ABERDEEN company KD Marine has secured a contract with Far East company Mermaid Offshore Services (MOS) to provide fully integrated saturation, air diving, daughter craft and ROV services from the advanced dive support vessel, Mermaid Endurer, covering the European market.
KD Marine is designated lead contractor for the JV, providing the diving and project-management services, while MOS will provide the DSV, marine and ROV services.
Mermaid Endurer is a 95m dynamically-positioned DSV which is being built in the Bergen Group shipyard in Norway and which will features an integrated 300m saturation diving system, integrated air dive and ROV systems, a 100-tonne crane, and a 1,000sq m work-deck space.
It is scheduled to be delivered to MOS in H1 this year and, in addition, it is intended that KD Marine will instal its purpose-built daughter craft and launching system on the vessel.
The system, recently reviewed in Energy, was designed by KD Marine to enable simultaneous air diving and/or inspection ROV support activities to be carried out while similar operations are also being carried out from the principal support vessel. This combination is expected to provide meaningful productivity gains, especially on restricted work sites.
KD Marine commissioned the construction of two such daughter-craft units for delivery in 2009, complete with dedicated heavy-weather launch and recovery systems.
These robustly constructed daughter-craft units, unlike conversions, have been specifically designed to provide a stable ancillary work platform to a DSV, and they feature onboard gas storage, fully enclosed dive control, data-recording areas, and inspection ROV handling.
Hamish Petersen, KD Marine’s MD, said: “Throughout the development of the company, we have been striving to maximise on installation-based diving efficiency for our clients with restricted access work sites.
“We are delighted to be able to now offer our clients a vessel-based, fully integrated saturation, ROV, daughter-craft and air-diving solution in collaboration with Mermaid Offshore, all from a brand new state-of-the-art DSV.”
Mark Shepherd, of Mermaid Offshore Services, said: “Mermaid Offshore Services has a broad range of offshore assets in the diving market and is committed to the expansion of these services through the addition of new state-of-the-art units.
“We have, for some time, been looking at how we might best deploy these services in the North Sea market and were only prepared to do so if we could find a ‘like-minded’ partner. We are confident that, with KD Marine, we have found such a partner who places similar emphasis on safety and service, and we greatly look forward to working together.”