Inlet Offshore Divers: underwater welding, photography statewide

Partners Don Ingraham and Leif Simcox bring years of Alaska experience, broad range of expertise, to hard-hat diving and welding business

Terri Doyle

PNA Contributing Writer

Alaska-owned and operated Inlet Offshore Divers LLC is a commercial hard-hat diving and welding company with 24-hour response capability.

Partners Leif Simcox and Don Ingraham brought nearly 50 years of experience and professionalism to Inlet Offshore Divers when they started the company in 1998. They pride themselves on employing highly qualified divers experienced and certified in wet and dry habitat welding and ultrasonics. Divers for the company hold the American Society for Non-destructive Testing certified level III rating.

About 80 percent of Inlet Offshore’s business involves the oil and gas industry. Simcox told PNA that the business holds service contracts with major oil companies in Alaska including Unocal Corp., ARCO Alaska Inc., Tesoro Alaska Petroleum Co., Cook Inlet Pipe Line Co. and Alyeska Pipeline Service Co. They have just been selected by Stolt Comex Seaway as the diving support company for the installation of the new Osprey platform for Forcenergy Inc. in Cook Inlet. Most recently they completed the annual inspection and repair job for Alyeska in Valdez and inspected the Christy Lee loading platform in Cook Inlet for Unocal.

Remote operated vehicle, underwater photography

The company recently performed remote operated vehicle services for Alyeska during inspection of anchor chain and anchor attachment 500 feet beneath Prince William Sound.

They offer professional underwater industrial photography, Cook Inlet black water weld photography and video. Simcox and Ingraham have performed complete underwater and internal hull inspection using underwater video for the U.S. Coast Guard. The diver wears a light and a camera attached to a hard-hat diving helmet. The customer can watch live video and maintain communication with the diver.

They also offer oilfield deep water support, blowout diving support, ship welding and repairs and anode installation. In addition, they provide above water services including topside welding, rigging, anchor handling, platform leg repairs, logistical support for remote jobs, non-destructive testing and weld inspection.

Company divers are trained in hazardous materials handling, contaminated water support, comprehensive safety and diver medic training. Inlet Offshore Divers are Coast Guard and OSHA compliant. The company provides decompression chambers on jobs deeper than 60 feet, and their divers are experienced in Cook Inlet, North Slope and other Alaska environments.

Meet the owners

Leif Simcox, operations manager for Inlet Offshore Divers, started welding submarines in 1974 and has been diving in Alaska since 1976. He has performed 400 feet to 500 feet bounce dives in the Gulf of Alaska in support of drilling operations. In addition to his experience in diving and welding, Simcox received his certification as a National Association of Diver Medic Technicians diver-medic from the University of California at Los Angeles School of Medicine and has acted as medical technician for diving operations. His education includes engineering, metallurgy, non-destructive testing, bell/saturation diving, underwater welding, photography and explosives. Simcox is in charge of all the company’s diving operations.

Ingraham and Simcox have performed underwater inspections, installations and repairs and have extensive arctic experience including diving on the CIDS (the mobile concrete drilling island), the Kulluk arctic drilling rig and various drillships and drilling islands. Between them they have been involved in salvage jobs including the Exxon Valdez, the 400 foot urea barge Oregon in Cook Inlet and the grain ship Hyundai 12 in Sand Point.

The Simcox/Ingraham partnership has completed underwater inspections of pipeline stabilization for Cook Inlet Pipe Line. For Alyeska they completed underwater maintenance and inspection of Prince William Sound mono-buoy anchoring systems, completed underwater welding repair of small boat breakwaters, manufactured and installed a subsea anchor piling in Valdez harbor, installed and welded passive anode system on Servs VEOC dock. Simcox and Ingraham have also performed underwater inspection of hatchery outfall and intake lines, inspection and maintenance of Red Dog mine dock and loading cells.

Location

Underwater welding — an involved process

Terri Doyle

Wet welding is performed much like topside stick welding. The welder wears a dry suit and diving helmet. His hands are covered with two sets of rubber gloves to prevent shock. The electrodes are designed specifically for use underwater, with a waterproof coating. They also contain additional alloys such as nickel, to promote better ductility.

The primary drawback to wet welding is the rapid quenching of the deposited metal by the water. In the past this would produce a brittle weld. With the advent of the new generation of wet welding electrodes, the properties of wet welds can approach that of dry welds, under ideal circumstances. Wet welds generally fall under American Welding Society D3.6, class B or C categories, which have less stringent requirements for welder and procedure qualifications than class A welds. The primary advantages of wet welding are speed, simplicity and cost.

Welding in helium filled habitat

Inlet Offshore Divers has personnel experienced in all types of underwater welding. Dry habitat experience includes hyperbaric pipeline tie-ins in the North Sea, hot-taps in the Gulf of Mexico and platform repairs in Egypt. Wet welding experience includes platform repairs in New Zealand, welding on salvage projects, anode installations, dock repairs, wave barrier repairs and many miscellaneous jobs around Alaska. Inlet Offshore Divers recently updated wet welding certifications for three of its personnel, in preparation for a job performed in October for Alyeska Pipeline Service Co. in Valdez. Underwater welding certification is an ongoing process, the company told PNA, since the certifications are good for only one year. In conjunction with its underwater welding services, Inlet Offshore also can provide AWS certified topside welders, an AWS certified welding inspector and an ASNT level III certified non-destructive testing expert.