IMCA Marine Division

Publication Details - Seminar Proceedings

IMCA Annual Seminar 2006

Diversity in Marine Contracting The 2006 IMCA annual seminar took place at the Marriott Copenhagen Hotel on 19-20 September and was hailed a great success. Participants included offshore and onshore management and operational staff, together with a range of specialist consultants, oil company representatives and regulators. The event was supported by the usual exhibition of equipment service supplie members. Subjects ranged from technological developments through to practical experience in recent projects and current issues in the industry. As well as interesting presentations, the seminar included workshops where delegates could express their views on issues such as marine crew training and diver contamination monitoring and identifying topics for IMCA to take forward.

Joint plenary sessions

Delegates were welcome to the event by Robin Davies, the outgoing chairman of the IMCA Europe & Africa Section, before Knut Boe of Technip, IMCA Vice-President, opened proceedings with the first of three keynote addresses on the marine contracting market, speaking about the need for a balance of risk between contractor and client and for a long-term view on recruitment and personnel. Einar Kilde, Senior Vice President with Norsk Hydro and Project Manager on the Ormen Lange offshore project, addressed the seminar on the marine contracting market, based on experience from the project.

Day two opened with a thought-provoking presentation on marine safety, with subsequent speakers addressing how technology was being introdced into new-build projects and a new approach to testing of DP systems, as well as descriptions of recent operational practices.

• Introduction and welcoming address - Robin Davies, Subsea 7
• Keynote addresses: The marine contracting market - commercial issues, including availability of vessels and personnel
  - Knut Boe, Senior Executive Vice President, Marine Operations and Technical Resources of the Offshore Branch, Technip - Einar Kilde, Senior Vice President and Project Manager, Ormen Lange Offshore Project, Norsk Hydro - Dave Conway, Vice President, Supply Chain, Shell
• Moving safety forward - Finn brodersen, Maersk
• Competence, communication and control: The story so far of the IMCA Crane & Winch Operations Workgroup - Wallace Robertson, Well Ops
• Diving in anchor patterns - Joar Gangenes, Acergy
• Removal of external steel on the Frigg field by use of ROVs, subsea tools and rope access techniques - Geir Helge Bachmann, DeepOcean
• Installation of external conductor guides on an existing North Sea platform: A contractor's experience - Steve Beddows, Technip

Marine sessions

The marine presentations focused on issues such as DP safety, learning from incidents, motion forecasting, DGPS positioning system installation and innovatyions in DP and navigation systems.

• DDPS: A Petrobras DP safety programme - Afonso Andre Pallaoro, Petrobras
• DP incidents: Learning the lessons - Pete Somner, Subsea 7 and Andy Rodden, Technip
• Motion forecasting and monitoring for offshore installations and decommissioning operations - Peter Lai, Vince McCarthy and Stefano Sovilla, Saipem and Mark Hannam, UK Met Office
• Challenges in adapting to offshore construction work - Niels Elmbo, Maersk
• Guidelines on surface positioning installations and use of high accuracy positioning in DP - David Russell, Veripos
• Innovations within integrated systems for navigation, DP and automation - Niels Albert Jenssen, Kongsberg
• The realities of FMEA/FMECA - Chris Jenman, Global Maritime
• Recurring flaws in DP Class 2 and 3 redundancy concepts - Steve Cargill, PML
• An approach to black box testing of critical software systems on DP Class 2 vessels - Knut Morken, Acergy

Diving sessions

The diving presentations included consideration of auditing diving equipment, contamination monitoring, diver first aid training and an overview of an unusual practical diving cutting operation.

• Failure of diving equipment: How and what to look for when auditing - Mike Jessop, Hydra Marine
• A classification society approach to certification of diving equipment - Sverre Gylseth, DNV
• Contamination monitoring - Allan Cameron, Subsea 7
• Diver medic/first aid: On-the-job drills and exercises - John Greensmyth, Technip and Euan Thompson, Abermed
• Diver training: How is it arranged and monitored? - David Parkes, Diver Certification Board of Canada
• Warragamba Dam deep storage access project - Geoff Hogg and John Rossier, Geo Subsea
• Hyperbaric arrangements on a new build - Sjur Lothe, Technip
• Experinces from the Bibby Sapphire conversion to a DSV - David Forsyth, Bibby Offshore
• Diving in support of marine operations - Calum Buchanan, RBG

Workshops

Nine workshops were held, building on and extending the discussion on topics presented during the event:

Joint workshops:

• Vessel security
• Effecting communications during lifting operations

Marine workshops:

• Surface positioning integrity
• Marine crew training and competence
• Delegates' choice - Annual trials
• Challenges for FMEAs

Diving workshops:

• First aid and diver medic training
• Contaminatino monitoring
• Challenges for improving the working environment for the diver

Proceedings

The full proceedings, including the presentations listed above together with reports on the discussions, have been produced on CD and issued to delegates and other IMCA members. Additional copies are available for purchase.