A call for papers has been published for the 2013 International Marine Contractors Association (IMCA) safety, environment and legislation seminar, which will be held on 19 – 20 February 2013 in Dubai, UAE with the theme ‘Major incident prevention in marine operations’. A template for submissions is available from [email protected], and the deadline for submissions is 7 September. “Our theme provides plenty of scope for would-be presenters,” explains IMCA’s Technical Director, Jane Bugler. “Topics may include a wide range of safety, environmental, health and legislation issues, including successful initiatives to improve company/industry performance, current issues and lessons learnt from incidents
Piracy is a threat to all sizes of vessels in some parts of the world. The more we know, the more we can minimise the risks and react to dangerous situations – or avoid them altogether. To this end the International Marine Contractors Association (IMCA) has produced an Anti-Piracy & Hostage Situation Awareness DVD (IMCA SEL 028) in five languages on the one DVD (English, French, Spanish, Italian and Portuguese) as guidance for personnel working on board vessels operating in high risk areas. “The DVD runs for just over 15 minutes and covers a range of measures intended to compliment
There has been an increasing global emphasis on the importance of using competent personnel – something that is continuing despite economic swings in the last few years. The offshore construction industry needs a lot more personnel and the emphasis on them being, or gaining further training to become, competent is growing all the time. Contractors are called upon by clients, regulators and others to demonstrate that the individuals working for them, particularly in safety-critical roles, are competent. The International Marine Contractors Association (IMCA), working through and in consultation with its members, has developed an extensive framework of guidance that its
The International Marine Contractors Association (IMCA) has published a variety of guides, templates and discussion documents aimed at raising awareness on contracting issues (including liability and insurance), promoting discussion and providing tools that may be useful for its contractor members, their clients and sub-contractors. All are subject to revision to ensure usefulness to all stakeholders and that it just what has happened to a key document – ‘IMCA Marine Construction Contract’, with revision to others relating to offshore survey and ROV work in the pipeline. All are designed to aid clients and contractors alongside their in-house standard contracts and other
There is not a computer user alive who has not experienced the frustration of losing data – however, when talking about the safe handling and management of large volumes of valuable or significant survey and inspection data in the offshore industry, this escalates the problem from annoying to crucial and potentially costly. Technical developments have led to a rapid increase in the volume of data being collected, and more complex data handling via onboard networks. Data management strategies have changed to meet these new requirements and conditions. The International Marine Contractors Association has published ‘Guidelines on the Safe Management of
The International Marine Contractors Association (IMCA) has published ‘Minimum quantities of gas required offshore’ (IMCA D 050) to address the minimum amount of emergency breathing medium (air or mixed gas) required to be kept at an offshore dive site before the dive commences, and during it. Helpfully , the new publication includes a useful equation for determining the minimum quantity of oxygen required to maintain the desired oxygen partial pressure levels in a system during decompression. “In preparing this document, which supersedes AODC 014 which has been in existence since July 1983 we had four objectives in mind,” explains IMCA’s
The International Marine Contractors Association (IMCA) Common Marine Inspection Document (CMID) is well used throughout the industry, now, with smaller vessels in mind, a revised edition of ‘Marine inspection for small workboats (Common marine inspection document for small workboats)’ (IMCA M 189 Rev 2) has been published. As IMCA’s Technical Director, Jane Bugler explains: “The revision is largely to do with providing a new layout to reflect the CMID layout and to facilitate its subsequent electronic completion and inclusion on the CMID database. The checklist provided in the new publication aims to help members ensure that the small workboats they
One of the most recent publications from the International Marine Contractors Association (IMCA) is ‘Surface Supplied Diving Operations Using Nitrox’ (IMCA D 048). Surface supplied diving is sometimes carried out using a breathing gas mix of nitrogen and oxygen, with a higher percentage of oxygen in the mix than in natural compressed air. The common industry terminology for such a gas mix is nitrox. “Diving while breathing nitrox reduces the required decompression time for any particular dive in comparison to the same dive using natural compressed air,” explains IMCA’s Technical Director, Jane Bugler. “The technique is normally used to ensure
New guidance has been produced by the International Marine Contractors Association (IMCA) on the use of ‘hold-back’ vessels during diving operations. These are towing (or other) vessels that provoke additional security for DP (dynamically positioned) vessels engaged in critical operations by means of attachment by wire rope. “Our new publication (IMCA M 185 Rev 1) is intended to assist vessel operators who are considering using such a system of operation by discussing the issues involved and highlighting the minimum precautions that would need to be taken in the planning, execution and monitoring of the operation,” explains IMCA’s Technical Director, Jane
The International Marine Contractors Association (IMCA) publishes a range of logbooks in which offshore personnel can record their training, competence assessments and working experience. The latest to be published, the 15th in the series, is the Safety Adviser Logbook complementing the existing IMCA competence table for this role. As with other IMCA logbooks, it can be used to record employment, qualifications, certificates and continuous professional development, as well as on-going competence assessment. The logbooks provide a consistent format that can be recognised by a variety of employing contractors and the training and competence sections cover all aspects required for assessments
