Cal Dive International Inc. has become a leader in developing quality divers and offering superior service to the oil and natural gas industry.

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Marine contractor Cal Dive International Inc. has been providing manned diving, pipe lay and pipe burial services to the offshore oil and natural gas industry since 1975. As the world’s largest manned diving contractor, the Houston-based company has become a leader by developing its divers and offering superior service, says Allan Palmer, vice president of the company’s diving division.

“The best thing about Cal Dive, in my opinion, is that we grow our own divers,” he says. “We start them in shallow water, let them get comfortable and learn the tricks of the trade, and then move them into deeper waters where the bottom time is shorter.”

Through this process, the company has developed a staff of well-rounded professionals, he says. “In some other places, divers get their certification simply from classroom training and written testing,” he adds. “You take a guy like that and drop him into deep water, you’re not going to get the same results as you do from one of our divers.

“We provide more opportunities for a diver to hone his skills and reach his full potential. Some of our competition concentrate just on deep water and skip the Gulf of Mexico Outer Continental Shelf (OCS) activity, which hampers their ability to develop their personnel.” The company has a staff of 1,400 professionals, which includes approximately 500 divers and more than 100 offshore supervisors.

Big Deals
Cal Dive is in the process of acquiring marine construction company Horizon Offshore, and if the deal is finalized, its staff will increase by several hundred experienced personnel. The acquisition would also include nine more barges, which would increase Cal Dive’s fleet to 11 barges and 23 diving support vessels. Horizon concentrates on pipe lay, burial and heavy lifting, so the deal would significantly expand Cal Dive’s capabilities, Palmer says.

The transaction recently received clearances from the SEC and the Department of Justice, and Horizon stockholders were scheduled to vote on it on Dec. 10.

With the Horizon acquisition, the company will reach nearly $1 billion in annual sales.
Cal Dive has made numerous acquisitions throughout its history, including Fraser Diving International Ltd. in 2006, which included six portable saturation diving systems and 15 surface diving systems with operations in Southeast Asia, Australia and the Middle East.

Demanding Projects
Palmer joined the company in 2005 with the acquisition of Torch Offshore and Stolt Offshore Inc. Cal Dive got its start in the Gulf of Mexico and continues to complete much of its work there. It also operates throughout North America as well as the Middle East, Indonesia and Australia.

On an average day, Cal Dive is involved in 30 to 45 diving projects, Palmer says. Recently, its most significant projects have been hurricane remediation following Katrina and Rita.

“Those hurricanes combined destroyed over 100 platforms in the Gulf, which severely hampered production for a period of time,” he says.

“Part of the damage recovery is removing those structures from the sea floor – these are 1,000-ton-plus structures that have to be moved. Many had live wells on them when they went over, and we have to go down and carefully cap wells before we can remove the structural material. There are quite a few of those left to do.”  

Core Values
Safety is a primary concern for the company. Core values are safety and training, and it has developed a safety group called Environmental Health & Safety as well as an internal training department with several full-time trainers and dedicated classrooms. “We offer our employees a career path,” Palmer says.

“They have to complete set training modules before they can advance to the next rank, which includes additional monetary reward.”

When it comes to safety, the company’s operations in remote locations can pose a challenge. “It’s very important that we hire and create mature, responsible individuals who make the right decisions without being overseen by the office,” he says. “Our offshore superintendents are key to our safety program, which is driven down to the very bottom level of the company.”

Cal Dive says it is committed to being not only the largest marine diving contractor in the world but also the safest. The company’s philosophy is “people going home safely.”
 
Moving Forward
Technology, as well as safety and training, is increasingly important as Cal Dive’s clients are going deeper and deeper under the sea floor to find the next major discovery. “Their technology is changing, and ours has to change to keep up with it,” Palmer says. “We have to go deeper, which means additional diving systems.

“Fraser gave us additional systems, and we now operate more than 10 saturation systems worldwide. The deeper you go, the more efficient you have to be. We are investing in the development of new tools and techniques to work in deeper waters and be more efficient.”

Around For 'A Long Time’
Palmer expects the company to continue to grow in the coming years. “In the industry magazines I’ve been reading, the experts say petroleum will continue to be the world’s primary source of energy at least through 2030,” he says.

“I think diving will be around for a long time to come.

“Our clients are constantly increasing their exploratory successes and finding new discoveries in shallow water that are just deeper under the sea floor.

“A lot of others just go for deep water and skip the OCS, but Cal Dive is uniquely positioned to do the whole thing,” he adds. “With the acquisition of Horizon, we’ll be even more capable of offering one-stop shopping to clients and supporting the full life of an oil field.”