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Tullow Oil Benefits From EB's Waterbridge May 2007 The challenge of obtaining easy and safe access to 'normally unattended installations' (NUI) on offshore oil and gas fields has been solved by The Engineering Business (EB) for Tullow Oil, who are using the EB designed and built WaterBridge access system on the Horne and Wren platform in the Southern North Sea. With 20 days of access operations conducted safely on the NUI by means of the 30m WaterBridge-Platform system in a variety of sea states, Tullow Oil is now investigating the use of WaterBridge for extended offshore work on their North Sea assets. Rob Martin of Tullow Oil explains, "We first made use of EB's WaterBridge in September 2006. It has enabled us to carry out vital intervention work on the Horne and Wren platform. By using WaterBridge we were able to access the platform in 2.5 metre waves; and to know that we were working well within safety limits. We are now hoping to extend our use of WaterBridge to other platforms." WaterBridge provides a temporary bridge between a vessel and the Horne and Wren platform and ensures that transfers can be conducted easily and safely in more hostile weather conditions than is normally attempted. Originally designed to provide access to offshore wind turbines, the inflatable bridge concept has been developed into a family of solutions for the transfer of personnel, supplies and equipment. Once deployed, it minimizes the effect of relative motion between the support vessel and the turbine at the transfer point, allowing personnel safe and easy access. WaterBridge also increases the amount of hand portable equipment each person can transfer and it also allows a practical and safe means of evacuating injured personnel. Principal features of the WaterBridge include simple connection/disconnection from the turbine (minimal modifications required); rapid deployment and recovery; compliant but non-slip walkway using a heavy duty, high visibility polymer tube; high quality 'offshore standard' components and a small support vessel deck footprint. "Naturally we are delighted that Tullow is considering wider use of WaterBridge," says Ben Webster, EB's Business Developer. "We are seeing a great widening of interests in this simple to use system across the industries we serve - oil and gas, offshore renewables and marine defence, and are looking forward to WaterBridge becoming very much 'the norm' for speed and safety of access." WaterBridge was awarded Runner Up position in the 4th Annual EEEGR (East of England Energy Group) Energy Innovation Awards held in February 2007. 
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