NORTH SEA FPSOs,

[Captain Kong]

I have just been watching a video of Maersks FPSO, GRYPHON A
The tanker was taken into Rotyterdam last year for repairs after being damaged in a North Sea Storm.
A family member worked on her then , the FPSO Tanker is now2 back on station and he is flying out to her on Monday.
.
The loss caused by the incident cost over One Billion Dollars.
Very intersting video, lot of engineering work on it.

Has anyone on here worked on FPSOs.? I have seen another going on staion off Brazil. the Merchant Navy crew were taken off as soon as it was hooked up, it then ceased to be a ship just a facility.

here is the video http://bcove.me/ptrbnpue
,
Cheers
Brian.

[j.sabourn]

Never worked on such Brian. Working in the North Sea there was always this demarcation line between the Installation and the shipping side, guess who were the poor cousins. Out here in Australia however is a different story and as there has been recently a very minor discussion on shipping being in and out of class, the laws discerning rigs and offshore installations are very different. Any installation on the move has to have a marine crew on board. For those who don't know most rigs have a thruster on each leg and can be self propelled, the oil companies to do away with a marine crew disable these machinery plants, but have to employ a marine crew when being moved, the accountants no doubt have worked out the advantages of doing thus. Living in WA the Cyclone season is usually from November to Feb/March. On the expected arrival of a cyclone in the oil fields on the NW shelf, the manning of these rigs are usually evacuated and seamen flown in to man during the transit of the storm. Although I was flown up at various times to take ships out of Dampier and such places and also on rigs was never fortuanate or unfortuanate enough to go on a FPSO. I would imagine as these vessels out here still have engines there would probably be a marine crew on board in any case, unlike the North Sea which I don't know too much about re FPSO's. Cheers John Sabourn

[John Arton]

John S, Brian
I regularly see adverts for Control Room Operatives on an FPSO and dam good money it is.
The advert asks for experience in ballasting and stability operations and off loading operations and If you have a Masters cert or possibly a Chief Mates and have experience on tankers then you would qualify . Often the advert states that you will be in charge of the deck crew as they go about their daily routines and you have to do risk assessments, fill in the daily log book, record quantities on board etc.
I think there are qualifications that you can obtain to be a control room operative without having a marine licence but do not know who runs these. You will also need a Offshore Medical and Survival cert.
rgds
JA

[j.sabourn]

John, Different offshore facilities have different titles to various jobs. What you are describing would possibly be called the barge master in most cases, and you are right one does not have to have a marine qualification as can come up from roustabout. On some installations they have a ballast control officer all depending really on the size and work of the rig. The control room operator sits in the control room ( bridge) answering almost continuous radio VHF traffic, he may in some cases be also the Safety Officer, he must have at least a restricted radio licence. The boss of the Rig is the OIM (Offshore Installation Manager). However to all practical purposes the one who really holds the working power on a rig is the toolpusher. Every thing when on an exploration rig is geared up to time which is money and dare I say it supercedes all others. You will nowadays get paperwork disclaiming this as Safety is pushed forward on paper, any stoppages to drilling one would have to have a good excuse. Going back once more to the P.A. the disaster could have been lessened in its early stages if pumping from the Tartan Platform had been stopped, these are massively paid jobs by our standards, but they would not stop production until someone higher up the ladder would make the decision. This was from shoreside management. No doubt they came up with some plausible reason. There are probably very few ex seamen working on rigs although there will be some, but the majority wouldn't know one end of a ship from the other.There are other fancy titles such as Helicopter Landing Officer which most merchant seamen have to do now, especially those ships fitted with heli decks, Abseilers, scaffolders, you name a trade and there is every possibility it s on a platform. Regards John Sabourn

[Don Rafferty]

FPSO?............please.

[John Arton]

John S.
Thanks the above, knowing nowt about these vessels I now realise that anyone who has sailed as Mate/Master on tankers could do the control room operators job so I'm off to put my C.V. in and earn £58000 per year, if only I can stand the cold North Sea and overcome my fear of flying in those paraffin budgies.
rgds
JA

[j.sabourn]

Also a HUET cert. Helicopter Underwater Escape Techniques. You don't have to have shipboard experience to be a control room operator, I should imagine in my time they may have got the job from the dole. My problem the same as most seamen in the N.Sea were not aware of some of these jobs. It was only on coming to Oz where you are expected to jump on anything floating that I found out. The job Barge Master for instant does not mean you are a seaman. Although you have probably spent a lot of time on Rigs. The hardest ones to position over a wellhead were the jack ups as had very little room for error. When one talks about safety I wont mention the easiest way to do, as may upset some offshore workers reading this. The tours out here when I retired was 2 weeks on and 2 weeks off. But am pleased to say the seamen were in this case much better off than their counterparts in the N.Sea. Seamens tours were 6 weeks on and 6 weeks off. Regards John Sabourn

[j.sabourn]

Floating Production Storage and Off loading. Cheers John Sabourn