Canada Oil and Gas Diving Regulations (SOR/88-600)

Restrictions Respecting Category II Diving Operations

43 No diving supervisor shall conduct a category II diving operation unless

• (a) the requirements referred to in paragraphs 42(c) to (e) are complied with;

• (b) a diving bell or diving submersible is used for any descent or ascent of a diver to or from the underwater work site of the diving operation;

• (c) the diving supervisor has a means of monitoring the internal pressure of any diving bell or surface compression chamber or the compression chamber of any diving submersible used in the diving operation; and

• (d) the diving crew, for the duration of the diving operation, includes one diving supervisor and a minimum of

  • (i) two divers who are in the diving bell or diving submersible used in the diving operation, one of whom is equipped with an umbilical at least 3 m longer than the umbilical of the diver for whom the stand-by diver acts as stand-by,

  • (ii) one additional stand-by diver and one attendant at the dive site of the diving operation, and

  • (iii) as many additional attendants as the supervisor considers necessary to ensure the safety of the divers involved in the diving operation.

Restrictions Respecting Category III Diving Operations

• 44 (1) No diving supervisor shall, in a saturation dive supervised by the supervisor, permit the total dive time of any diver involved in the dive to exceed 31 days.

• (2) No diving supervisor shall conduct a category III diving operation unless the diving crew, for the duration of the dive, includes the persons referred to in paragraph 43(d) and as many additional specialists and life-support technicians as the diving supervisor considers necessary to ensure the safety of the divers involved in the dive.

Restriction Respecting Diving Supervisors

45 No diving supervisor shall make a dive while supervising a diving operation, even in the case of an emergency.

Additional Duties

• 46 (1) Where a skip, diving bell, diving submersible or ADS used in a diving operation is being lowered into or raised from the water, the supervisor of the diving operation shall ensure that the skip, diving bell, diving submersible or ADS, as the case may be, is continuously within the supervisor’s vision, either directly or by any other means.

• (2) Where, in a diving operation, a diving bell is coupled with a surface compression chamber by means of a clamping mechanism, the supervisor of the diving operation shall permit only a person who is familiar with the operational procedures designed for the clamping mechanism to operate that clamping mechanism.

• (3) Where, in a diving operation, a person is transferred to or from a diving bell, the supervisor of the diving operation shall ensure that any surface compression chambers used in the diving operation but not used in the transfer are, during the transfer, isolated from the surface compression chambers used in the transfer.

• (4) Where a diver involved in a diving operation exhibits any unusual psychological or physiological symptoms or any severe symptoms of decompression sickness, the diving supervisor of the diving operation shall advise the specialized diving doctor referred to in paragraph 4(3)(d) and the operator responsible for that diving operation of those symptoms and shall supervise any therapeutic recompression or decompression of the diver.

• (5) A diving supervisor shall take all reasonable precautions to ensure that, except in the event of the evacuation of a diver during a diving operation supervised by the diving supervisor,

  • (a) a diver involved in the diving operation who has completed a dive does not fly in an aircraft

    • (i) for 12 hours following a non-decompression dive,

    • (ii) for 24 hours following decompression, or

    • (iii) for such longer period as the diving supervisor considers necessary to ensure that the diver does not suffer decompression sickness; and

  • (b) a diver involved in the diving operation who has completed a saturation dive remains under observation in the general area of the decompression chamber for at least 24 hours after decompression or such longer period as is sufficient in the opinion of the diving supervisor to ensure the well-being of the diver.

• (6) A diving supervisor shall take all reasonable precautions to ensure that, in the evacuation of a person during a diving operation supervised by the supervisor, a person involved in the diving operation who has completed decompression within the preceding 24 hours does not fly in an aircraft at an altitude greater than is operationally necessary in the circumstances.

