• Marine

Deep understanding

Fendercare completes new diving equipment and services contract for offshore installations as part of the Liverpool Bay complex in the Irish Sea.

Although Fendercare Marine Diving Services has provided support to the Liverpool Bay oil and gas development in the past, a new contract, recently completed, has made significant use of the company’s diving and ROV (remotely operated vehicles) expertise.

Fendercare was able to offer a full service operation which combined use of its DPII vessel, ‘Seabed Worker’, the provision of air diving and nitrox diving equipment, ROV services, a HydroDigger (mass flow excavator) and hydrographic survey facility.

"Combining all these James Fisher group services in one contract allows us to offer our client a one-stop-shop. We are very proud of our involvement with the Liverpool Bay development and our continued work here demonstrates the wide range of services and equipment we can offer our customers,"

says Fendercare’s diving services director, Bob MacMillan.

The tasks included surveying the pipeline routes which transport oil and gas from the Liverpool Bay fields to their offshore storage location, identifying the locations of three crucial mooring links buried three metres below the seabed, excavating them (using the James Fisher HydroDigger), then raising them (using the ROV) for NDT inspection. 

Additional jobs included the cleaning and inspection of underwater mooring chains (by ROVs and divers) as well as general maintenance to the pipe line end manifold and the main safety chain which holds the tanker to the mooring. 

Because strong tides and winds in the area make diving in Liverpool Bay potentially dangerous, Fendercare had to devise a rigorous safety procedure to protect the vessel and divers in the water.

Bob MacMillan is optimistic that this contract will stimulate more offshore oil and gas work in the future, as he says:

"We were approached by a lot of different people who were impressed with our work and we received emails complimenting us on our hassle free mobilisation."