Oceaneering's business offerings include remotely operated vehicle (ROV) services, specialty oilfield subsea hardware, deepwater intervention and crewed diving services, non-destructive testing and inspections, engineering and project management, and surveying and mapping services. Its services and products are marketed worldwide to oil and gas companies, government agencies, and firms in the aerospace, marine engineering and mobile robotics and construction industries.
History
Oceaneering was founded in 1964 with the incorporation of World Wide Divers, Inc., one of three companies who merged in 1969 to operate under the name Oceaneering International, Inc. The merged companies were World Wide Divers, Inc. (Morgan City, LA), California Divers, Inc. (Santa Barbara, CA), and Can-Dive Services Ltd (North Vancouver, BC). [3]
World Wide Divers, Inc. was owned by Mike Hughes and Johnny Johnson. California Divers, Inc. was owned by Lad Handelman, Gene Handelman, Kevin Lengyel, and Bob Ratcliffe. Can-Dive Services Ltd was owned by Phil Nuytten and partners. Mike Hughes served as Chairman of the Board and Lad Handelman served as President of the merged companies.
In the early 1970s, Oceaneering supported considerable research into ways to increase safety of their divers and general diving efficiency, including their collaboration with Duke University Medical Center to explore the use of trimix breathing gas to reduce the incidence of high-pressure nervous syndrome.[4]
Oceaneering purchased the rights to the JIM suit in 1975. By 1979, a team from Oceaneering assisted Dr. Sylvia Earle in testing Atmospheric diving suits for scientific diving operations by diving a JIM suit to 1,250 fsw.[5] Oceaneering also used WASP atmospheric diving suits.[6]
A dive team from Oceaneering salvaged three of the four propellers from the RMS Lusitania in 1982.[7]
From 1984 to 1988, Michael L. Gernhardt served as Oceaneering's Manager and then Vice President of Special Projects. He led the development of a telerobotic system for subsea platform cleaning and inspection, and of a variety of new diver and robot tools.[8] In 1988, he founded Oceaneering Space Systems, to transfer subsea technology and operational experience to the ISS program.[8]
Oceaneering ROVs were used to determine what happened to the cargo ship Lucona in the 1991 murder and fraud investigation that claimed uranium mining equipment was lost when the vessel went down.[9]
Recovery of the airplane cockpit voice recorder in the loss of ValuJet Flight 592 was a priority in early 1996.[9] In the days following the loss of TWA Flight 800 later that same year, Oceaneering was contacted to provide ROV support to the US Navy lead search and recovery effort.[9]
Boeing and Fugro teamed up with Oceaneering in 2001 to begin integration of their advanced technology into deep sea exploration.[10]
Oceaneering helped recover the ConfederatesubmarineH. L. Hunley, which sank in 1864.[11][12] Several recovery plans were evaluated; the final recovery included a truss structure with foam to surround the body of the submarine.[13] On August 8, 2000, at 8:37a.m., the sub broke the surface for the first time in 136 years.
On August 2, 2006, NASA announced it would issue a Request for Proposal (RFP) for the design, development, certification, production and sustaining engineering of the Constellation Space Suit to meet the needs of the Constellation Program.[14] On June 11, 2008, NASA awarded a USD$745 million contract to Oceaneering for the creation and manufacture of this new space suit.[15]
In 2009, Oceaneering installed a demonstrator crane aboard the SS Flickertail State to evaluate its performance in transferring containers between two moving ships, in an operational environment using commercial and oil industry at-sea mooring techniques in the Gulf of Mexico.[19] Developed in conjunction with the Sea Warfare and Weapons Department in the Office of Naval Research, the crane has sensors and cameras as well as motion-sensing algorithms that automatically compensate for the rolling and pitching of the sea, making it much easier for operators to center it over and transfer cargo.[20][21]
Oceaneering teamed up with the Canadian company GRI Simulations to design and produce the ROV simulators they utilize for training, development of procedures, and equipment staging.[22] After a dispute over theft of trade secrets and copyright infringement that lasted several years, Oceaneering now licenses the VROV simulator system from GRI Simulations.[22][23]
A 2009 collaboration with Royal Dutch Shell saw the installation of a wireline at a record 2,673 feet (815m) of water for repairing a safety valve.[24]
On April 22, 2010, three Oceaneering ROV crews aboard the Oceaneering vessel Ocean Intervention III, the DOF ASASkandi Neptune and the Boa International Boa Sub C began to map the seabed and assess the wreckage from the Deepwater Horizon oil spill. The crews reported "large amounts of oil that flowed out."[25] Oceaneering ROV Technician Tyrone Benton was later called as a witness to provide information on the leaks associated with BOP stack investigation, but gave no reason why he later failed to appear in court.[26][27]
Petrobras, the biggest deepwater oilfield company in the world, placed the largest umbilical order in company history in 2012.[28]
As of 2012, eighty percent of Oceaneering's income has been derived from deepwater work.[29] It is also the world's largest operator of ROVs.[29][30]
BAE Systems was contracted in October 2013 to build a Jones Act-compliant multi-service vessel to serve Oceaneering's "subsea intervention services in the ultra-deep waters of the Gulf of Mexico",[31] which was delivered in 2019.[32]