Diving Plant and Equipment

• 47 (1) No supervisor shall conduct a diving operation unless

  • (a) the diving plant and equipment referred to in paragraph 9(5)(h) meets the relevant requirements of sections 12 to 21, is available for use when required and that diving plant and equipment, other than diving plant and equipment intended to be mobile during the diving operation, is, at all times during the diving operation, firmly secured to the craft or installation from which the diving operation is conducted; and

  • (b) any electrically operated diving plant and equipment that is used in the diving operation is suitable for the location in which it is to be used and is protected from hazards caused by water and environmental conditions.

• (2) No supervisor shall, in a diving operation supervised by the supervisor, use any diving plant and equipment in the diving operation unless

  • (a) the appropriate examinations and tests referred to in subsection 11(1) have been carried out on the diving plant and equipment and the certificates related to those examinations and tests have been inserted into or attached to the register referred to in subsection 11(3); and

  • (b) the supervisor has, not more than 24 hours before such use,

    • (i) examined the diving plant and equipment in accordance with the relevant provisions of the applicable procedures manual and found it to be in good working order, and

    • (ii) where appropriate, in addition to the examination referred to in subparagraph (i), tested for leaks any pump, compressor, cylinder or pipeline used in the diving operation to convey breathing mixture and found it free from leaks.

• (3) No diving supervisor shall conduct a dive unless a two-compartment compression chamber

  • (a) that has been approved in accordance with section 5 for the diving program of which the dive is a part, to be used at a pressure that is not less than six atmospheres absolute and, where the maximum working pressure that may be encountered during the dive is greater than six atmospheres absolute, at the maximum working pressure plus one atmosphere, and

  • (b) that is suitable for the dive

  is located in a readily accessible place on board the craft or installation from which the dive is conducted, except where the dive is conducted at a depth of 10 m or less, in which case the compression chamber may be located within one hour’s travelling time from the dive site.

Oxygen Supply Systems and Breathing Mixture Supply Systems

• 48 (1) No supervisor shall conduct a diving operation in which

  • (a) an oxygen supply system is used unless the oxygen supply system meets the requirements set out in section 19;

  • (b) a breathing mixture supply system is used unless the breathing mixture supply system meets the requirements set out in sections 20 and 21; and

  • (c) an analyser is used to determine the relative levels of oxygen and carbon dioxide during any dive that is part of the diving operation unless the analyser is recalibrated in accordance with the manufacturer’s instructions for that analyser prior to the dive.

• (2) Where an analyser is used continuously in a diving operation to determine the relative levels of oxygen and carbon dioxide during any dive that is part of the diving operation, the supervisor of the dive shall ensure that the analyser is recalibrated in accordance with the manufacturer’s instructions for that analyser, where practicable, every two hours.

• (3) No diving supervisor shall, in a diving operation supervised by the supervisor, use or permit to be used an on-line gas blender or a diver’s gas recovery system in the diving operation unless throughout the period that the blender or the diver’s gas recovery system is in use the requirements of section 21 are complied with.

Breathing Mixture

• 49 (1) No supervisor shall commence or continue a diving operation unless

  • (a) the total quantity of appropriate breathing mixture that is available at any time during the diving operation consists of the quantities set out in section 22;

  • (b) the purity of the breathing mixture is of an acceptable standard; and

  • (c) the quantities of breathing mixture referred to in subparagraphs 22(1)(a)(ii) and (iii) are available for immediate use at a flow rate, temperature and pressure that are safe for the user.

• (2) No supervisor shall permit a diver supervised by the supervisor to make a dive unless

  • (a) the total quantity of appropriate breathing mixture, including the reserve supply,

    • (i) carried by the diver is sufficient to enable that diver to reach a skip, diving bell or diving submersible used in connection with the dive, a reserve supply referred to in subparagraph 22(1)(a)(ii) or the surface, and

    • (ii) available to the diver’s stand-by diver for immediate use consists of an adequate quantity to enable the stand-by diver to reach the diver and to enable the stand-by diver and the diver

      • (A) to carry out appropriate decompression procedures and return to the surface, or

      • (B) to return to the skip, diving bell or diving submersible used in connection with the dive and to carry out appropriate decompression procedures either in that skip, diving bell or diving submersible, as the case may be, or at the surface; and

  • (b) the supervisor has analysed the breathing mixture for the accuracy of its oxygen content immediately prior to the dive.

