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30 MTR July/August 2005 T he headline aptly describes the main functions of Remotely Operated Vehicles, or as they are more popularly known, ROVs. One of the largest manufacturers and suppliers of these advanced technology products is Oceaneering International, Inc., generating annual revenues of about $781 million with 5,100 employees at 56 locations in 20 countries. Oceaneering International is an applied tech- nology company operating in the oil and gas, telecom- munications and aerospace industries, with headquarters in Houston and a training center and manufacturing base is in Patterson, La. As divers are unable to operate below 1,000 ft. of water depth, ROVs have become an indispensable necessity for many commercial and military applications, particularly adept at serving the modern oil and gas exploration, drilling, well completion, inspection, maintenance and repair projects. "We operate approximately 170 ROVs worldwide from our own fleet of ships, drill and production rigs and on vessel fleets such as Tidewater and Chouest," said Jay Yager, Oceaneering ROV commercial manager. "Most of our ROVs are rated for at least a working depth of 10,000 feet," Yager added. "Typically a customer who thinks he has a subsea problem will send down a full working class ROV, not a flying eyeball," Yager said. (A flying eyeball is an ROV that can observe, not perform subsea work.) "It doesn't make sense to send down one ROV to confirm a problem that you are pretty sure you have and another to Oceaneering Flying Eyeballs & Busy Hands By Larry Pearson An ROV under construction at the Oceaneering facility. Two ROVs can be built simultaneously in this area. MTR#1 (17-32).qxd 7/19/2005 10:01 AM Page 30
