USA-based Bordelon Marine has taken delivery of the MV Shelia Bordelon, a DP2 ultra-light intervention vessel (ULIV). The highly specialised vessel features a National Oilwell Varco (NOV), USA, 50-ton (45-tonne) active heave compensated crane with 3000 metres of wire, a mezzanine deck with internal office and control rooms capable of supporting two full work-class ROV systems.

The MV Shelia Bordelon offers 6200 square feet (576 square metres) of clear useable deck space, can accommodate 60 persons on board, and has two independent through-hull USBL systems. The vessel is also equipped with four additional below deck Tier 3 generators, providing fully redundant power to the crane and ROV systems.

“We are very excited to introduce the MV Shelia Bordelon and the ULIV concept to the subsea market. We think it hits a sweet spot and provides an affordable high-spec option that the industry is currently missing. As subsea infrastructure develops, the ULIV will play an increasingly important role in the vessel portfolio of these projects, thus providing a much needed cost benefit option to the client,” said Wes Bordelon, president and chief executive officer of Bordelon Marine.

Unique Group of Sharjah, United Arab Emirates (UAE) has collaborated with the KBA Training Centre (KBAT) in Singapore to offer a series of health, safety and diving courses in the UAE. 

KBAT is the largest training provider in the Asia Pacific region offering health and safety consultancy courses approved by international accrediting bodies such as the National Examination Board in Occupational Safety and Health (NEBOSH), UK, the Institution of Occupational Safety and Health (IOSH), UK, the Chartered Institute of Environmental Health (CIEH), UK, the International Marine Contractors Association (IMCA), UK, and the Industrial Rope Access Trade Association (IRATA), UK.

The courses that will be delivered in the UAE are NEBOSH, IOSH, CIEH, IMCA and other bespoke trainings in the offshore marine, diving and safety industries. The course schedule that has been confirmed is as follows: NEBOSH International General Certificate (IGC) in Occupational Health & Safety (30 August-10 September 2015), NEBOSH International Technical Certificate in Oil & Gas Operational Safety (12-17 September 2015), IOSH Accident Investigation (5-6 September 2015), IMCA Trainee AIR Diving Supervisors (18-22 October 2015) and IMCA Diver Medic Technician (4-13 October 2015) and Refresher (1-5 November 2015).

“The aim of the alliance is not only to promote safety awareness of various stakeholders but to offer quality training solutions to our Middle East clientele,” said Darren Brunton, managing director at KBA. “We believe Unique Group’s on-the-ground expertise and knowledge will give us better insights of the local market and together we can better refine our range of courses to both the onshore and offshore industries.” 

Australia-based Blue Ocean Monitoring (BOM) has announced it has entered into a strategic business alliance agreement with Sea Technology Services (STS) of South Africa. Under the alliance BOM will initially base one of its Slocum gliders in Cape Town to be deployed on regional ocean monitoring programmes, with STS providing associated marketing and engineering support services.

“Demand for ocean monitoring programmes in the region is increasing due to more activity in the natural resources sector and the requirement for greater environmental accountability,” said BOM. “Locally, there has been rapid growth in the awareness that ocean robotic platforms can provide an additional tool to supplement and enhance existing and emerging ocean survey techniques, with the associated increase in presence resulting in the availability of cost-effective real-time high-volume data.”

Derek Needham, managing director of STS, said: “The alliance represents a great opportunity for both of our businesses. We are aware of multiple regional ocean monitoring programmes for which we can now tender using the joint capabilities of the alliance. More broadly speaking, we have set our sights on becoming the leading ocean monitoring business for survey and other companies in Africa. With the skills and expertise the alliance has to offer I think that is an achievable goal.”

Two of the leading organisations in ocean energy research have pledged to work together to measure and understand the impact of turbulence on wave and tidal energy devices.

The FloWave Ocean Energy Research Facility at Edinburgh University, UK, and Canadian marine turbulence specialist Rockland Scientific will work together to develop tank-scale turbulence measurement technology, which can also be deployed at sea, on both sides of the Atlantic.

