Saturation diving operation: success of a turnkey project

Last spring, BOURBON completed its first turnkey saturation diving operation with the MPSV Bourbon Trieste. A highly successful challenge!

In April 2018, BOURBON carried out a subsea operation in the Persian Gulf in order to free the installation sleeves of a new platform which had been established on existing foundations. Performed at a depth of 55 meters, the mission consisted of raising these guides, weighing one ton each, on the four piles by at least 150 millimeters so that they no longer came into contact with the old foundations. "Beyond the technical challenges, BOURBON also carried out the full project documentation preparation, the offshore logistics during the project execution, as well as a rapid vessel mobilization due to the Client's constraints" explained Pierre Lambert, Project Manager. In fact, due to the last-minute withdrawal of the third-party vessel mid-February, BOURBON's team managed to propose a new solution and a new mobilization plan, in just a few days with the locally-based Bourbon Trieste. To achieve this challenge, 70 persons were mobilized from the 3rd of March to start the mobilization of the vessel and install on his deck the diving saturation system, all this was executed while respecting very specific economic constraints.

Saturation diving was the logical solution for this mission due to the water depth because it avoids accidents during the decompression phase that are inherent to conventional diving. In addition it saved time (without decompression phases, the teams were able to work round-the-clock shifts), which compensated for the slightly higher daily operating costs. The three diving teams thus remained for about one month at the pressure of the mission (5 bar) in a confined living space. The return to atmospheric pressure was then controlled over a period of 4 days. This type of diving thus requires a considerable amount of equipment, including a living area and a decompression chamber, as well as a diving bell to reach the working depth. The BOURBON’s Offshore Construction Manager was supported by a diving team of thirty people and by four ROV pilots. 

Following this saturation diving operation, BOURBON conducted, with its sub-contractors, additional work on the platform performed by rope-access technicians and in very shallow water below the platform by air divers with the vessel in Dynamic Positioning mode. 
The entire mission at sea was carried out under the responsibility and management of two of BOURBON's 'Offshore Managers'.

"Until recently, BOURBON has been operating under contracts whereby The Client has been responsible for all upstream parts of the operation, including execution methods and procedures, offshore logistics and the mobilization onboard of the sub-contractors' equipment " explains Pierre Lambert. "But in this project, we managed the entire operation within the confines of restrictive time and financial conditions. Over the last few years BOURBON has been focused on progressively developing its capabilities to offer beyond the charter, a range of integrated services up to turnkey projects.“
The group has thus demonstrated its capacity to handle the complex and comprehensive projects going well beyond its role as a ship-owner, and firmly intends to continue developing along these lines. 

To achieve its goal, BOURBON hired saturation diving experts for this mission in order to produce solid risk analyses and documentation of quality. "We have sub-contracted the saturation operations to a Company who has been historically our Client" he added. At the same time, with this project BOURBON consolidates its installation in the Persian Gulf, a zone in which the group has been developing its activity for several years.