Bigger & better in 2012

Unidive is the largest commercial diving company servicing the region from its Singapore base. And it enters 2012 even bigger and better.

Unidive merged with Mencast Holdings Ltd, a Singapore-based sterngear equipment manufacturer and supplier, and sterngear services provider for a wide range of commercial vessel applications catering to customers in the marine and offshore oil and gas industries in the Asia Pacific.

The move provides new synergies for both Unidive and Mencast. “Our subsea expertise fits their sterngear manufacture like a hand in glove,” says Unidive managing director Edwin Tan. “We complete one another.”

In terms of corporate philosophy, also, the match is a good one: Mencast’s vision is to be the one-stop solution provider with maintenance, repair and overhaul for the industries it serves: offshore oil & gas, marine, shipbuilding and ship-repair.

Established in 1981 and listed in 2008 as the first sponsor-approved listing on Singapore's SGX Catalist, the Mencast group is one of the first sterngear equipment manufacturers in Singapore to obtain the ISO 9001:2000 Quality Management System. It has also received the Singapore SME 500 award for two years running from 2005 and 2006.

Meanwhile Unidive has focused on top quality service and unmatched safety in diving and rope access operations. It has been accredited with IMCA, OHSAS 18001 and bizSAFE STAR.

Unidive and Mencast together: Innovative. Dedicated. Professional.

Ironman Daniel

The Great Via Ferrata Wall Challenge at Orchard Central attracted 200+ climbers of all sorts. The test? To see who can hang on longest to metal rungs set in a rock-climbing wall and win the prize of $10,000 in cash and $2,000 in vouchers.

The prize went to Unidive rope access manager Daniel Low!

Daniel won the prize by hanging on for 47 min 19 seconds, beating the closest competitor by about 5 minutes. “It was about technique and mental endurance,” he said. “If you don’t have the technique then it is that much harder to hold on.”

Though he is not a recreational rock climber, Daniel is IRATA Level 3-certified and manages Unidive’s topside team of 40 rope access technicians. “Hanging on with our arms is not what we do professionally as we have a lot of safety systems at work,” says Daniel. “But I guess I am very comfortable with heights since I work many storeys above the ground everyday!”

<< Daniel, in the red helmet at #5, did us proud!

Unidive 8, 9, 10, christened

Three new purpose-build dive workboats put Unidive at the top of our game in providing safe quality diving services to our clients! Unidive investing nearly $5 million to buy and retrofit the three craft and it was a happy day when they were christened.

Berthed at the Republic of Singapore Yacht Club, a party for 50 staff and customers was thrown to witness the christening and blessing of the three craft.

Ms Sharon Donovan, wife of Managing Director Edwin Tan, had the honour of pouring champagne over Unidive 8 while Ms Jo Lee, wife of Operations Manager Francis Ong, did the honours with Unidive 9. Meanwhile, Edwin’s two daughters, Melissa and Natalie had the joint responsibility for setting Unidive 10 to sail.

The three craft were blessed by Father Johnson.

The Aluminum-hull survey-class craft are 60-footers capable of 22 knots. They are designed to operate outside port limits.

“We wanted to conform to a higher standard of safety in diving, so we replaced two existing wooden-hull boats with these three,” explains Edwin. “Each boat has been purpose-retrofitted and come complete with air dive spread on Surface supplied breathing apparatus and good for three divers and a support team. The new craft are compartmentalized to make them virtually sink-proof.”

Safety award: below and above water

Unidive was recently awarded both the OHSAS 18001 and bizSAFE STAR for its safety practices. This feather in our cap is all the more noteworthy as it is understood that Unidive is the first marine services company to receive these awards for both commercial diving and industrial rope access operations.

OHSAS 18001 is an international standard giving requirements related to health and safety management systems. It is awarded to organizations that have control over, and knowledge of, all relevant hazards resulting from normal operations and abnormal situations.

Meanwhile, bizSAFE is a recognition programme by the Workplace Safety and Health Council. bizSAFE STAR is the top of the five-tier programme.

“We are excited about these awards as they are public endorsement of our corporate values to promote safety,” says Managing Director Edwin Tan. “Safety is more than just investing in training, or developing processes. It has to start with a culture and mindset at every level of the company.”

“At the end of the day, safety pays off for our staff and in the quality of our work for our customers.”

OHSAS – for Occupational Health & Safety Standards – is an internationally-recognized standard, created by the concerted efforts of the world’s leading national standards bodies, certification bodies and specialist consultancies.

CDA(S) birthed!

Singapore’s commercial diving industry is getting a boost in quality and safety with the formation of the Commercial Diving Association (Singapore).

Managing Director Edwin Tan is chairing the inaugural executive committee and Unidive HSE Manager Abdul Malik is also a member of the exco. Both were involved from the beginning, volunteering for the pro tem committee over a year before the association was established.

“Singapore is the one-stop marine centre for ship and rig owners, with a turnover of $10b and 100,000 employees and the commercial diving segment has grown to meet the needs of the industry,” says Edwin.
CDA(S) hopes to improve the standards of safety and skills by adopting standards set up by the Workplace Safety and Health Council as well as Spring Singapore.

The Yellow Pages lists 27 diving and underwater services companies but it is estimated that there a double this number operating, many as unregistered two- to four-man operations with no accountability.

With CDA(S) the hope is that the entire diving industry, as well as the marine industry that depends on it, will see better services, improved safety and high quality of work. A win for all!

Record for thruster installation

It also has a DPS2 dynamic positioning system. This drives eight 2600KW thrusters which were installed by two teams of Unidive divers in just six days!

“Typically, such a job would take 10 days to complete but we have a lot of experience with thruster installation,” says Senior Operations Manager Andrew Ng. “We are the biggest in thruster installation and we have the most experienced divers and dive supervisors for the job!”

With thruster installation for 27 new rigs stretching back to 1998, Unidive has amassed the greatest experience and skill to the fastest job. In the case of ENSCO 8502 the rig builders towed the rig to the anchorage where the divers did the underwater installation.

Unidive adds 3 dive boats

Unidive is investing nearly $5 million to buy and retrofit three more dive workboats to further improve safety and increases services to customers.

The three vessels, Unidive 8, Unidive 9, and Unidive 10, will enter service by January 2010. The Aluminium-hull vessels are designed to operate outside port limits and have been purpose-retrofitted and promise to be some of the safest and best-equipped craft.

“Each boat has been extensively retrofitted and come complete with air dive spread on Surface supplied breathing apparatus and good for three divers and a support team,” says Unidive MD Edwin Tan himself a trained and experienced diver.

“We want to conform to a higher standard of safety in diving, so we are replacing two existing wooden-hull boats with these three.” The new craft are compartmentalised to make them virtually sink-proof.

The survey-class craft are 60-footers capable of 22 knots.

Our dive boats shall be audited for full compliance against the criteria of the International Marine Contractors Association (IMCA) for portable diving systems and maintain in accordance with the IMCA requirements.