KD Marine and Mermaid Offshore Services (MOS) have jointly entered into an Alliance Agreement which will enable KD Marine to provide fully integrated saturation, air diving, daughter craft and ROV services from the advanced DSV the Mermaid Endurer in the European market. KD Marine will act as the lead contractor in the Alliance, providing the diving and project management services whilst MOS will provide the DSV, marine and ROV services.
The Mermaid Endurer is a 311.6-ft dynamically positioned DSV which is being built in the Bergen Group BMV shipyard in Bergen, Norway and which features an integrated 300 meter saturation diving system, integrated air dive and ROV systems, 100 ton crane and 1,000 square metre work deck space. It is scheduled to be delivered to MOS in the first half of the 2010 calendar year and, in addition, it is intended that KD Marine will install their purpose built daughter craft and launching system on the vessel. This system has been designed by KD Marine to enable simultaneous air diving and/or inspection ROV support activities to be carried out whilst similar operations are also being carried out from the principal support vessel, and the combination should provide meaningful productivity gains, especially on restricted work sites.
KD Marine commissioned the build of two such daughter craft units for delivery in 2009, complete with dedicated heavy weather launch & recovery systems. These daughter craft units, unlike conversions, have been specifically designed to provide a stable ancillary work platform to a DSV and they feature onboard gas storage, fully enclosed dive control, data recording areas, and inspection ROV handling.