Hugh Williams, Chief Executive, International Marine Contractors Association (IMCA) debates the issues facing the industry
Written by Hugh Williams
Imagine the situation where a US$20 billion pa vital sector of the offshore oil and gas industry is looking forward to US$17 billion-worth of new investment, while at the same time it has grave concerns about the dual effects of lack of manpower at all levels and safety being endangered by this investment programme.
That’s the situation in the marine contracting industry, which is responsible for construction work on major oil and gas field developments globally, as well as undertaking specific contract work for field improvements and extensions.
Sophisticated vessels are vital for the safe and efficient support of underwater and surface construction, and over US$17 billion-worth of new vessels are currently in yards or in planning and engineering phases.
In a relatively short time some 50 new marine construction vessels and 600 offshore support vessels will be in service around the world; to say nothing of 40 floating drilling rigs, 100 new work class ROVs, ten new portable or modular saturation diving systems, and a whole new generation of dredgers and seismic vessels.
The top-of-the-range installation vessels will be fitted with cranes of 3000t-5000t capacity, whilst the top-of-the-range pipelay vessels will have up to 60” diameter pipe handling capacity. Except for vessels such as Allseas’ Solitaire and Lorelay, nothing like these top-end vessels has been built for two or three decades. More heavy lift transport ships are being added to the fleet, and these, plus some of the offshore support vessels may be used for offshore construction projects.
The offshore fleet is about to become physically larger (in terms of numbers and size) and more sophisticated with the majority featuring dynamic positioning (DP) and state-of-the-art control systems. Many vessels will have the scope to fit and operate cranes, ROVs, diving systems and reels for pipelines, umbilicals and cables. We’re moving into a new era, but there is a major concern about whether skills and safety levels will match the sophistication of this ‘new-look’ fleet.
These ever-bigger vessels will seldom enter port. They are often too big and deep draft for most ports and remain at work at sea, supported by supply vessels delivering materials and consumables from shore. The supply chain, which is increasingly sophisticated and high tech, needs to expand in the hinterland to make the ports efficient; indeed, major contractors are establishing shore-based pipeline fabrication and spooling facilities in remote areas as close to offshore fields as possible.
Topping the agenda
An item topping the IMCA agenda on behalf of our 500+ member companies in over 50 countries is concern about skills shortages. To operate just these new construction vessels, we need some 2000 additional watch-keepers across the bridge, deck and engine room, 800 personnel in saturation diving and related positions, 1000 additional survey and inspection personnel, 1200 ROV personnel and many other diving, support, project and engineering personnel.
Zero injuries is the ‘holy grail’ of the offshore industry. Therefore, all these people, new recruits to the industry, must be capable of absorbing the available knowledge and taking on board industry safety objectives. Training must continue across the board to keep them safe - training establishments and trainers will be in high demand!
Of course, many of the people new to the industry have transferred from other sectors of the civil or defence marine industries, but whatever their background and wherever they are from, training to the high levels required by the offshore oil and gas industry, and adopting the ethos of our industry is vital.
New technology
Within the offshore contracting industry, we are used to multi-redundant, fail safe systems. The lack of new vessels over the past decade or so has meant working with vessels with long histories, systems have been added and evolved, teething problems ironed out, and performance improved. Now, fresh from the yards, we are going to see very sophisticated vessels (with similarly sophisticated equipment fitted on them) often going straight out to remote oil and gas provinces. Almost without exception, this will see them operating in ever deeper and more hostile waters far from shore – it really is ‘new frontier’ country. What can we expect?
Debating the issues
There is no simple answer to the three inter-linked issues of skills availability, skills and safety, and the impact of new technology. We need to debate the issues, get feedback and views from across the industry and ensure we work together to identify challenges and set the wheels in motion to share solutions. IMCA’s real-time safety flash system will be used to share specific operational knowledge as it becomes available.
The new fleet and its new personnel will need to learn from the collective wisdom of the past. This is contained in new design codes which have improved since much of the current fleet was built. But a considerable contribution comes from the equipment specifications, procedures and personnel competence described within IMCA’s good practice guidelines. These also address trials and commissioning, ‘failure modes and effects’ analyses, audit and maintenance programmes developed on past successes and occasionally from past incidents, and the development and recognition of competence in the workforce.
We can certainly help to build strong foundations for the new fleet and new people who will be joining the industry. IMCA has published well over 200 guidelines relevant throughout the world. The most pertinent to the new fleet may be DP for supply vessels (and other DP documents including incident analyses), the Common Marine Inspection Document, training and competence framework, crane specifications and lifting operations, maintenance of wire ropes, communications (bridge and dive control), incident investigation, vessel and personnel security (including ISPS), as well as the suite of diving documents which support IMCA’s International code of practice for offshore diving. There are specific guidelines relating to various aspects of safety, and also our much used safety promotional material aimed at individuals within the industry, but safety and efficiency are the goals of the content of almost all our guidelines.
Opportunity for debate
In our desire to facilitate safe and efficient marine operations, we look forward to a challenging and far reaching debate and resolutions to ensure the enlarged offshore fleet can operate optimally – and safely.