UMG plans first hyperbaric reception facility in the Middle East

Offshore staff

SHARJAH, UAE –The Unique Maritime Group is reported to have established the first hyperbaric reception facility (HRF) in the Middle East. The purpose built system by Unique Hydra, a division of UMG, will be installed at UMG’s facility in the Hamriyah Free Zone, Sharjah, United Arab Emirates.

Commenting on this initiative, Ian Huggins, general manager at Unique System FZE, said, “Unique sees a demand for this type of life support unit in the region and have made the decision to build and deploy the HRF into the local region to support commercial diving operators in their process to further enhance the safety of their diving teams. We are offering to closely work with the diving operators to make sure that their respective hyperbaric lifeboat chambers will mate with the HRF here.”

HRF units are used in the event of an emergency evacuation of a diving support vessel with divers in saturation to provide decompression and, if necessary, medical treatment. The HRF dive chamber is able to receive a self-propelled hyperbaric lifeboat with a bottom mating trunk or a hyperbaric rescue chamber via an end-mate or a side-mate custom spool and clamp arrangement. The emergency transport can get to the HRF which is set up at a shore facility where monitoring and decompression of the divers can be safely completed.

01/21/2015