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Subsea
Technology Diving
In 1905, the U.S. Navy began development
of more modern equipment, diving tables, and diving practices using
experience from worldwide operations. In order to go deeper and remain
longer at depth, Commander George "Papa Topside" Bond started research for
the Navy in 1957 leading to the development of "saturation diving." Bond
perfected the equipment and diving tables through the "Genesis" program
and the "seaLab" phases of activity. Dr. Robert Workman, a U.S. Navy
Physiologist, was primarily responsible for the development of diving
tables needed for saturation diving which uses a breathing mixture of
helium and oxygen. In 1957, Edward Lee Taylor and Mark Banjavich, two
ex-Navy divers, along with French diver Jean Valz, formed Taylor Diving &
Salvage, later acquired by Brown & Root. They developed the techniques and
equipment necessary (recompression chambers for surface decompression) to
extend the use of mixed-gas diving to the deeper depths required by the
offshore industry. Swiss physicist Hannes Keller, together with Shell Oil,
experimented with diving to depths of 1,000 ft offshore California in the
mid 1960s using helium-ioxygen. His efforts led to further development of
the diving tables used in mixed-gas diving. In the early 1970s and for 10
years thereafter, Shell started the development of Remote Operated
Vehicles (ROVs) to conduct deep offshore inspection activities to
supplement, and in some cases replace, the necessity to use divers. The
first subsea completion was installed by Shell in the Gulf of Mexico in
1961, West Cameron Block 192, waterdepth 17 m (57 ft), as a test case for
later deepwater application. Saturation diving was first used offshore in
1967 to install Shell's Marlin System at 320 ft in the West Delta field.
Recognizing the pioneering efforts of the
following people and companies who contributed to the development of this
technology:
Mark Banjavich, Robert "Bob" Barth,
George F. Bond, Hannes Keller, Walter F. Mazzone, Edward L. Taylor, Jean
G. Valz, Robert D. Workman
Shell, Taylor Diving (Halliburton), U.S. Navy
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