Reflex Marine to Deliver Frog Capsules to offshore angola

Reflex Marine to Deliver Frog Capsules to Offshore Angola

04-11-2008

Reflex Marine Ltd, has secured a contract with Pride International Inc, one of the world’s largest drilling contractors, for the delivery of several Frog™ personnel transfer capsules to offshore Angola.

Pride International will deploy the three-man version of the Frog on its entire fleet of drilling rigs offshore Angola – Pride Africa, Pride Angola, Pride Alligator, Pride Cabinda and Pride South Pacific. The Frogs will be used for all routine transfers of personnel by crane and have the capacity to carry a stretcher to transfer injured personnel in medical situations.

The last of these Frogs is en-route to the Pride South Pacific. When it arrives on the rig, there will be Frogs on 12 of the 19 drilling rigs currently working offshore Angola.

In many parts of the world, offshore workers are still transferred to and from installations and vessels by holding on to the outside of a rope basket attached to a crane. The Frog provides the industry with a significantly safer way of carrying out this activity. The design of the Frog addresses the four main risks associated with personnel transfers by crane – the outer frame and buoyancy protect against lateral impacts and ensures the Frog is self-righting and floats if immersed in water, the seats are attached to a sprung mounted seat base which, combined with the shock-absorbing feet, protects against heavy landings and the seatbelts ensure that falling from the unit during transfer is very unlikely.

The Frog is the most extensively reviewed and tested piece of equipment available, offering the best protection for personnel being transferred by crane in an offshore environment.

Comprehensive support materials will be supplied to Pride with each new Frog. Reflex Marine believes that training is key to developing improved transfer practices and ensuring the safety of personnel while carrying out these operations.

Reflex Marine managing director Philip Strong said: “While we have worked with Pride International before in delivering a Frog for the Pride Venezuela when it was working in South America, this is our first African contract with them and we hope that it will further strengthen our relationship with the company.

“Pride International is among a growing number of companies who recognise that achieving the very highest standard of personnel transfer safety is important. Incidents have a human, financial and reputation cost to a business. It makes sense to provide employees with a safe method of getting to and from work and the Frog can have a major part to play in that.”