JFD, part of James Fisher and Sons, recently facilitated a dry hyperbaric welding trial for Subsea 7 within its saturation diving complex in Aberdeen.

Ten diver welders were welcomed to JFD’s National Hyperbaric Centre in May and were accommodated for 13 days at a depth of 43msw within the saturation diving system in order to prove their welding techniques prior to fulfilling an offshore contract.

JFD’s National Hyperbaric Centre houses the only land based saturation diving system in the UK. The 16-man saturation dive complex is used to simulate realistic, controlled hyperbaric environment in order to pre-qualify diver welders.

Martin Robb, head of delivery for Commercial services, said: “This is the first hyperbaric weld we have performed in the last couple of years following the industry downturn and I am delighted with JFD’s performance. The dive system is continually maintained and audited and as such can be fully operational on short notice. JFD staff worked closely alongside the client to mobilise and fit out the work chamber for the weld trials and the project ran to schedule.

The chamber complex ran 24 hour operations efficiently and smoothly which is testament to our highly skilled and experienced staff and technicians who managed the project exceptionally well from start to finish, quickly and expertly responding to any requests that arose from either the divers or the client.

The facility also acts as a 24 hour diver emergency response centre and, as luck would have it, we received an emergency call to support a diving incident during the welding project. The team immediately responded and implemented the relevant JFD procedures for such an emergency. The emergency was successfully and efficiently handled and the welding trial operation remained unaffected. I am incredibly proud of the team’s professional and expert approach to the situation and their continuous efforts as a whole which ensure JFD maintains its position at the forefront of subsea safety.”