FEATURE: EVOLVING REQUIREMENTS FOR CLIENT REPRESENTATIVES

FEATURE EVOLVING REQUIREMENTS FOR CLIENT REPRESENTATIVES

BY GLENN HOVERMALE

The underlying general credentials for serving as an at-sea client representative have always included a 4-year degree in geomatics, marine survey or physical oceanography or relevant practical experience collecting survey data at sea or working in a survey capacity in a branch of the military. An individual can improve their chances of being hired by being familiar with survey and cable installation-specific software such as WinFrog or Makai. Of greatest importance, following technical and practical experience, is project history, where the more experienced individual has a higher likelihood of being chosen for a project. But modern marine technology and expanding marine industries have added new dynamic requirements to the marine industry at large and now additional credentials and licenses are required. However, nothing prepared the industry for the impact of COVID-19 and how it would change the admissible requirements for serving as a client representative at sea.

In 2018 the standard requirements for serving as a client representative on an undersea cable project included an active passport, documentation confirming one’s physical aptitude (typically an OGUK certificate, or general doctor physical confirmation), and some form of an at-sea safety certificate (such as BOSIET, SPE or FOET). More recently, it is the proof of having received the Covid-19 vaccination that is the primary and contract-breaking requirement for client representation positions. Simple proof of vaccination is only the beginning in some cases, where supplemental travel insurance and multiple RC-PCR tests at each country and/or point of embarkation may be required. Additional precautions may be instituted by vessel owners/operators that require extensive quarantine/isolation periods of 2-15 days at hotels in countries of embarkation prior to boarding of a vessel for a specific operation. The uncertain and wavering nature of Covid-19, and the pandemic variants, have also led to widespread travel and work lockdowns (spring 2020), creating a more acute uncertainty that has driven the industry to a more geographically regional approach to covering projects. Undoubtedly, safety measures will continue to grow and change, and the unpredictability of existing and future virus variants will ensure that the current state of affairs will remain the newly established standard.

The pre-Covid environment thatissued in the at-sea safety and offshore physical requirements stemmed from the engagement of the submarine cable industry and the offshore oil and gas industry. The OGUK organization was created in 2007 and now is established as a baseline health requisite for the UK Offshore Oil and Gas industry. It has since become an international standard for health, ensuring that personnel are capable of hearing and performing basic physical tasks while at sea. The application of submarine fiber-optics within the oil and gas offshore platform industry came to fruition in the late 1990s throughout the Irish and the North Sea and eventually in the Gulf of Mexico. The likelihood of operating within a dynamic offshore oil field (requiring vessels with DP-2 or DP-3 redundancy) or traveling via helicopter ensured that the requirements of BOSIET and HUET were a necessity.

Over the past few years, the growth and expansion of the offshore wind industry has introduced a new set of standards, based on aerobic health, understanding HSSE, and working at heights, which go beyond those existing standard requirements. Specifically, the Global Wind Organisation (GWO) has developed a specific regimen for safety that applies to those working on the vessels that survey, install, and service turbines in all modes of operation. Due to the climbing/vertical nature/requirements of wind turbines an additional component of aerobic fitness/capacity, known as the Chester Step test, is now a requirement in addition to the basic physical certification. Like the Oil and Gas industry, the specific vessels are required to possess DP-3 redundancy and with the additional dynamic parts of turbines, safety has become paramount and there tend to be significantly greater numbers of representatives for individual operations.

With the arrival of the Covid pandemic in 2019, everything changed industry-wide. Neither technical nor practical backgrounds were sufficient for ensuring that an individual was a good fit for a project, rather their health and isolation from others was of paramount importance.