With the arrival of four new Technical Advisers, the International Marine Contractors Association (IMCA) is well set to carry out its ambitious work programme on behalf of its 850+ member companies in over 60 countries. The four new members of the team take on the roles of Technical Adviser – Competence and Training; Technical Adviser – Marine; and two are Technical Advisers – Diving. They join the existing technical team headed by IMCA’s Technical Director, Jane Bugler and her team of four other Technical Advisers and Certification Schemes Co-ordinator, and Certification Schemes Assistant. “It is good to be fully up
Safety Coaching’ and ‘Workplace Fatigue’ are the two latest pocket safety cards in the series published by the International Marine Contractors Association (IMCA) “These are card numbers 20 and 21 in the popular and effective series,” explains Hugh Williams, IMCA’s Chief Executive. “The safety coaching card includes a list of key aspects of the role of a coach, encouraging people to stop and think and provide objective and honest feedback. As we say on the card ‘you don’t need to have ‘Coach’ in your job title to undertake coaching – particularly when it comes to safety. Coaching, like any other
The International Marine Contractors Association (IMCA) set up an industry-wide workgroup during 2011 to develop guidance on hyperbaric evacuation. The work was split into five main topic areas: risk assessment, technical, operations, medical and standards. Hugh Williams, IMCA’s Chief Executive explains: “The standards subgroup has focused its attention on the development of establishing common technical interfaces for hyperbaric lifeboats and reception facilities. The work, which has involved informal discussion with contractors and equipment manufacturers, has led to the development of a technical proposal that covers the ten main interface areas, including lifting strops, falls, support position, locating pins, the hyperbaric
The next meeting of the International Marine Contractors Association’s Asia-Pacific Section will be held in Singapore, at Suntec Singapore, alongside the Seatrade Offshore Marine Asia Exhibition, on 26 April 2012. Following a brief members-only meeting, all are welcome from 10.30. During the morning there will be an IMCA world-wide update encompassing all activities – Competence & Training; Safety, Environment & Legislation; Diving, Marine, Offshore Survey and Remote Systems & ROV Divisions; an International Regulatory update and a presentation on DP annual trials from Ian Giddings of IMCA. Following a networking lunch there will be presentations on the Competence management system
The Chief Executive of the International Marine Contractors Association (IMCA), Hugh Williams, 59, has announced his intention to stand down at the end of 2012 after 10 years in post. IMCA is the international trade association for offshore, marine and underwater engineering companies with about 850 members in over 60 countries all around the world. It focuses on offshore construction and marine operations mainly in support of offshore oil & gas, but also marine renewable energy, dredging and telecommunications cable laying. IMCA exists to help its contractor members deliver safe and efficient projects supported by other members up and down
“The best ever” is the view of Hugh Williams, Chief Executive of the International Marine Contractors Association (IMCA) on looking back at the association’s recent Annual Safety & Environment Seminar held in Rio de Janeiro. “Not only did we have more people than have ever attended one of these two day events in all of its 12 year history, but, out of the over 180 attendees more than 40 of them came from Petrobras, or other clients, and 70% had never previously been to an IMCA event anywhere in the world, so we certainly achieved the objective we set ourselves
A call for papers for the 2012 International Marine Contractors Association (IMCA) Annual Seminar has been published. The 20th in the annual series will be held Wednesday 28- Thursday 29 November at the Okura Hotel, Amsterdam, Netherlands with the theme ‘Marine and subsea operations: a culture of sustainability’. “We are inviting members and non-members alike to submit abstracts on topics ranging from technological developments to operational experience on recently completed projects or those under development,” explains IMCA’s Chief Executive, Hugh Williams.”While presentations relating to all types of marine operations will be considered we have drawn up some topic headings in
A new publication ‘Guidance on Subsea Metrology’ (IMCA S019) from the International Marine Contractors Association (IMCA) turns the spotlight on subsea metrology, covers the basics of subsea metrology, engineering requirements, the different methods and technologies, and some of the advantages and limitations of each technique. “Subsea metrology is the process of acquiring accurate and traceable dimensional measurements for the design of subsea structures, primarily interconnecting pipelines,” explains IMCA’s Chief Executive, Hugh Williams. “These pipeline interconnections are required to join subsea assets to complete the flow of hydrocarbons from the reservoir to processing and storage facilities. Subsea metrology surveys are conducted
Acrylic plastic viewports in diving systems have been in satisfactory use for a number of years. However, the development of testing them by polarised light showed that there are various misconceptions about them. The International Marine Contractors Association (IMCA) has just released updated guidance on the topic. An initial guidance note which sought to correct these misconceptions was initially prepared as AODC 030 in 1986 following advice from Det Norske Veritas (DNV). Now a revised document has been produced by IMCA through the Safety, Medical, Technical & Training Committee of its Diving Division Management Committee as part of its planned
The International Marine Contractors Association (IMCA) has published an information note on non-destructive evaluation (NDE) testing of gas cylinders. Advancements in NDE testing techniques for gas cylinders have been the subject of extensive discussion by members of the IMCA Diving Division Safety, Medical, Technical & Training Committee (SMTT). A dedicated workgroup of industry experts was established to take the issue forward and to develop an update of detail sheet 9.1 of IMCA D 018 – Code of practice on the initial and periodic examination, testing and certification of diving plant and equipment. The updated detail sheet 9.1 of IMCA D
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