UK-based Briggs Marine Contractors reports that, as part of its ongoing growth plans, it has made a six-figure investment into its Diving Division’s capabilities with the purchase of a dual-basket diver launch and recovery system.

The system, which was manufactured by Submarine Manufacturing Products (SMP), UK, comes as Briggs experiences increased demand for safe, high quality and compact diving solutions, according to a spokesman. It has been built and maintained to International Marine Contractors Association guidelines and has been certified by Lloyds Register, he said.

“The SMP dual-basket LARS allows the safe launch and recovery of up to two working divers and one rescue diver, in depths of up to 50 metres,” said the spokesman. “The new system was immediately employed on an offshore renewables project, with teams of divers working around the clock in depths of up to 28 metres to facilitate replacement of an inter array cable.”

He added: “As a company which is committed to providing safe, fit-for-purpose solutions, the LARS is a welcome addition to our fleet of equipment. Its compact nature allows for mobilisation on smaller, more cost-effective vessels, without compromising safety.

“The equipment enhances the modular dive spreads owned and operated by Briggs, and means that bespoke solutions can be rapidly prepared according to each client’s specific requirements; from quayside, nearshore or offshore solutions, domestically or abroad.”

Subsea IMR provider N-Sea Offshore Ltd reports it has reached one million man-hours without a lost time incident (LTI).

The Aberdeen, UK-based company said it sets a high example for outstanding SHEQ (Safety, Health, Environment, Quality) performance and the industry milestone is reinforced by the recent launch of the N-Sea Golden Rules programme, which embeds excellence in SHEQ.

N-Sea’s chief operating officer, Roddy James, said: “At N-Sea we believe in an open and just culture and we are delighted to have reached this significant safety milestone.

“The hard work and dedication of the entire team has been integral to reaching this point. I would like to sincerely thank all my N-Sea colleagues, who have made a huge contribution to maintaining our exemplary attitude towards health and safety.

“Our Golden Rules initiative is a succinct illustration of N-Sea’s focus upon protecting our people from common hazards. Our ethos is always to operate in a safe, sound and swift manner.”

M-Tech Offshore, the Danish joint venture company equally owned by NT Offshore and Maritech International, has acquired the cable laying vessel SIA from CT Offshore, the former subsidiary of Denmark-based A2Sea.

The recently upgraded DP2 vessel has been configured for worldwide inter-array and subsea power cable installations and maintenance, with additional facilities on board to accommodate for the installation of smaller subsea cables, including fibre optics.

A fully SOLAS classed vessel, the CLV SIA is equipped with a cable lay spread, three turntable cable tanks, deck winches, an A-frame and cranes and accommodates SIMEC’s (France) Seagma work-class trenching ROV. Additional modular deck spreads are also available to support operations such as pre-lay grapnel runs and route clearances.

“The vessel’s 500-square-metre deck has been strengthened for LARS, making it an ideal ROV support platform, whist the onboard survey electronic spread, moon pool and side-mounted equipment can be utilised for cable route survey operations,” said M-Tech.

The company added: “In addition to cable laying capabilities, the CLV SIA has modern and comfortable accommodation for 50 passengers with crew and can be utilised as a multipurpose support vessel, capable of handling challenging environmental conditions.”

BP has announced what it describes as a major breakthrough in seismic imaging that has identified more than 200 million barrels of additional resources at BP’s Atlantis field in the deepwater Gulf of Mexico.

As a result of this early success, BP now is deploying this technique to fields elsewhere in the Gulf of Mexico as well as in Azerbaijan, Angola, and Trinidad and Tobago.

The innovation has enabled BP to enhance the clarity of images that it collects during seismic surveys, particularly areas below the earth’s surface that complex salt structures previously obscured or distorted. The sharper seismic images mean that BP can drill new development wells in deepwater reservoirs with higher confidence and accuracy.

“This technological breakthrough has essentially allowed our team to find a new oil field within our existing Atlantis field,” said Bernard Looney, chief executive of BP’s global upstream business. “Given the overwhelming success of this project, we are now deploying this technology across BP’s global operations.”

Proprietary algorithms developed by BP’s Subsurface Technical Centre were applied on seismic data run at BP’s Centre for High Performance Computing, one of the largest supercomputers in the world dedicated to commercial research. The algorithms allowed data that would normally take a year to be analysed to be processed in only a few weeks, accelerating BP’s development decisions for the field.

The algorithms enhance a technique known as Full Waveform Inversion (FWI), which matches seismic simulations with existing seismic data to produce high quality subsurface images.

“This innovation again shows that BP remains at the forefront of advanced seismic imaging and digital technologies,” said Ahmed Hashmi, BP’s head of upstream technology. “The new technique has produced the best images of this reservoir that we have ever seen.”