divers that are ready to start when needed. This costs us a huge amount of money,” says Chaudhary.

Human capital is not the only area lacking for Middle Eastern operators; many are struggling to find sufficient numbers of equipment and vessels as a result of the increased demand for offshore diving services.

“Prices have gone crazy for assets – three years ago I could charter a vessel for around US $12 000 per day, now it is costing me between US $75 000 to US $100 000 per day, for exactly the same vessel,” says Bastow.

“We have a huge number of projects going on, but the problem is getting all of the assets to carry out all of the projects. I am having to look all over the world to find assets, and this despite the fact the we as a company have a good volume of our own equipment.”

The way ahead

With inflated oil prices up until recently, the offshore industry has been pushing ahead with new projects and enlisting the services of subsea contractors in long-delayed inspection programmes, for which they previously did not have the budget.

The extent to which these necessary subsea services can be provided, however, depends upon the region offering an enticing environment to work in, with sufficient financial offerings, a hassle-free visa process and an impeccable safety record to match.