Commercial Diver

[brycie]

Hi all, I am looking for advise. I qualified as a commercial diver in sep 08 and cant seem to get much work in the UK (credit crunch).

I have been to Thailand twice and love it and i would like to go there to work and live. All i seem to get on the web are scuba diving companies. Any advise would be much appreciated.

[H2oDunc]

Try Mermaids in Pattaya or register with diving companies in Singapore, Malaysia or Indonesia. A mate just did his commercial and has been working out in Khazekstan. When not there he comes back to Koh Tao and picks up some recreational work so gets the best of both worlds.

[MEGALITHIC]

Hi all, I am looking for advise. I qualified as a commercial diver in sep 08 and cant seem to get much work in the UK (credit crunch).

I have been to Thailand twice and love it and i would like to go there to work and live. All i seem to get on the web are scuba diving companies. Any advise would be much appreciated.

Just a couple of questions:

1. Have you got an offshore survival cert? Without such you won't get a start offshore down here in Asia.

2. Have you considered doing IMCA DMT (Diver Medic Technician) course? I say that because you will have a much greater chance of securing work here in Asia if you have that qualification as well. If you want to do that course then I'd recommend you do it at KB Associates in Singapore: www.kbassociates.org

It's a little bit quiet down here right now as it always is over the xmas/new year period but things normally pick up into February. Another thing you may want to consider is doing an inspection ticket as alot of the air diving work down here in asia is inspection oriented (mostly checking welds on oil platforms). The best place to do the 3.1u inspection ticket is at TWI in Middlesborough. The 3.1u is the basic level but it will help alot in getting work, especially if you are a newbie.

Mermaids is a good option but ther are also plenty of companies in Malaysia and Singapore as well:

Caldive

Hallin Marine

Sapura Crest

Kreuz

Global

Subsea works

Good luck.

[brycie]

Hi all, I am looking for advise. I qualified as a commercial diver in sep 08 and cant seem to get much work in the UK (credit crunch).

I have been to Thailand twice and love it and i would like to go there to work and live. All i seem to get on the web are scuba diving companies. Any advise would be much appreciated.

Just a couple of questions:

1. Have you got an offshore survival cert? Without such you won't get a start offshore down here in Asia.

2. Have you considered doing IMCA DMT (Diver Medic Technician) course? I say that because you will have a much greater chance of securing work here in Asia if you have that qualification as well. If you want to do that course then I'd recommend you do it at KB Associates in Singapore: www.kbassociates.org

It's a little bit quiet down here right now as it always is over the xmas/new year period but things normally pick up into February. Another thing you may want to consider is doing an inspection ticket as alot of the air diving work down here in asia is inspection oriented (mostly checking welds on oil platforms). The best place to do the 3.1u inspection ticket is at TWI in Middlesborough. The 3.1u is the basic level but it will help alot in getting work, especially if you are a newbie.

Mermaids is a good option but ther are also plenty of companies in Malaysia and Singapore as well:

Caldive

Hallin Marine

Sapura Crest

Kreuz

Global

Subsea works

Good luck.

Hi thanks for getting back to me. I dont have my offshore survival as yet, my plan was to get some experience and hours in the water before going offshore. Not long spent nearly 10 grand doing the diving course so other courses will have to wait for the moment. I also heard that the inspection course is booked out till well into 2010.

Cheers for the info, take it easy.

[brycie]

Try Mermaids in Pattaya or register with diving companies in Singapore, Malaysia or Indonesia. A mate just did his commercial and has been working out in Khazekstan. When not there he comes back to Koh Tao and picks up some recreational work so gets the best of both worlds.

Hi thanks for getting back to me. It sounds like your mate has it sorted. Wouldnt mind something like that myself, i have my scuba instructor ticket aswell. Cheers for the info, will see how things work out. take it easy

[cloghead]

Oilfield diving is nothing like scuba. Have a look at these sites and you will get the picture...

www.longstreath.com

www.offshorediver.com

[Zoggie]

There's very little work out there at the moment. I've managed 3 months in the last 16. And I have 5 years offshore under the belt. So the CV is good. There just isn't much work.

To give you an idea how bad it is, I sent out 15 mails Thursday, I got 2 read receipts back and one negative reply. Rest didn't even bother to respond. Talking about all the major companies here. Some of them like Hallin in Singapore doesn't even do their own recruiting anymore and Global middle east let a whole pile of their office staff go. Compare this to two years ago where I got work with a single phone call.

Rates have fallen as low as $270 a day, two years ago was doing $500 plus. Not sure when it will pick up again, but if this is a double dip recession could take a long time.

I left Thailand a month ago and headed to Cape Town, only work going is the west coast of Africa really. Companies get paid a mobilization fee to buy tickets and that fee is set, so they take the closest people first. More money in their pocket.

Of course the more they neglect the maintenance the more rigs will blow up. I guess after a while it will sink in that they need to get cracking or pay the billions to clean up after words.

Nother thing is China and India continues to grow, and no extra supply is being put in place. Takes about two years to order a pipeline and up to about $300 000 000. Not something you do overnight, so if there is a supply problem it will come quickly and cause a super spike on oil. We'll be heroes for a month or so until the world economy grinds to a halt, this time there will be no money for bailouts...

Edited June 28, 2010 by Zoggie

[Zoggie]

I honestly wouldn't go the diving route.

Rather do non destructive testing and rope access, ROV's (they're also sitting at home), maybe LST (life support technician), safety, or one of the other ones. There's a huge over supply of divers.

You really want to get in on the maintenance or daily operations side. As long as there are oil rigs those things will be required. Heavy construction not so much. And consider the physical risk you take, for what is peanuts really. Injuries and deaths are more common than one thinks in the diving industry. In my first year in diving I worked the GOM, they lost 7 people there that year alone. Never mind the near misses. 3 months ago they lost someone in Vietnam March last year delta p split a divers hand in two in Nigera, that hand will never work again. That incident was very nearly a fatality, only thing that saved him was the shallow depth, if the same incident happened a bit deeper that would have been a fatality. I've had two serious near misses and seen countless others.

It is really dangerous and you can earn the same or more as a LSS or even the NDT stuff, even safety.

And lastly i don't know any rich divers. LSS or ROV supervisors have a much shorter ladder than the divers. Meaning they get onto the big tickets quicker.

Edited June 28, 2010 by Zoggie

[karbonyte]

Too many people have jumped onto the LST bandwagon over the past few years, and ALST's (Assistant LSTs) are in massive oversupply - if I recall correctly KB in Singapore train a new class of 12 every fortnight. There's hundreds of them sitting about, trying to get one of a handful of jobs that open up locally every year.

Only takes a couple weeks to get your ALST ticket, but you have to get a job, or if you're extremely lucky, a regular slot offshore. No easy feat with the current climate.