With the arrival of the Covid pandemic in 2019, everything changed industry-wide. Neither technical nor practical backgrounds were sufficient for ensuring that an individual was a good fit for a project, rather their health and isolation from others was of paramount importance. As the industry scrambled for solutions, the governments of the world and the travel industry established precedents that served the interests of their people and the global population.One significant development was the practice of working in geographically distinct territories or the assigning of personnel to specific regional areas. This approach minimizes testing costs and often, quarantine/isolation periods. Considering the European Union, which maintains extremely rigorous standards, individuals are allowed to travel between counties if they are fully vaccinated according to WHO and/or European Medical Agency (EMA) standards, assuming their travel is essential and with proof of an RT-PCR (Reverse-Transcript Polymerase Chain Reaction) test taken within the past 72-hours prior to travel (some exclusions exist). For an individual attempting to enter Europe from Asia, South or North America, or Australia an individual must anticipate an isolation period of several days before being allowed to proceed to an operational work site or vessel. In North America, anyone entering the United States from abroad is required to have an RT-PCR test at least 72-hours prior to arrival, although this does not apply to crossing the domestic borders of Canada and Mexico terrestrially. To enter China, an individual needs not only to provide full proof of vaccination but also the results of an RT-PCR test in addition to the results of an IgM antibody test (Immunoglobulin blood test. Furthermore, the Chinese embassy requires a 14-day quarantine period for all non-Chinese travellers immediately upon arrival in the country. Meanwhile, Hong Kong has closed its borders to all non-Honk Kong residents and requires a quarantine period of 21-days for those residents departing and hoping to return to the autonomous administrative region.

Regarding the basic ability to travel, 44 countries in the world required travel insurance prior to the onset of the Covid-19 pandemic. These included the 26 countries involved in the European Schengen Zone in addition to Cuba, Ecuador, Turkey, Morocco, Thailand, the UAE, and several other landlocked countries. Following the COVID pandemic, the countries of Aruba, Cambodia, Lebanon, and Seychelles adopted a travel insurance requirement intended to financially safeguard their nations from pandemic-related travel problems such as medical evacuation and infected flight cancellation. This is a trend that is growing, and it is anticipated that more countries will begin to require travel insurance to and sure minimal impact of travelers transiting their countries Despite the geographic testing requirements, many vessel owners and operators insist on a 14-day quarantine period for an individual to join a vessel in addition to being fully vaccinated. This is no surprise following the records of Covid-19 cases exploding on global cruise ships and in response to the general no-sail recommendation for all international vessels and request that passengers defer their travel until the pandemic is in hand

Deferring survey and installation operations is not possible in many cases and so many individuals joining such vessels are required to undergo a 14-day isolation period in a regional hotel where all food delivery and all other individual interactions are managed by the hotel administrators. Typically, all vessel personnel are required to take an RT-PCR test before leaving the hotel and an antigen self-test (authorized for the detection of proteins from CoV-2) at the vessel gangplank before boarding the vessel. While these measures do defer the potential risk of the COVID-19 virus they do little to defer the cost to the vessel and or vessel owner

Regardless of the urgency of a marine operation, health and safety are the highest priority today when crewing a vessel. Regardless of location, crew density or specific job requirements, there are several basic precautions that all individuals should follow while transitioning to/from a work site or vessel. These include the use of a particulate filtering face mask (P95, N95, N99, P100, etc.), employing taxi/limousine services while alone, remaining the requisite 6-feet apart from others, and of course, being fully vaccinated. STF

Glenn Hovermale, Construction and Marine Coordinator of WFN Strategies

GLENN HOVERMALE is Construction & Marine Coordinator of WFN Strategies and possesses more than 20 years of consulting experience in undersea cables, including marine survey, Oil & Gas and offshore wind industries. He has held client representative, offshore project management, and survey positions, and he possesses experience working aboard SubCom, Alcatel, Korea Telecom, and Global Marine cable ships as well as Fugro and EGS survey vessels.

He received a postgraduate Master of Science in Fisheries and Aquaculture and Bachelor of Science in Biological Sciences and is a former employee of Tyco Electronics Subsea Communication and The New England Aquarium, and is an American citizen based in Boulder, Colorado USA.

To read more SubTel Forum Magazine Feature Articles, visit https://subtelforum.com/products/subtel-forum-magazine/