JFMS Wraps Up Balmoral Field Diving Campaign

James Fisher Marine Services (JFMS) has completed diving activities for Premier Oil UK.

JFMS provided a nitrox diving spread utilising gravity-based launch and recovery systems (LARS) installed on the Balmoral floating production vessel (FPV), anchored 200km northeast of Aberdeen, in the Balmoral field.

Glyn Pritchard, subsea operations manager at Premier Oil, said: “Premier Oil is pleased to have completed this anode replacement work on the Balmoral FPV and the efficiency of James Fisher Marine Service’s dive team is to be commended.”

JFMS has previously conducted notable air/nitrox diving campaigns in the Southern North Sea and Irish Sea but, significantly, this was the first the company had carried out directly from a client’s offshore production facility in the Central North Sea.

JFMS utilised a Zone 2-rated system directly from the client’s production asset.

Work from the FPV included diving through the platform’s moon pool and covered assets down to water depths up to -28.0m LAT.

The project scope involved the installation of replacement anodes (~50kg in water) on the underside of the pontoons, for which JFMS designed and fabricated a bespoke installation/buoyancy frame to aid the diving team during this phase.

Ian Hughes, subsea director at JFMS, said: “We’re delighted to work with Premier Oil and it is testament to the specialist skills and experience of our team that we were awarded this contract in the first place. Our subsea division has an established track record servicing the oil and gas market and this strengthens our position as a leading provider of integrated marine services, above and below sea level.”

In total, 30 offshore personnel comprising supervisors, divers, inspectors and engineers were required throughout the duration of the project, with on-site operatives working from the floating production vessel.