• (3) No supervisor shall, in a diving operation supervised by the supervisor, use or permit to be used

  • (a) compressed air as a breathing mixture at water depths greater than 50 m or at pressures that are equivalent to the pressures of water depths greater than 50 m except in the case of a category III dive; or

  • (b) pure oxygen as a breathing mixture except for decompression or therapeutic purposes.

• (4) A supervisor shall protect any breathing mixture to be used in a diving operation supervised by the supervisor from any likelihood of contamination.

• (5) Where a diving supervisor becomes aware of any oil or other contaminant in waters in which a diving operation supervised by the supervisor is being conducted, that supervisor shall take all necessary steps to avoid any contamination of any diver in the water and of the ambient atmosphere in any compression chamber used in the diving operation.

Diving Operations Logbooks

• 50 (1) A supervisor shall enter in the diving operations logbook referred to in paragraph 9(5)(m), for each diving operation or portion of a diving operation supervised by the supervisor,

  • (a) the date and the time the diving operation was commenced and terminated including any time during which the diving operation was interrupted, or the date and the time at which the supervisor began the supervision and the time at which that supervision ended;

  • (b) the name of the diving contractor, if any, who conducted the diving operation;

  • (c) the name of the operator or the operator’s representative responsible for the diving operation;

  • (d) the name or other designation and the location of the craft or installation from which, or other dive site at which, the diving operation was conducted;

  • (e) the identification number of any dive supervised during the diving operation or during the period of supervision referred to in paragraph (a);

  • (f) the name of the supervisor, the names of all other persons involved in the diving operation including those who operated any diving plant and equipment used in the diving operation, the names of the persons consulted pursuant to paragraph 39(1)(a) and the names of any other persons consulted in respect of the diving operation and the positions or titles of all the persons named;

  • (g) the procedures followed during the diving operation;

  • (h) the decompression table and the schedule in that decompression table that were used in the diving operation;

  • (i) the time at which any diver involved in the diving operation and any skip, diving bell, diving submersible or ADS used in the diving operation left the surface and returned to the surface;

  • (j) the maximum depth, bottom time, dive time and total dive time for each dive conducted during the period of supervision referred to in paragraph (a);

  • (k) the type of diving plant and equipment and the type of breathing mixture used in the diving operation;

  • (l) the type of discomfort, injury or illness, including decompression sickness, suffered by any person involved in the diving operation;

  • (m) the particulars of any environmental conditions that affected or might have affected the diving operation; and

  • (n) any other factor relevant to the safety or health of any person involved in the diving operation.

• (2) A supervisor shall, after completion of an entry in the diving operations logbook in accordance with subsection (1), immediately sign the entry and request the operator or the operator’s representative responsible for the diving operation to countersign the entry as soon as possible.

• (3) No person shall make any alteration to an entry in a diving operations logbook referred to in subsection (1) unless the alteration is initialled by the supervisor who made the entry and by the person who countersigned the entry.

• (4) The supervisor of a diving operation shall produce, on request, the diving operations logbook for the diving operation for inspection by a conservation engineer pursuant to paragraph 43(b) of the Act.

• (5) At the time there is no space for further entries in a diving operations logbook for a diving operation, or at the time the diving operation is completed, whichever occurs first, the supervisor who made the last entry in the logbook shall deliver the logbook to the diving contractor who conducted the diving operation, but, in the event of an accident in connection with the diving operation, the supervisor on duty at the time of the accident shall deliver the logbook to the operator responsible for the diving operation as soon as possible after the accident.