WIRELINE ISSUE 31 SPRING 2015

ROVs

TECHNOLOGY

The new intensive residential course at The Underwater Centre in Fort William on ‘Work Class ROV Operations’ aims to reduce the time needed to train pilots of remotely operated vehicles and prepare them more effectively for their offshore roles

Underwater robotics With the UK offshore oil and gas industry venturing into deeper, harsher and more remote waters, remotely operated vehicles have an ever important role to play in subsea construction and maintenance. Wireline reports on the evolution of the technology and the skills required to steer these stalwarts of the offshore industry. A fter 14 years as a mechanic in the car trade, Raymond Dewar’s long-standing interest in working ROV underwater, carrying out a task and then bringing it back to the surface for service, ready for the next job.” pipelay and construction vessel, the Deep Blue, which services the industry worldwide. In essence, ROVs are underwater ‘robots’, managed on the surface by pilots like

offshore prompted him to take his career in a new direction – controlling underwater remotely operated vehicles (ROVs) for the oil and gas industry. “There were several avenues I considered, but the ROV sector struck me as the most interesting,” he says. “There’s something very satisfying about sending an

Raymond joined Technip in Aberdeen in June 2013 as an ROV pilot technician and has worked on the Greater Stella Area and SchiehallionQuad204 developments on the UKContinental Shelf (UKCS). He is now part of the crew aboard Technip’s deepwater

Raymond via an umbilical link from a host vessel. Small and high capability electrical ROVs can be used for observation and inspection, whilst ‘work class’ specifically describes those vehicles that perform a

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