Reach Subsea completes first project in Australia

28 November 2017

Subsea operator, Reach Subsea specialises in IRM, ROV, Survey, Construction Support and Decommissioning services. Based in Norway, the company together with Solstad/Farstad has taken its first steps into Australian waters for McDermott International. Reach Subsea provided ROV Services onboard CSV Normand Reach to assist McDermott’s main construction vessel in an FPSO hook up, subsea activities, pre-commissioning and survey scopes at the Ichthys LNG project in western Australia. We spoke to Reach Subsea ROV Manager, Knut Medhaug to discuss the company’s first venture into Australian waters.

A traditional ROV system

“The Normand Reach was used for its Kystdesign ROV system.” The vessel used a selection of Kystdesigns, Supporter ROVs all with their unique functions to support the project.

“The Kystdesign is a traditional ROV system,” says Knut. “Kystdesign is a local provider that is well-known for their reliable and high performance systems. Reach suggested this system for this particular project as it was heavily focused on IRM operations in the field. The one thing we needed was a specialist team to operate this system.”

Sourcing the right personnel

As one of Reach’s preferred ROV suppliers, Knut travelled to meet with the Atlas team based in Perth for the project. “Ian Marshall and the rest of the team produced the best prospective CVs and follow up for the project. Reach Subsea had to source local ROV Pilots and Supervisors with the expertise of using this system. Ian was a great help in finding all the candidates and arranging their interviews. We have always had a good cooperation with Atlas and the expertise they provide is very high.”

Expanding their global track record

“The project has now finished and was a success, we had a couple of minor challenges along the way, as these were uncommon waters for us, but in the end the client was happy. Reach Subsea is definitely looking to taking on new projects in Australia, and expanding our global track record,” says Knut.  “Looks like we can now tick Australia off our bucket list.”