The Underwater Centre secures its biggest
ever contract – worth $1.3million - to train Russian
saturation divers
Your Oil and Gas News Magazine
The world's leading commercial diver and
Remotely Operated Vehicle (ROV) training facility,
based in the Scottish Highlands and Australia, has
secured its biggest ever contract – worth US$ 1.3 million –
to train Russian saturation divers.
The award
cements its reputation as a major service provider for
the growing worldwide oil and gas industry.
The men, already experienced air divers, were
trained on saturation procedures and techniques
and will receive the Australian Diver Accreditation
Scheme (ADAS) and the Closed Bell certification.
More advanced than the ADAS, the Closed Bell is
the certification appropriate to deep water dives of
60 meters / 200 feet, using a trimix tank with 16 percent
oxygen (O2).
During the training, divers lived in a chamber for
up to 28 days, which was pressurized to the same
pressure of the sea, exactly at the depth that they will
be working at. Living and working at pressure mean
that they can be transported quickly and efficiently to
the work site under the water without decompression
stops, allowing divers to work in much greater depths
and for much longer periods of time.
MRTS Managing Director Alexander Kolikov
said: “Oil and gas firms in Russia are currently facing
a skills shortage due to the rapidly increasing amount
of exploration work underway at the moment. By
investing in the training of our divers in saturation
diving, we are addressing this need for experts in
maintenance and repair activities vital to maintaining
Russia's subsea infrastructure."
Steve Ham, General Manager at the Fort William
Centre said: “We were delighted when MRTS chose
The Underwater Centre to train its divers in saturation
diving, and I think this is testament to the hard work
we have been putting in to ensure our reputation as a
world-class training facility.
Available at: . Retrieved on: 28 June 2012. Adapted.
In Text II, Steve Ham, General Manager at the Fort William Centre, is