OES was formed in 1992 when Oceaneering International purchased Eastport International, Inc., which specialized in underwater remotely operated vehicles (ROVs) and had recently been contracted by Universal Studios Florida to redesign and build the animatronic sharks for its Jaws attraction. The original animatronics, ride system and control system had malfunctioned, causing the attraction to close soon after its grand opening. After Eastport's acquisition by Oceaneering, the themed attraction work was moved to the new OES division, which completed the Jaws contract.[35]
In 2014, the Themed Entertainment Association presented their THEA Award to OES for their Revolution Tru-Trackless ride system.[41] In 2013, OES won the THEA for Transformers The Ride 3-D at Universal Studios Hollywood and Singapore, for Ride & Show Systems. In 2008 they won the THEA for Shuttle Launch Experience.[42]
In November 2009, Oceaneering donated an ROV to Stavanger Offshore Tekniske Skole, a Norwegian technical college, to facilitate their students' qualification exams.[45] They donated an ROV to South Central Louisiana Technical College in 2011 to support its unique ROV maintenance curriculum.[46]
A remotely operated underwater vehicle (ROUV) or remotely operated vehicle (ROV) is a free-swimming submersible craft used to perform underwater observation, inspection and physical tasks such as valve operations, hydraulic functions and other general tasks within the subsea oil and gas industry, military, scientific and other applications. ROVs can also carry tooling packages for undertaking specific tasks such as pull-in and connection of flexible flowlines and umbilicals, and component replacement.
Saturation diving is diving for periods long enough to bring all tissues into equilibrium with the partial pressures of the inert components of the breathing gas used. It is a diving mode that reduces the number of decompressions divers working at great depths must undergo by only decompressing divers once at the end of the diving operation, which may last days to weeks, having them remain under pressure for the whole period. A diver breathing pressurized gas accumulates dissolved inert gas used in the breathing mixture to dilute the oxygen to a non-toxic level in the tissues, which can cause potentially fatal decompression sickness if permitted to come out of solution within the body tissues; hence, returning to the surface safely requires lengthy decompression so that the inert gases can be eliminated via the lungs. Once the dissolved gases in a diver's tissues reach the saturation point, however, decompression time does not increase with further exposure, as no more inert gas is accumulated.
Professional diving is underwater diving where the divers are paid for their work. Occupational diving has a similar meaning and applications. The procedures are often regulated by legislation and codes of practice as it is an inherently hazardous occupation and the diver works as a member of a team. Due to the dangerous nature of some professional diving operations, specialized equipment such as an on-site hyperbaric chamber and diver-to-surface communication system is often required by law, and the mode of diving for some applications may be regulated.
Commercial diving may be considered an application of professional diving where the diver engages in underwater work for industrial, construction, engineering, maintenance or other commercial purposes which are similar to work done out of the water, and where the diving is usually secondary to the work.
Michael Landon Gernhardt is a NASA astronaut and manager of the Environmental Physiology Laboratory, and principal investigator of the Prebreathe Reduction Program (PRP) at the Lyndon B. Johnson Space Center.
A diving support vessel is a ship that is used as a floating base for professional diving projects. Basic requirements are the ability to keep station accurately and reliably throughout a diving operation, often in close proximity to drilling or production platforms, for positioning to degrade slowly enough in deteriorating conditions to recover divers without excessive risk, and to carry the necessary support equipment for the mode of diving to be used.
An atmospheric diving suit (ADS), or single atmosphere diving suit is a small one-person articulated submersible which resembles a suit of armour, with elaborate pressure joints to allow articulation while maintaining an internal pressure of one atmosphere. An ADS can enable diving at depths of up to 2,300 feet (700 m) for many hours by eliminating the majority of significant physiological dangers associated with deep diving. The occupant of an ADS does not need to decompress, and there is no need for special breathing gas mixtures, so there is little danger of decompression sickness or nitrogen narcosis when the ADS is functioning properly. An ADS can permit less skilled swimmers to complete deep dives, albeit at the expense of dexterity.
Defenses against swimmer incursions are security methods developed to protect watercraft, ports and installations, and other sensitive resources in or near vulnerable waterways from potential threats or intrusions by swimmers or scuba divers.
An umbilical cable or umbilical is a cable and/or hose that supplies required consumables to an apparatus, like a rocket, or to a person, such as a diver or astronaut. It is named by analogy with an umbilical cord. An umbilical can, for example, supply air and power to a pressure suit or hydraulic power, electrical power and fiber optics to subsea equipment and divers.