The two organisations – which already completed a first round of technology testing in 2014 – announced the collaboration agreement at FloWave during an ocean energy trade mission from Nova Scotia, Canada, organised by Scottish Development International, the international arm of Scottish Enterprise, and the Nova Scotia Department of Energy.

The mission brings together developers, supply chain companies and R&D organisations from Scotland and Canada, with the aim of encouraging and supporting closer trans-Atlantic collaboration on marine renewable energy technologies and projects.

“The accurate measurement and understanding turbulence, and particularly its impact on structures and performance, is a vital part of designing and deploying any wave or tidal technology,” said FloWave chief executive officer Stuart Brown. “To date, the techniques for measuring turbulence in the laboratory have been very different to those adopted at sea, making like-for-like comparisons from one environment to the other more difficult. At FloWave we have already completed valuable turbulence characterisation work with Rockland Scientific – specifically bringing their ocean-going instrument into the laboratory at FloWave back in 2014.

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“This new agreement allows the partners to build on that pioneering work to deliver transferable turbulence measurement solutions that enable all parties to dramatically improve their understanding of turbulence in fast tidal currents. That this translates across the scales from test tank model scale to full scale installations in the real environment directly addresses industry challenges such as device design for performance and reliability, accurate energy yield prediction for individual devices and the optimisation of array project layouts; all of which are key parameters for the technical and commercial feasibility of tidal energy conversion projects.”

Rockland Scientific business development director Jeremy Hancyk said: “The 2014 proof-of-concept demonstration of Rockland Scientific’s field instrumentation in the FloWave tidal tank was just the beginning. This formal collaboration agreement with FloWave, supported by Innovate UK and Canadian funding agencies, leverages our complementary expertise to accelerate the further development of Rockland Scientific’s turbulence measurement technology to smaller footprint, higher spatial resolution laboratory installations.”

The FloWave Ocean Energy Research Facility, located at Edinburgh University’s King’s Buildings campus, is a 25-metre circular pool that can recreate complex waves and fast currents for project sites around the UK, Europe and further afield.

The National Hyperbaric Centre (NHC), Aberdeen, UK, reports it has teamed with DanMedical, UK, to deliver “a step change in medical support and training to the offshore industry”.

The NHC said the agreement forms a key part of its on-going programme of capability enhancements designed to deliver improvements in the quality of medical training and support. Under the agreement, DanMedical’s D-MAS HyperSat medical monitoring systems will be available for demonstration and training at the NHC.

DanMedical’s systems have recently been installed in the hyperbaric chambers of the NHC’s facility, allowing real-time medical monitoring of patients. The D-MAS device measures the patient’s heart rhythm and ECG, blood pressure, blood oxygen content and core temperature, thereby allowing specialist doctors to provide real-time, expert medical advice from outside the chamber.

D-MAS has already been deployed by a number of offshore energy contractors and medical advisors worldwide. With the equipment now also in place at the NHC’s hyperbaric facility, the centre will provide training and first-line support to Aberdeen-based clients and users of DanMedical’s services and devices.

Alan Green, general manager of the NHC said: “The NHC is committed to improving the safety of subsea operations through the delivery of high-fidelity training and world-class emergency response services. We share this commitment to safety with DanMedical, whose capabilities complement our own. They are a key partner in our mission to advance the services and capabilities of the NHC.”

Peter Couldery, chief executive officer of DanMedical, added: “We are delighted to be working with the NHC to raise the standard of medical monitoring available to offshore workers. We believe that the NHC can play a key role in training medics, divers and workers in innovative medical practices that can save lives.”

Essex, UK-based Dive Master Insurance reports it has completed a new contract with Lloyd’s syndicate DTW1991 as its approved coverholder able to bind specialist casualty insurance and reinsurance for recreational, scientific, film and media diving, and commercial diving risks.

Bob Archell, managing director, said: “This is a real partnership which will enhance our already established line of dive trade and diver liability insurance products. We could not hope for a better partner in DTW as they work exclusively with established selected specialist coverholders who are leaders in their field. DTW also provide us with extensive and valuable back office solutions to compliance and regulatory issues.”

Archell added: “Dive Master has offered commercial diving insurance since 2003 and it is expected that this part of the company’s portfolio will expand significantly.”