The first underwater facility maintenance training base in the offshore oil industry was unveiled
On March 20th, the first underwater facility maintenance training base in the offshore oil industry was officially unveiled in Binhai New Area, Tianjin. The base is currently the largest, most comprehensive, and most advanced underwater operation professional training base in the industry.
The underwater facility maintenance training base is planned and implemented by China National Offshore Oil Corporation's subsidiary, CNOOC Development Equipment Technology Company (referred to as Equipment Technology Company). It covers an area of 6000 square meters, with a maximum training depth of 9 meters and a training pool capacity of nearly 60000 tons (equivalent to 30 standard swimming pools). It integrates functions such as safety testing of underwater equipment and facilities, maintenance of shallow water underwater production systems, and underwater simulation and operation of offshore oil engineering, and can provide comprehensive underwater facility maintenance and operation training.
Pan Wen, the project leader of the training base, stated that after the base is put into operation, it can achieve integrated linkage training of "frogman", ROV (underwater robot), unmanned boats and other operations, enhance the overall coordination ability of multiple types of work and multiple elements in complex situations, and promote the overall improvement of underwater facility maintenance capabilities.
Underwater facility maintenance operations are an important guarantee for the safe operation of offshore oil equipment and facilities. However, diving is a high-risk operation, with a wet and cold underwater environment, high pressure, and low visibility, which requires a high level of ability and quality for divers. In the past, due to site limitations, the daily training and practical operation of professional divers in offshore oil engineering were greatly restricted. The newly built base will play an important role in building a strong team for facility maintenance specialization and emergency rescue cooperation, "said Chen Gang, manager of the Testing Company of CNOOC Development Equipment Technology Company.
The equipment technology company takes advantage of the coastal advantage by building the training base on the dock, which not only solves the site problem but also provides the training venue closest to the actual underwater environment. Through a training pool directly connected to the sea surface, as well as advanced diving control rooms, gas source power boxes, decompression chambers, and other equipment, a fully simulated operation training base is created, which can carry out standardized training such as underwater visual inspection, underwater exploration, structural component thickness measurement, weld seam detection, as well as underwater cutting and welding, providing students with immersive diving operation scenarios and focusing on improving their skills in inspection, testing, and maintenance operations.
In addition to the immersive "frogman" training ground, the base is also a truly versatile underwater facility maintenance and training base: it is equipped with platform structural components, underwater production systems, submarine pipelines and other facilities, which can achieve multi-disciplinary and all-round practical exercises for underwater facility maintenance and submarine cable survey operations; The construction of a highly skilled talent team for diving services can provide support for talent training and development projects such as diver qualification training, skill appraisal, and skill competitions; The base will also focus on the innovation of underwater facility maintenance technology, carry out scientific research and development of intelligent equipment and facilities, and provide support for the performance testing and identification of domestically produced independent equipment and facilities.
From March 20th to 22nd, the underwater facility maintenance training base made its debut after completion. The equipment technology company held a "frogman" skills competition in the form of "theoretical assessment+practical exercises", where 20 frogmans competed against each other to explore deep blue. The competition consists of four competition segments: theoretical knowledge of air diving operations, practical skills of diver's breathing gas quality analyzer, underwater ACFM probe operation skills (a steel structure weld detection method), and emergency response skills for diving emergencies. In the practical stage, the emergency response capability of the "frogman" in underwater operations is tested by simulating sudden and complex situations such as fishing net entanglement, ship entry, and gas supply interruption that may occur during underwater operations.
