ADAMS Offshore
Diving a little deeper
The Khalifa A. Algosaibi Diving & Marine Services Company (ADAMS) was established in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia in 1964. Since its foundation its core business activities have been the supply of diving services and marine equipment in support of the offshore oil industry.
“ADAMS’ entry into commercial diving emanated from the Algosaibi family business of pearl diving,” explains Steve Courtney, general manager of ADAMS Offshore Limited. “This business incorporated industry standard diving equipment and techniques which, for the time, were innovative and ground-breaking. In 1962 the company was approached by ARAMCO to carry out emergency inspection work on its platform cathodic protection installations and subsea pipelines. This project set the groundwork for a long and unbroken association between the two companies that remains to this day.”
In conjunction with the support and funding of international financiers and developing upon the experienced gained in the Middle East over the past 16 years, ADAMS has internationally expanded its operations with the acquisition and construction of a fleet of DP vessels, the Adams Challenge, Adams Aquanaut, Rem Poseidon and Adams Vision.
“ADAMS now has extensive international experience in deepwater subsea engineering operations using surface supplied mixed gas and saturation diving techniques,” Steve continues. “The DP vessels have operated in the demanding conditions of the North Sea, the Gulf of Mexico, the Far East, Venezuela and the Australian Continental Shelf. These operations have been in support of major oil companies and major offshore construction companies including Epic Divers & Marine, Fugro Survey, McDermott Middle East, Gulmar Offshore, NPCC and Canyon.”
The DP vessels ADAMS Offshore provides are each fitted with air and saturation diving systems and ROVs to support offshore subsea intervention for geotechnical and geophysical survey, construction, installation, repairs and maintenance. The company also provides vessel management services through sistercompany ADAMS WLL based in Bahrain. This group is well experienced in the daily manning and operations of offshore DP and conventional vessels and holds a valid document of compliance.
“ADAMS Offshore currently operates a fleet of four DP vessels internationally and is at present building a new 60 metre vessel in Thailand due to be delivered at the beginning of 2012,” Steve states. “To minimise breakdowns and maintenance times major oil companies and service providers are being much more mindful of the age of the vessels they charter. In response to this ADAMS Offshore has made the sale of aging tonnage and the acquisitions of new vessels an important factor in the company’s strategy to continue supplying top quality services and reliable tonnage to its customers.
Another of the company’s unique selling points is its global experience through its long serving management personalities and its network of trusted agents. This has given its administration a clear capability to operate in any geographic marine sector knowledgably, efficiently and safely. ADAMS’ long serving personnel of masters and crews have a strong historical knowledge of their vessels capabilities and assist in providing customers with highly efficient and reliable marine units to complete their projects. The company’s in-house marine architect, alongside its engineering staff, have also enabled it to provide new build vessels that meet an industry leading standard of quality, and which serve a niche market of specialist DP vessels that meet clients’ needs and requirements.”
To best highlight the abilities of ADAMS and its vessels you only need to look at some of the projects the company is currently involved in. Working under a long-term contract agreement with Epic Divers and Marine the company is providing the Adams Challenge DP vessel alongside saturation and air diving systems to the company in the US. A similar long-term agreement is also ongoing with ARGAS in Saudi Arabia where it is supplying the data-recording vessel Adams Aquanaut for various offshore survey tasks.
“ADAMS is currently opening a 2000 M2 technical facility in Jubail, Saudi Arabia to support its technical services wing, which supplies procurement, installation and maintenance of third party pressure systems to the military diving and aviation sectors,” Steve highlights. “It will exist to support the offshore sector with a full training facility that will feature a range of health and safety, non-destructive testing and welding programmes and will be open to other companies operating in the Middle East.”
Like most companies in its field of expertise, ADAMS has found the market conditions over the last 18 months to be particularly challenging. However, after the consolidation of the company’s offices, management and administration in the Middle East, it has developed a more streamlined management structure, able to react more swiftly to customers’ needs: “The market is slowly improving with greater opportunities than those experienced in 2010 and 2012 in particular should be a better year for vessel owners in the offshore oil and gas sector,” Steve says.
“The company is presently investigating how best to expand its operations into offshore pollution control and in the recovery field with the goal being to supply special purpose vessels,” Steve concludes. “The main drive forward at this time however is the technical training facility that will allow the company to pass on its offshore knowledge to the public and support the transfer of its skills to different companies. A cautious approach to operations is still required at this time as the financial recovery continues, but the hope of everyone is that a more vibrant recovery awaits in 2012.”
ADAMS Offshore
Services: Offshore vessel owner/operator and commercial diving services provider