Diving into the 21st century

Divex wins multi-million pound contract to build state-of-the-art saturation diving system for BP Exploration under the Caspian Sea.

This notable contract, from Keppel Singmarine, is for Divex to design, build and install a saturation diving system into a purpose-built diving support vessel that the client is building for BP Exploration.

A truly global player, Keppel Singmarine is a leading supplier of specialised ships, such as diving support vessels, and has built more than 400 for clients worldwide. By choosing to work with Divex, it reinforces the latter’s strong industry reputation in the supply of diving systems. Once completed, the Keppel Singmarine diving support vessel will be used in the construction stage of the Shah Deniz II project (one of the world’s largest gas-condensate fields) in the Caspian Sea.Various Divex facilities in Scotland, South Africa and Australia will undertake construction of the 300m-depth, 18-person, twin bell, DNV-classed saturation diving system.

Derek Clarke, Divex joint managing director, says: “This is a very important win for us and a fitting reward for all the effort put in by Divex staff to provide the very best diving technology.”

When completed, the new diving system will incorporate five saturation chambers, an air/nitrox surface diving capability and standard Divex products, such as the Kinergetics environmental conditioning and life support systems.

Derek adds: “Current diving support vessels in the Caspian Sea date back to the 1980s, so when this new one is operational it will herald a significant leap forward.”

The Keppel Singmarine diving support vessel has a beam (width) of 32m. The company will build the hull in its Singapore shipyard as two halves (lengthways), which will be transported by barge from the Black Sea to the Caspian Sea, arriving at Baku shipyard in Azerbaijan for final assembly. The completed vessel is due to be delivered to BP Exploration in 2017.

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