An 80-man team consisting of local and international divers and support crew are in lockdown at the bottom of the sea as they work to repair a gas pipeline off the Taranaki coast.
The mission to examine and fix the pipeline, which feeds 40 per cent of the country’s natural gas from the Pohokura Platform, comes after more than a year of planning.
"Visibility has been tricky,” New Plymouth diver Jason Ratcliffe said. "A lot of the diving's just black water, ‘can't see your hand in front of your face’ sort of thing."
“There are elements of danger, but it is all very well-controlled. There are back ups on back ups."
The crew will be replacing the bolts to secure pressurised joints running the length of the pipe.
"It’s 11 flexible sections, it's like a massive hydraulic hose,” OMV NZ head of projects Kerry Williamson said.
The divers go down for spells for up to three hours on the shallow end, while the off-shore end is for as little as 15 minutes.
“In terms of commercial diving in New Zealand, it's one of the bigger jobs,” Mr Ratcliffe said. “To get on and do some work off a vessel like this is a really good opportunity."
However, the onset of the Covid-19 restrictions in the project's early stages has prevented most of the crew from swapping out at the end of their usual 30-day stint.
"We normally do a lot shorter swings but we couldn't afford the risk to bring people on the vessel,” offshore construction manager Stewart Kay said.
Mr Williamson said the vessel is effectively a quarantine island and the crew's role is to protect it.
"But in the meantime, get this gas pipeline repaired and the maintenance done so that we can get production back up and running," he said.
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