The Petroleum Safety Authority Norway (PSA) has commissioned NUI (Norwegian Underwater Intervention) to prepare a report comparing decompression tables for surface-oriented diving from relevant countries and diving companies.
The results of the comparison show that the tables used on the Norwegian Continental Shelf, and which were recommended by a task force consisting of the authorities, industry and trade unions in the early 1990s, give radically different (significantly shorter) total decompression times than the other tables included in the comparison.
For some depths and bottom times, NUI’s review shows that total decompression times in, for example, the USN Rev 6 table are around twice as long as those mandated in the Norwegian table.
The PSA wants the industry to incorporate the results from the comparison in an evaluation and code amendment proposal as part of NORSOK work, with reference to NORSOK U-100/ NORSOK U-103.