A Chinese Tale: How SBSS Expanded Business from a Cable Installer to an Offshore Service Supplier by Derek Greenham
S. B. Submarine Systems Co. Ltd. (SBSS), like most other telecom marine suppliers heading into 2003, was faced with the prospect of an under utilized fleet and a difficult future. This of course was the down side of the installations boom. Revenues at their peak were three times the levels experienced just a few years later. Even though SBSS was only a four vessel company it started to look like we had three too many. In order to preserve our skills and experiences built up over the preceding years other non-telecom opportunities had to be searched out. Oil and Gas seemed the obvious choice with its high marine content and mix of charter and project opportunities plus a need for suppliers skilled in managing operations on the seabed. Here follows a small insight as to how we got on. First Touch in Oil & Gas Field SBSS’ first opportunity came from a small project for an oil company installing a medium size power cable. The customers were surprised that a DP vessel could lay a cable and not, as their past practice, a barge with a mooring system. We had to improvise using the techniques developed in the telecoms industry, as the customer seemed to offer little in the way of guidance or operational perimeters, a situation I can vouch is changing fairly rapidly. Our approach was similar to telecommunications cable as the composite cable behaved in a similar fashion. Some very sound rules of thumb and operational procedures were rapidly evolved and all went well. The project was combined with a pipe burial project in which SBSS provided Fu Lai as a host vessel. Some superb operational, on the job decisions were made which made a potentially difficult project run smoothly. Equipment, People, Procedures…and Stomachs Challenges of Being a Diving Support Vessel So first time in the business and we had a warm feeling that we had performed fairly well. It was to be some months before we carried out our next excursion into the Oil and Gas business. This proved a somewhat
different story. Our next project involved providing Fu Lai as a dive platform for a saturation diving system, something we knew little about apart from the fact that it could be done. We engaged the services of a competent marine consultancy company based in Aberdeen. They immediately carried out an FMEA, Failure Mode Effects Analysis. This involved putting the vessel through a series of tests to simulate what would happen when certain mechanical and electrical components failed. The idea being that no single point failure will render the vessel powerless, she must remain operational although at a reduced capability. This would allow the vessel to recover divers and move away from a structure, repair the fault and return to operations as soon as confidence is restored. After a set of sea trials the vessel passed muster fairly easily with only a few minor hitches. We all breathed a collective sigh of relief, it was not that we felt that she would fail but that it was something we were unused to so imaginations run riot, old vessel from the cable industry, etc, etc. Following on from the FMEA came a diving manual, a bible for operating as a dive platform. It contained a vast number of items that had to be worked through if we were to safely deploy divers and operate close by offshore structures. There were emergency response procedures, 500-meter zone procedures, operational weather limits and a whole host of other requirements. There were also particular requirements on the kind of experience levels acceptable for key staff (which seemed to be most of the vessels crew). Our staff both onshore and offshore gradually endowed the vessel with the necessary skills and operational procedures to enable safe and efficient operations as a dive platform. The first diving project was a baptism of fire to say the least. Prior to sailing we were required to attend a HAZID, which is a hazard identification meeting, standard practice for the industry. Every move of operations is planned and any hazards identified and mitigated. Phases of an operation were broken down to a story board level, every position of a lifting strap, pad eye, vessel heading, danger to diver or equipment