Underwater diving, as a human activity, is the practice of descending below the water's surface to interact with the environment. It is also often referred to as diving, an ambiguous term with several possible meanings, depending on context. Immersion in water and exposure to high ambient pressure have physiological effects that limit the depths and duration possible in ambient pressure diving. Humans are not physiologically and anatomically well-adapted to the environmental conditions of diving, and various equipment has been developed to extend the depth and duration of human dives, and allow different types of work to be done.
The JIM suit is an atmospheric diving suit (ADS), which is designed to maintain an interior pressure of one atmosphere despite exterior pressures, eliminating the majority of physiological dangers associated with deep diving. Because there is no need for special gas mixtures, nor is there danger of nitrogen narcosis or decompression sickness ; the occupant does not need to decompress when returning to the surface. It was invented in 1969 by Mike Humphrey and Mike Borrow, partners in the English firm Underwater Marine Equipment Ltd (UMEL), assisted by Joseph Salim Peress, whose Tritonia diving suit acted as their main inspiration. The suit was named after Jim Jarrett, Peress' chief diver.
Subsea technology involves fully submerged ocean equipment, operations, or applications, especially when some distance offshore, in deep ocean waters, or on the seabed. The term subsea is frequently used in connection with oceanography, marine or ocean engineering, ocean exploration, remotely operated vehicle (ROVs) autonomous underwater vehicles (AUVs), submarine communications or power cables, seafloor mineral mining, oil and gas, and offshore wind power.
Helix Energy Solutions Inc., known as Cal Dive International prior to 2006, is an American oil and gas services company headquartered in Houston, Texas. The company is a global provider of offshore services in well intervention and ROV operations of new and existing oil and gas fields.
Underwater breathing apparatus is equipment which allows the user to breathe underwater. The three major categories of ambient pressure underwater breathing apparatus are:
Commercial offshore diving, sometimes shortened to just offshore diving, generally refers to the branch of commercial diving, with divers working in support of the exploration and production sector of the oil and gas industry in places such as the Gulf of Mexico in the United States, the North Sea in the United Kingdom and Norway, and along the coast of Brazil. The work in this area of the industry includes maintenance of oil platforms and the building of underwater structures. In this context "offshore" implies that the diving work is done outside of national boundaries. Technically it also refers to any diving done in the international offshore waters outside of the territorial waters of a state, where national legislation does not apply. Most commercial offshore diving is in the Exclusive Economic Zone of a state, and much of it is outside the territorial waters. Offshore diving beyond the EEZ does also occur, and is often for scientific purposes.
The Australian Diver Accreditation Scheme (ADAS) is an international commercial and occupational diver certification scheme. It has mutual recognition arrangements with other equivalent national schemes. ADAS qualifications have international recognition.
JFD is a subsidiary of James Fisher & Sons is a Scottish provider of diving equipment and related services.
Craig T. Mullen is a deep-sea explorer who is notable for extensive technological and research contributions to the world of underwater exploration.
Diving support equipment is the equipment used to facilitate a diving operation. It is either not taken into the water during the dive, such as the gas panel and compressor, or is not integral to the actual diving, being there to make the dive easier or safer, such as a surface decompression chamber. Some equipment, like a diving stage, is not easily categorised as diving or support equipment, and may be considered as either.
A diving team is a group of people who work together to conduct a diving operation. A characteristic of professional diving is the specification for minimum personnel for the diving support team. This typically specifies the minimum number of support team members and their appointed responsibilities in the team based on the circumstances and mode of diving, and the minimum qualifications for specified members of the diving support team. The minimum team requirements may be specified by regulation or code of practice. Some specific appointments within a professional dive team have defined competences and registration may be required.
↑ Neyland, RS (2005). "Underwater Archaeology and the Confederate Submarine H.L. Hunley". In: Godfrey, JM; Shumway, SE. Diving for Science 2005. Proceedings of the American Academy of Underwater Sciences Symposium on March 10–12, 2005 at the University of Connecticut at Avery Point, Groton, Connecticut. Archived from the original on January 13, 2013. Retrieved October 24, 2013.{{cite journal}}: CS1 maint: unfit URL (link)
↑ Shelsby, Ted (1992). "Jaws Is No Fish Story For Eastport". The Baltimore Sun.
↑ "Transformers The Ride". Park World Magazine. Datateam Business Media Limited. December 23, 2011. Archived from the original on September 21, 2013. Retrieved October 26, 2013.
↑ "Ferrari World Abu Dhabi". Park World Magazine. Datateam Business Media Limited. December 5, 2010. Archived from the original on October 29, 2013. Retrieved October 26, 2013.
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US$ 2.07 billion (2022)
