Busy Conference Circuit For IMCA
Senior members of the International Marine Contractors Association (IMCA) have a busy four week period on the conference circuit. They are giving presentations on ‘The IMCA Approach to Training and Competency for Diving and ROV Personnel'; ‘Revision of the Guidelines of the Safe Operation of Dynamically Positioned Offshore Supply Vessels (DP OSV)'; and ‘The Skills Shortage from the Marine Contractors Perspective'.
Jane Bugler, Technical Director, delivered her presentation on ‘IMCA's Approach to Training and Competency for Diving and ROV Personnel' at the Canadian Underwater Conference in Halifax, Nova Scotia (7-9 September). "Training, Certification and Personnel Competence (TCPC) is an IMCA core activity," she explains. "Through the work of the TCPC committee, IMCA provides guidance on competence assurance and assessment, training and certification and information on recruitment and careers for those wishing to work in the offshore sector. "
The paper she delivered in Nova Scotia described the competence assurance and assessment framework which provides members with a tool for creating their own in-house schemes for assessing and recording the competence of personnel working in safety critical roles.
Busy October for Ian Giddings
IMCA's Technical Adviser, Ian Giddings has a particularly busy early October with presentations in St John's, Nova Scotia and in Houston.
On 2 October 2008 he will deliver a presentation on ‘The Skills Shortage from the Marine Contractors Perspective' at the Maritime Human Resources Solutions Conference organised by The Company of Master Mariners of Canada - Newfoundland & Labrador Division. And he goes on from there to the MTS Dynamic Positioning Conference being held 7-8 October in Houston. There he will present a paper on ‘Revision of the Guidelines of the Safe Operation of Dynamically Positioned Offshore Supply Vessels (DP OSV)'.
"It has been over a year since these guidelines were issued as IMCA M182 and it had been agreed that these would be reviewed after such a period," he explains. "The guidelines are intended to be international in their application so this development will be of interest to offshore supply vessels working in North West Europe, Gulf of Mexico and Brazil as well as elsewhere around the world. This in turn brings further considerations such as how to recognise local guidance and regulations."
Ian's presentation will highlight some of the issues in this revision and he hopes it will lead to discussion of the IMCA document, particularly about the possible implications for OSVs around the world.
And later in the year
In November Philip Wiggs, also a Technical Adviser at IMCA, will be speaking at IBC Global Conference's London-based Offshore Support Vessels 2008 (11-12 November), giving a paper on "A proposal to IMO to develop a new code on offshore construction support vessels".
This presentation will assess the existing codes and classification of offshore support vessels, then consider the way in which they are implemented on the range of complex vessels which exist, are being built and which are contracted to be built.
Recent problems in implementation will be alluded to, especially with the impact of the recent review of the Special Purpose Ship Code on the industry. The large order book for offshore support vessels has focused owners, operators, and builders on the possible effects. These could be significant, commercially, financially and practically.
Philip Wiggs's presentation will describe the IMCA work group, its composition and the work done so far at IMO, which includes the co-sponsorship with Germany of a paper for the next IMO Maritime Safety Committee in November 2008. He will also indicate that a new Code is being considered for Offshore Construction Support Vessels, and will describe how that will be developed; with the principal aim of clarifying classification problems. This will require further cross industry input which will be sought. Indeed, he will invite input from the audience to the group.
