An oil platform, offshore platform, or offshore drilling rig is a large structure with facilities for well drilling to explore, extract, store, process petroleum and natural gas which lies in rock formations beneath the seabed. In many cases, the platform contains facilities to house the workforce as well.
Professional diving is diving where the divers are paid for their work. There are several branches of professional diving, the best known of which is probably commercial diving and its specialised applications, offshore diving, inshore civil engineering diving, marine salvage diving, HAZMAT diving, and ships husbandry diving. There are also applications in scientific research, Marine archaeology, fishing and aquaculture, public service and law enforcement and military service. Any person wishing to become a professional diver normally requires specific training that satisfies any regulatory agencies which have regional or national authority, such as US Occupational Safety and Health Administration, United Kingdom Health and Safety Executive or South African Department of Labour. 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.
An umbilical cable or umbilical is a cable and/or hose that supplies required consumables to an apparatus, 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.
Offshore drilling is a mechanical process where a wellbore is drilled below the seabed. It is typically carried out in order to explore for and subsequently extract petroleum which lies in rock formations beneath the seabed. Most commonly, the term is used to describe drilling activities on the continental shelf, though the term can also be applied to drilling in lakes, inshore waters and inland seas.
Subsea is fully submerged ocean equipment, operations or applications, especially when some distance offshore, in deep ocean waters, or on the seabed. The term 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.
Canadian Forces diving is performed by units of the maritime, land, and air environmental commands (ECs), the Experimental Diving and Undersea Group, and Special Operations Forces (SOF). Divers can be trained as Clearance Divers, Search and Rescue Technicians (SAR), Port Inspection Divers (PID), Ship's Team Divers, and Combat Divers.
The Ocean Star Offshore Oil Rig & Museum, located in Galveston, Texas, is a museum dedicated to the offshore oil and gas industry. Located next to the Strand National Historic Landmark District, the museum is housed on a retired jack-up rig set up in the Galveston harbor.
Oceaneering International, Inc. is a subsea engineering and applied technology company based in Houston, Texas, U.S. that provides engineered services and hardware to customers who operate in marine, space, and other environments.
VideoRay ROVs are a series of inspection class underwater submersible remotely operated underwater vehicles (ROV). VideoRay ROVs are operated from a suitcase-sized control panel connected to either a copper or fiber-optic tether which is then connected to the submersible.
Grup Servicii Petroliere is a Romanian company providing offshore integrated services for oil and gas industry. The company, established in 2004, is a member of UPETROM Group.
An underwater acoustic positioning system is a system for the tracking and navigation of underwater vehicles or divers by means of acoustic distance and/or direction measurements, and subsequent position triangulation. Underwater acoustic positioning systems are commonly used in a wide variety of underwater work, including oil and gas exploration, ocean sciences, salvage operations, marine archaeology, law enforcement and military activities.
A long baseline (LBL) acoustic positioning system is one of three broad classes of underwater acoustic positioning systems that are used to track underwater vehicles and divers. The other two classes are ultra short baseline systems (USBL) and short baseline systems (SBL). LBL systems are unique in that they use networks of sea-floor mounted baseline transponders as reference points for navigation. These are generally deployed around the perimeter of a work site. The LBL technique results in very high positioning accuracy and position stability that is independent of water depth. It is generally better than 1-meter and can reach a few centimeters accuracy. LBL systems are generally employed for precision underwater survey work where the accuracy or position stability of ship-based positioning systems does not suffice.
The SJT class remotely operated underwater vehicles are a series of Chinese ROVs jointly developed by the Shenyang Institute of Automation of the Chinese Academy of Science, and the Institute of Underwater Engineering of Shanghai Jiao Tong University (SHJTU). The general designer of the SJT class of ROVs is Mr. Zhu Jimao (朱继懋), a professor at SHJTU, who is also the general designer of the earlier Type 7103 DSRV.
Global Explorer ROV is a unique deep water remotely operated vehicle that has made numerous dives below 9,000 feet (2,700 m) on science and survey expeditions for National Geographic, the National Oceanographic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) and other important research organizations. It was designed and built by Chris Nicholson of Deep Sea Systems International, Inc. of Falmouth, MA.
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.
Commercial offshore diving, sometimes shortened to just offshore diving, is a 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.
The first successful video-recording from a non-military submarine was made in May 1969. The purpose of the recording was to document the inspection and condition of an offshore oil storage unit located in 130 feet (40 m) of water off the Louisiana coast.
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.
The following outline is provided as an overview of and topical guide to underwater diving:
