Dynamic positioning system and hydraulic gangway reduces reliance on helicopters.
The transfer of personnel and technicians to offshore platforms has been the domain of one form of transport in the past and present: the helicopter. Limitations of this form of transport have been recognised for a long time - helicopters are not the most practical solution, but until now they have been the only one.
The use of sea transportation was felt too difficult and potentially dangerous in the past. But one company has now come up with a solution that it feels will revolutionise the transportation of crew, technicians and spare parts to platforms, rigs and floating vessels located offshore.
"We have designed a system to cope with a five metre swell, but there are very few people who would want to walk across a moving gangway at this wave height. - Graham Mapes, Offshore Solutions BV."
Offshore Solutions BV provide OAS (offshore access systems), a concept which has been developed over the last ten years.
"This technology was developed for the southern sector of the North Sea, where for quite a number of years it has been recognised that it would be ideal if we could transfer people by vessel to offshore installations," says Graham Mapes, business development manger, Offshore Solutions and Fabricom. "The only other option is to use helicopters, which are limited."
"Companies have come to us and said that with helicopters they get an average of five hours productive time out of a man per day at a normally unmanned installation. With our solution you can get 11 hours, and technicians can bring more equipment and can do more preparation before leaving to carry out the maintenance work," explains Mapes.
Previous attempts using a boat or ship to transport crew and parts would require the vessel to station in a landing area, and the employees would then jump off onto the platform. In rough conditions, this becomes potentially dangerous and is avoided by most companies.
"It was only until recently that technology came allowing us to be able to measure the motions of the vessel, and to relay this to a computer processor and into moving hydraulic fluid - what we call the heave-compensation system," he continues.
"So now we can make the safe connections of the gangway, which requires a fixed pole on the offshore installation. We then connect the gangway to the pole and the system begins, creating a safe walkway for the staff."
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