Winter Slow down ??

Member Joined: Oct 28, 2008 Location: Glasgow

After a pretty hectic summer is their any signs of the usual winter slow down or are we all still pretty busy. I dont think I can handle 4 months off again at the start of 2012!

Member Joined: Dec 17, 2003 Location: Thailand

grassyscones wrote:

After a pretty hectic summer is their any signs of the usual winter slow down or are we all still pretty busy. I dont think I can handle 4 months off again at the start of 2012!

Why can't you take 4 months off? Strange....

Member Joined: Aug 28, 2004

Hi Scott Well he can all ways go and work for COOEC just bring your own jar of peanut butter with you !

Cheers

Subman

Member Joined: Dec 17, 2003 Location: Thailand

subman wrote:

Hi Scott Well he can all ways go and work for COOEC just bring your own jar of peanut butter with you !

Cheers

Subman

Hahahahahaha!!! Bril! Then there's Mee noodles / peanut butter, rice / peanut butter, fish heads / peanut butter, horse-piss eggs / peanut butter, etc. Laughing

People,
Stay on topic or simply don't post if your comments have bugger all to do with the OP. One or two posts and off it heads into mindless drivel and the oft used peanuts/monkeys expressions. Getting pretty repetitive actually.

grassyscones wrote:

After a pretty hectic summer is their any signs of the usual winter slow down or are we all still pretty busy. I dont think I can handle 4 months off again at the start of 2012!

UK wise it doesn't look like slowing down as much as it has in the past at times.

What I find odd though is why you can't handle taking 4 months off?
As a UK based PT/ROV Sup I would expect to be off over the winter.

It is very common in this game to work as many days as you can get in the summer and expect it to drop off and take a hit over the winter. That hit could typically/easily be 4-5 months.
You'll see this written in this forum many times over the years by way of advice on what to expect for a general work schedule/period.

Typically, if you do 180 days, you will be looking at 6 months off in 12 anyway.
A typical North Sea busy season will be from (say) March/April to Oct/Nov.
Due to crappy weather the operators don't like sending boats out in the winter unless they really have no option.
So you can see how you might be off for Nov/Dec/Jan/Feb/Mar.

In a seasonal area such as the North Sea, nobody should expect work over the winter unless they travel to warmer climes. Then there will likely be many people snapping up a lot less work. Only the more experienced will win out in that scenario, those with less experience will be sat at home having (at minimum) four months off!

Member Joined: Aug 28, 2004

Hi James I thought that might bring you out of the wood work !

As far as winter work goes in south east asia and middle east there are still lots of projects just starting in Vietnam and Indonesia to name but a few .

Same goes for the middle east lots going over there , Not sure about Africa but many of the agencys seem to have a lot on down there .

As for GOM again there still seems to be a fair amount of work going on as for europe lots of work on the wind farm project thats if you have SMD experience .

Sorry Scot just been told that the Vessel with the jar of peanut butter is going to demob in the next few days .

Maybe they finished off the jar !! I dont think I have every had to bring my own food before , Ok a jar of Marmite or 2

Cheers

Subman

Member Joined: Dec 17, 2003 Location: Thailand

To all,

There's plenty of work around for the right people....

Member Joined: Oct 28, 2008 Location: Glasgow

scotbeve wrote:

To all,

There's plenty of work around for the right people....

But I am not agency and about 3/4 of my companies work is in the North Sea. Unless you were "lucky" enough to be on a rotation in drill support, most people I spoke to averaged 150/160 days and had Dec to April off.

grassyscones wrote:

Unless you were "lucky" enough to be on a rotation in drill support.....

I wouldn't call being on drill support 'lucky'. Wink

grassyscones wrote:

....most people I spoke to averaged 150/160 days and had Dec to April off.

North Sea based, Dec to April off, sounds about right and is what people should expect. Anyone expecting less time off than that, each and every year, might need to reconsider what the industry can provide for them.

Of course, agency wise, you have more flexibility on days. Some would counter argue that salary types have a guaranteed income, others would argue that agency work is not guaranteed but you can get in as many days as you want when the level of activity on the industry allows for it. As a salary person (employee) one should not expect to have guaranteed income and 180 days (plus) and work over the winter. I'm not saying it never happens, but I am suggesting that is not the norm, riveting drill support work aside.

