2013 – Page 4 of 4

IMCA launches new-look website

The International Marine Contractors Association (IMCA) has launched its ‘new-look’ website at www.imca-int.com, and is taking a more proactive role in promoting the work of its 900+ members in over 60 countries, highlighting the importance of marine contracting to the industries it serves, and to the global economy. “A new-look website is hardly news, but this launch is part of a plan to alter perspectives of IMCA, its aims, objectives, and services on behalf of the global membership,”says IMCA Chief Executive, Chris Charman.”Our members are a vital component of the offshore oil and gas, marine renewable and telecoms industries, with

From the President – March 2013

Welcome to my first Making Waves message, as I pick up the baton and say my thanks to the work of the outgoing President, my good friend Andy Woolgar. IMCA’s role in the industry has been an important one and there remains much for us to do. We have come a long way since our beginnings as AODC and DPVOA and grown massively across the last 10 years under the stewardship of Hugh Williams, to reach current membership numbers in excess of 900. With a change of President and Chief Executive and the end of 2012, it was felt right

Making Waves #66 – March 2013

Making Waves 66 (PDF) Highlights from issue 66 of Making Waves Include: Preparing for MLCBrand New IMCA PublicationsGlobal UpdatesSpotlight on IMCA’S New Chief Executive, Chris Charman

IMCA publishes guidance on RADius relative positioning system

The development of dynamic positioning (DP) systems has grown over the past 35 years, with reliable and robust methods of positioning essential for safe vessel operations at offshore installations. This growth has in turn stimulated the development of DP position measurement sensors which have become more sophisticated as technology has allowed. The International Marine Contractors Association (IMCA) has just published”Guidance on RADius Relative Positioning System” (IMCA M 224) describing the RADius microwave radar system. “This new document is produced by IMCA as an aid to members and others using position reference systems and forms part of a series of documents

IMCA publishes guidance on safety in shipyards

Safety lies at the heart of the vast majority of the guidelines published by the International Marine Contractors Association (IMCA). The latest ‘Guidance on Safety in Shipyards’ (IMCA SEL 032/M 221) is certainly no exception to the rule. Offshore vessels are the platform from which offshore project operations are undertaken. Consequently vessel owners will take a dry-docking opportunity to undertake maintenance or modification works to diving, pipelay or seismic systems, and parallel works should be anticipated when planning a docking project. As IMCA’s Technical Director, Jane Bugler explains: “The purpose of this new document is to provide guidance to vessel

Hyperbaric Evacuation Systems Interface Recommendations published by IMCA

Proposals published by the International Marine Contractors Association (IMCA) in ‘Hyperbaric Evacuation Systems (HES) Interface Recommendations’ (IMCA D 051) seek to address the interface issues encountered when a diving contractor needs to remove its divers from a stricken facility by use of a hyperbaric rescue unit (HRU). “This document is a ‘recommendation’ only,” explains Jane Bugler, IMCA’s Technical Director. “We would like to emphasise too that the proposed interface recommendation put forward in our new publication is for future builds, it is not written with the view to retrofit existing systems. What we have published has four objectives: To plan

New IMCA President for a new year

Biennial changes at the International Marine Contractors Association (IMCA) see Massimo Fontolan of Saipem taking on the role of President of IMCA, the association representing the interests of nearly 900 offshore, marine and underwater engineering companies in over 60 countries. Massimo Fontolan is currently Vice President Commercial, North Atlantic and Arctic at Saipem Ltd. In addition to becoming President of IMCA, he also becomes Chairman of the association’s Overall Management Committee (OMC), having served as Vice President of IMCA for the past two years. “We are delighted to welcome Massimo as our President and OMC Chairman for the next two

Conducting Annual DP Trials Programmes for DP Vessels

‘Guidance for developing and conducting annual DP trials programmes for DP vessels: Executive Summary’ is the latest publication from the International Marine Contractors Association (IMCA). The full guidance document was developed because there were widely differing approaches to annual dynamic positioning (DP) trials throughout the industry. This IMCA guidance (IMCA M 190) is designed to promote a consistent approach to achieving an acceptable, universal standard for annual DP trials, with the Executive Summary (IMCA M 190A) providing an overview of its main elements. “Classification society rules generally call for brief annual surveys that may not even include sea trials and

Two new pocket safety cards From IMCA

Two new pocket safety cards have been published by the International Marine Contractors Association (IMCA). IMCA’s 22nd card covers electrical hazards attracting attention with its message”electricity can kill or severely injure people and cause damage to equipment”. It details the hazards, and provides bullet points on assessing and reducing the risks of electrical shock. The 23rd card covers noise, warning that too much noise – or prolonged exposure to it – can cause permanent and disabling hearing damage, and has some handy pointers for assessing if there is too much noise in a workplace, how to reduce exposure to noise,

IMCA consultation on Guidance on Hyperbaric Evacuation Systems

The International Marine Contractors Association (IMCA) is consulting widely, and globally, on new guidance on hyperbaric evacuation systems aimed at improving the safety of saturation divers throughout the world. “In 2011 we set up an industry-wide workgroup to develop the hyperbaric evacuation guidance,” explains IMCA’s Technical Director, Jane Bugler.”The work was split into five main topic areas – risk assessment, technical, operations, medical and standards. The document, which runs to over 70 pages, is a substantial piece of work, and should make a significant contribution in helping to improve the evacuation arrangements available to saturation divers world-wide. “We are distributing

eCMID Update #6 – January 2013

CMID Update is a quarterly newsletter related to the IMCA M 149 CMID inspection and the associated eCMID database, www.imcacmid.com. The newsletter keeps readers up to date with changes to the CMID, changes to the eCMID database and other developments, such as CMID workshops.

Year: 2013