Page 24: of Marine Technology Magazine (January 2015)

Subsea Construction

DeepOcean

Deep Water Operations in Brazil

By Claudio Paschoa eepOcean was established in 1999 and is dedicated to the rest of our operations as a local subsea company. Deep- subsea services and operations in deep waters, able Ocean has focused into a specialized subsea-centered busi-

Dto take on deep-water assignments anywhere in the ness, and our experience in deep water has grown a lot in the world. The company is an integrated service provider for the last ? ve years in offshore Brazil,” said Thuestad.

subsea industry. DeepOcean has a global track record of sub- DeepOcean has a number of state-of-the-art subsea service sea services including Survey and Seabed-mapping, Subsea vessels, WCROVs and deep water Module Handling Systems

Construction and Installation, Seabed Intervention, IMR, and specially set up to perform IMR work in Brazil. The vessels

Decommissioning. Since its entry into the Brazilian offshore carry experienced offshore crew familiar with IMR operations market, DeepOcean has accumulated extensive experience in and the majority of the crewmembers are Brazilians, which deepwater operation, having become a preferred partner to is vital to maintain high local content levels, which in turn national operator Petrobras, which is one of the few super- facilitates securing contracts locally. High local content lev- majors still awarding long-term contracts for subsea IMR and els can even be found among shore-based engineers who subsea construction & intervention. work with operational planning and engineering of IMR op-

The DeepOcean Group itself was only established in May of erations. Globally, DeepOcean has more than 10,000 vessel 2011, through the merger of the survey, IMR and decommis- days of IMR type operations, and the company is pro? cient sioning services of DeepOcean, the seabed intervention com- in handling hundreds of call-offs per year under long- term pany CTC Marine Projects and the towing and supply services contracts with oil & gas majors and super-majors in Brazil the of Trico Supply. These three divisions provide the company North Sea, the GoM, APAC region and West Africa. Offshore with a set of complementary skills and expertise, which in turn, Brazil, DeepOcean has been performing various construction have positioned DeepOcean Group as a worldwide provider of and maintenance jobs in addition to typical IMR tasks. This is deep-water subsea construction services and operations. achieved by ? exibly designed DP vessels using powerful Ac-

Now operating as one company under the name DeepOcean, it tive Heave Compensated cranes, 2 or 3 WCROVs, and large offers ? ve main service streams including Survey and Seabed- deck spaces suitable for mobilizing the required equipment mapping, Subsea Installation, Seabed Intervention, Inspection, and products for the job. “All of our operators are Brazilian

Maintenance and Repair (IMR) and Decommissioning. “Deep- and it’s been a main focus of our company to hire Brazilian

Ocean came down to Brazil in the beginning of 2008 to estab- staff to work in their own country. We understood that we lish an operational of? ce. Our ? rst challenge was to recruit the could not compete in the local market with foreign staff op- team for the offshore operation and the onshore organization. erating our equipment. This meant developing a training pro-

This was a new learning process for us trying to establish a new gram with several experienced instructors to teach our team organization in a foreign country and trying to understand all here how to properly operate the equipment,” said Thuestad.

rules and regulations that applied. But already in May of that Since 2012, DeepOcean has a contract to repair deep-wa- year, Trico Marine came in and bought up the company just ter ? exible risers serving various ? elds offshore Brazil. The before the startup of our ? rst contract with Petrobras,” said Per company is providing a vessel equipped with an A-frame and

Thuestad, Regional Manager for DeepOcean in Brazil. WCROVs to recover to the vessel’s deck, risers in need of re-

In 2013 DeepOcean acquired a 50% interest in ADUS to pair. A team from a specialist riser manufacturer normally goes form ADUS DeepOcean Ltd. ADUS DeepOcean’s subsea 3D aboard to implement the repairs. The Norwegian-based contrac- visualizations can be used to provide high quality 3D images tor is currently bidding to provide further IRM vessels for proj- of subsea structures such as offshore facilities, wind turbine ects offshore Brazil. Over time, the company hopes to replicate foundations and seabed architecture. DeepOcean’s robust in Brazil, with Petrobras, its current arrangement with Statoil services portfolio, combined with its modern ? eet of wholly in the Norwegian sector of the North Sea, where it is supplying owned specialized vessels and large number of subsea assets, three vessels for IRM/intervention duty on long-term contracts. such as WCROVs and trenchers, have allowed DeepOcean to In September 2013 DeepOcean and CBO (Companhia link important subsea maintenance and deep-water IMR con- Brasileira Offshore) were awarded two-year contract to con- tracts in Brazil. “Subsea operations are important to the group duct subsea IMR on Petrobras’ subsea installations offshore as they allow us to bring in vessels to Brazil which supports Brazil. The work is being managed by DeepOcean and ex-

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