Page 6: of Maritime Reporter Magazine (December 1994)

Fresh challenges face

European standby operators

Offshore oil companies operat-ing within the British sector of the North Sea are currently await- ing final approval for legislation submitted to the U.K. Health &

Safety Commission in October which will award them greater in- dividual responsibility for the pro- vision of rescue facilities. In what some may see as a relaxation of the rules, the new style Offshore In- stallations (Prevention of Fire and

Explosion and Emergency Re- sponse) Regulations will change current rules for "a standby ship to be stationed within five miles of all offshore installations" in favor of a general stipulation that oil compa- nies provide "appropriate arrange- ments to ensure a good prospect of rescue." If it were not for the fact that the oil and gas bearing areas of the North West European Conti- nental Shelf are serviced by 130 (Continued from page 7) (DNV) to DNV Wl, the exception- ally well equipped bridge will incor- porate ECDIS, dynamic position- ing with separate joystick and con- ventional back-up in wheelhouse and crow's nest, GPS, GMDSS, HPR tracking and taut wire, three ra- dars, two gyros, and several echosounders. A TV monitoring rescue vessels whose U.K. and Irish operators have invested heavily in upgrading and maintenance and pride themselves on the benchmark that a person should be recovered from the water within four minutes of an alarm sounding, it would be easy to see the new legislation as a retrograde step.

Recent investment will undoubt- edly do much to allay fears as well over $300 million has been spent in under five years upgrading all res- cue vessels currently in operation and the very ethos of the SSOA — to foster the effective use of the vessels, gather information relevant to mem- bers' interests, conduct trials and tests on equipment — is further evi- dence of a perfectionist attitude.

Irrespective of oil company reac- tion to the new rules, purpose built vessels costing up to $8.25 million each are being added to the fleet. system involving 20 cameras will cover most areas of the vessel and the engine room computer moni- tored to ICS class. The vessel is being constructed to DNV classifi- cation as an icebreaker and to Nor- wegian Shipcontrol, SOLAS and

IMO rules governing special pur- pose vessels.

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Circle 19 on Reader Service Card "VEESEA" (Continued from page 7) as anchor-handling tug supply vessels, and operated chiefly in the

Gulf of Mexico under the names Cayman Island, Conzumel Island,

Canary Island and Aleutian Island.

Today, as offshore standby vessels, they have benefited from various stages of refit, a process which started in 1991 when they were taken to Eastern Marine at Panama City, Fla., for work which included removal of the anchor handling winch to make space for a large survivor accommodation unit at the forward end of the aft deck.

Each bridge was substantially upgraded with the provision of "Robstick" controls (every vessel in the Veesea fleet has identical controls to give manning flexibility).

Following the renaming, the vessels were sailed across the Atlan- tic to either the Wear Dockyard in northeast England or Forth

Engineering in Leith, Scotland for the final fit-out as a fully fledged standby vessel to Draft 4 of the appropriate Code. Each vessel cost approximately $1.6 million to convert and upgrade.

The vessels were then set to work in the North Sea, mainly with

Conoco U.K. Ltd. Further upgrading took place in 1992 to implement relatively minor improvements thought necessary to fully meet the

Cullen requirements — a drenching system was installed and the hospital/survivor reception areas enhanced. Although not built for standby purposes, these vessels are now considered to be perfect for the requirements and more than meet the most exacting of stan- dards. Since starting work with Conoco, Veesea Tornado, for ex- ample, has been providing safety standby services non-stop to the

Viking Bravo installation, a major platform in the Viking field in the

Southern sector of the North Sea. Its sister vessels are similarly employed elsewhere in the area. 'AMV/ mve A D0G6/Z BAG> TLSA5S ?"

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