Member Joined: Dec 17, 2003 Location: Thailand

grassyscones wrote:

scotbeve wrote:

To all,

There's plenty of work around for the right people....

But I am not agency and about 3/4 of my companies work is in the North Sea. Unless you were "lucky" enough to be on a rotation in drill support, most people I spoke to averaged 150/160 days and had Dec to April off.

Sorry scones, haven't done any drill support in many years.... Probably fall asleep at the wheel in a few minutes if I did go back!!!

Back to topic.... For you UK based folks, the norm would be what has been mentioned here. Get a lot of days under your belt for 8 months and then take 3 - 5 months off. Very sensible for taking the weather into account.

Member Joined: Jun 10, 2009

Even the North Sea is far less seasonal than it used to be, think some folks on the forum are trapped in the late 1980's and early 90's.

The boats are much bigger and more geared for heavy weather these days. Vessel operators dont wont these expensive assets sitting idle for 3-5 months either. Vessel day rates and who picks up the weather all play a part in winter work. Its not a complete shut down. Typically a construction company such as Subsea 7 will have 2 or perhaps 3 vessels stacked during the winter months across the whole fleet. The rest will be working North Sea or abroad.

North Sea inspection and other non-essential work is hit the most during the UK winter, of course. That still leaves plenty of work UK and worldwide. Its a global industry and see no reason why folks should "expect" to take 3-5 months off.

Member Joined: Dec 17, 2003 Location: Thailand

225 wrote:

Even the North Sea is far less seasonal than it used to be, think some folks on the forum are trapped in the late 1980's and early 90's.

The boats are much bigger and more geared for heavy weather these days. Vessel operators dont wont these expensive assets sitting idle for 3-5 months either. Vessel day rates and who picks up the weather all play a part in winter work. Its not a complete shut down. Typically a construction company such as Subsea 7 will have 2 or perhaps 3 vessels stacked during the winter months across the whole fleet. The rest will be working North Sea or abroad.

North Sea inspection and other non-essential work is hit the most during the UK winter, of course. That still leaves plenty of work UK and worldwide. Its a global industry and see no reason why folks should "expect" to take 3-5 months off.

Fair enough statement 225.... Some vessels will most likely go into dry dock for wintertime and that shouldn't be more than 2 weeks.

Member Joined: Nov 13, 2009 Location: Western Australia

As far as James comments go, fair due. I can only assume someone has had too much of the 709!

Regarding the thread, as you have read above (and Scot's said) it's an "rovworld" out there, I do not understand why anyone would want to limit themselves to any region bearing in mind that you don't upset the natives (i.e. don't try and pull a shifty in Australia).

Get out and about , enjoy and most importantly learn for the future.

Cheers

I stand by what I outlined earlier. I also sense big operator/company oil and gas experience being touted as the complete ROV employment picture, which as 225 suggests might indicate that some people are 'trapped in the 80s/90s' and probably not taking into account other ROV employment avenues.

Recent, (post 90's) offshore developments show the oil & gas side of the ROV industry does not cover the whole employment spectrum.

These days alternative energy and the subsea telecoms industy all add a considerable contribution to sucking up ROV personnel during the summer period. They also scale back during the winter months and add more ROV people to the unemployed pile throughout the winter months.

The OP will not be the first, nor the last, to be somewhat surprised that they are sitting at home for months on end during the winter (based on UK residence/place of work). It doesn't help their cause when some suggest that this less likely to be the case these days.

There simply is not enough ROV work globally across all ROV related industries to keep everyone, employees and agency alike, (including those with little experience) busy all year round. If there was enough work people wouldn't be sitting at home over the winter for 3-4 months at a time and threads like this would not exist.

If you are UK based I would say, expect to work in the summer months but do not expect to work through the winter months. If you do, all well and good, but planning on not working during the Nov-Apr period will leave you, along with your bank manager, in a less disappointed state.

Member Joined: Sep 03, 2011

I have been busy all year round for 6 years?? What slow down??

"expect to stay at home" Yeah if your a tit, if you have a good rep you will never be at home long.

"UK Based" What bollocks its a global industry and if you cant find work outside the UK then you dont deserve it.

In fact, yeah your right guys its going to be really slow, just stay at home and push the rates up for the lucky ones who can find work.

Peace.