Professional Documents
Culture Documents
Diving Division
Evacuation of Divers
from Installations
IMCA D 025 – April 2001
www.imca-int.com/diving/
The information contained herein is given for guidance only and endeavours to reflect best
industry practice/to accurately portray industry-provided data. For the avoidance of doubt, no
legal liability shall attach to any opinion and/or recommendation and/or statement herein contained.
Evacuation of Divers from Installations
1 Introduction
This guidance addresses the arrangements for evacuation of divers which should be
considered when diving from offshore installations, e.g. fixed or mobile platforms and
FPSOs.
For any diving project, the safety of diving personnel should be addressed by the
application of the following:
♦ An adequate safety management system
♦ Hazard identification and risk assessment
♦ Provision of working procedures approved by relevant parties as defined in the
safety management system
♦ Adequate briefings prior to commencement of diving operations
The following guidance has been written to assist both operators and contractors in
reducing the risks to divers in the event of an emergency evacuation from an
installation.
When diving from an installation, there should be close liaison between the diving
contractor and the installation owner/operator.
a) The risk assessment should identify the various events which could
give rise to a major accident on the installation or the need for
evacuation while the diving project is being undertaken. The
installation owner or operator needs to consider whether such projects
are undertaken whilst the installation is fully operational or whether
normal operation should be suspended whilst the diving project is in
progress.
b) Since the diving activity is planned to take place from the installation,
the installation owner or operator will need to ensure that the diving
project is adequately addressed in the safety management system of
the installation.
When surface supplied diving from an installation, the diving should be planned/
managed to minimise any requirement for surface and/or in-water decompression.
Suitable recompression facilities should be provided on the installation.
The operator of an installation, in consultation with the diving contractor, should have
suitable evacuation arrangements in place for all personnel involved in the diving
operation. It is anticipated that the recompression facilities will be located in an
appropriate position to facilitate the safe escape of diving personnel in the event of an
emergency on the installation which requires evacuation.
4 Saturation Diving
Saturation diving is, in general, carried out from a diving support vessel offering a
range of capabilities for this type of diving. However there may be operational
requirements which require saturation diving from the installation itself. In such
circumstances it will be necessary for the saturation diving system to be located on the
installation. Due consideration should be given to the effect of such a location on the
safety and efficiency of the diving project.
Suitable arrangements for removing the chamber from the installation should
be considered, such as lifting it off directly onto a suitably equipped supply
vessel.
1
Additional information on PRODS is available in UK PROD trials – UK Health and Safety
Executive Offshore Technology Report – OTO 96 707