In early July this year, Unique Seaflex were contacted by the Geocean office in Cassis, South-East France with respect to load-testing requirements on their fleet of vessels. Initially, this was for the pipelay barge Protis which was operating off Pointe Noire, Congo and which needed its crane testing and certifying in time for an upcoming campaign on behalf of Chevron.
Following initial discussions it became clear that other such upcoming requirements within the Geocean fleet, combined with the time and trouble involved in getting equipment into and then out of West Africa, meant that a purchase rather than a hire would be the best solution for them.
With this in mind, Unique Seaflex pulled together a proposal 6 of their LEEA-compliant, type-tested, ABS-certified WaterLoad bags plus all necessary accessories (slings, shackles, load cell, manifolds, test bungs and repair kit) to allow Geocean to not only conduct tests up to 250t capacity but to also be self-sufficient in the onboard servicing and maintenance of this equipment and the carrying out of all but the most major of repairs to the bags.
In addition to this turnkey product solution, Seaflex also provided the services of one of its BOSIET-ticketed technicians, Ian Condon, to travel to Pointe Noire and board the Protis to assist the crew with the first use of the equipment and to carry out the training necessary to ensure that they would be able to obtain best possible return on this investment for Geocean.
Unique Seaflex’s Global Sales Manager, Chris Sparrow , observed: “Although they could have purchased uncertified waterbags on a commodity basis from a number of low-cost suppliers, it was the obvious quality and durability of our product combined with the ability to offer a turnkey solution including onsite support and training which persuaded Geocean that Unique Seaflex had the proposition which was going to give them the best through-life return on their investment.”
Maxime Miossec , Deputy Project Manager at Geocean , commented: “The load test onboard our pipelay barge Geocean Protis was performed successfully in a safe and controlled operation. I would like to thank all of your team for the effort you gave to deliver quality products in a such short notice. I wish particularly to thanks Ian Condon for his professionalism and availability, and I am glad that the project went as per planning.”
Press Release, September 12, 2014