PDVSA require evacuation drill ship staff for their poor state
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Mar 03, 2011, 2:23 a.m. | 103 offshore Figures

workers work on the platform in danger of collapse.

32

higher payroll employees are counted in other positions within the unit.

490.000

PDVSA pays per day for the rental of drill PetroSaudi company.

520.000

van dollars in operating costs and expenses, also on behalf of PDVSA. "PetroSaudi company PDVSA and are perfectly aware of what happens on the platform"

Girot Eudis

Executive Secretary of the FUTPV Erika López Hidalgo

ehidalgo@cadena-capriles.com

A report is in the hands of the Federation of Petroleum Workers of Venezuela (FUTPV) shows the "precarious" state that is the drill ship PetroSaudi Discover, which operates in the Gulf of Paria in the Gran Mariscal gas project Sucre.

This platform, as declared by the executive secretary and coordinator of health and safety of FUTPV, Eudis Girot, bear the same fate as his partner Aban Pearl, black on 13 May 2009 in the same coasts, if not halted operations and taken to Trinidad and Tobago for repair.

The labor court requires special PDVSA and PDVSA Services, directed by José Luis Parada, immediately evacuate the 103 workers employed in the drill, according to protect the physical integrity of each of them, Girot said.

A report prepared by the workers of the platform suggests, first, that the drilling unit is operating without international certification awarded by the American Bureau of Shipping (ABS), a classification society that approves the operation of marine vessels including offshore platforms.

According to the FUTPV, the ABS-inspection after a drill ship made two years ago, delivered a report about the operators and managers of the unit in which identified a number of disadvantages that should be resolved on a compulsory basis.

For this, the ABS ordered the immediate shutdown and repair of drill PetroSaudi Discover. "But it did not," said Eudis Girot, although as the drill is over three years in business, and the second is supposed to have major maintenance.

Workers were able to disseminate the report asserted that the ship "technically" is sinking.

For them, those responsible are PetroSaudi oil company, operator of the drill, and PDVSA, both companies are "perfectly aware of what is happening there," the oil official.

As has been learned, Discover PetroSaudi platform from the time of recruitment brought problems. "We already knew it was a scrap, just like Aban Pearl," said a source.

FUTPV again invokes the president, Hugo Chávez, to restore order. "The president must know what is going on and sent to rescue those colleagues who may be harmed," implored the union leader.

What?

At the present time, the drilling unit has a profound imbalance in buoyancy, since the eight ballast tanks with which the ship has only four are active.

"It is assumed that the eight tanks must remain full of water to produce the required stability, but four out of service are perforated, while the other four active and opening presents in its structure, which is generating the containing water is transferred to the boat hull to the bow, "said Girot.

This situation, the paper says, has meant that technicians must keep burning boat bilge pumps 24 hours a day to remove water that accumulates in the hull. But the effort applied to these pumps the burns easily, and must be replaced frequently.

"In a desperate way, the company that owns the vessel has been welded into the openings of the plates upon plates tanks to try to correct the failure, action which has led to the opening is bigger," said Girot.

The other serious problem that supports the document are electric systems. The ship has four generators whose useful life is estimated at 10,000 hours, but now each generator is credited with 30,000 hours without any maintenance or replacement.

On the other hand, sludge storage tanks that are used for drilling are cleaned by the workers themselves, because the bilge pumps that are used for this task are damaged.

The seriousness of the case, said the union official, is that the sludge contains chemicals such as caustic soda and others that can not be in contact with any living being, since poisoning may occur from death.

"Well, the general contractor Offshore Services (ACS), responsible for the selection and provision of personnel, requires workers to enter the small apertures for cleaning the tanks. And the perpetrators of crime are size Levi Castellanos and David Wells, both partners in the company of local origin. And they also have refused to be absorbed by the outsourced PDVSA, "said Girot.

FUTPV leaders require PDVSA to investigate David Wells and connections. At the same time requested a thorough investigation of the platform.

The report raised by reports that workers bore the lifeboats have blown engines, so depending on the helicopter to reach land or make changes to personal guard. The theme, "says the leader" is that every time you make a trip to the helicopter must be serviced. "The company responsible for this detail is called Helitec of Creole origin," he said.

"Automated systems are mostly ineffective. Everything is done manually. And, moreover, the language has become another factor of disturbance, as foreigners, who have years in the country, fail to master Spanish "said Girot the report says.

In the working platform 32 foreigners, among them Americans, Bangladeshi, Croatian, Scottish, Filipino, Indonesian, South African, Trinidadian, Mexican, Indian and Norwegian.

The situation has reached a level of hostility that has led to physical confrontations between managers and workers, as the captain of the ship, Croatian Tomyslav Sakic, maintained a colonial regime, says Girot.

Those responsible for the report consider that there are irregularities in the handling of accounts. The drill is rent of $ 450,000 a day, while operating expenses total $ 520,000. "Everything is paid by PDVSA. The point is that many larger platforms and power cost half of what it spends state oil company, Girot review.