When Petro SA’s oil rig, the Orca, docked in Cape Town harbour some time back for a major refurbishment expected to last in excess of four months, the managers Pride Foramer had to look carefully at the costs involved in such a long stay.

The supply of water to the rig was one area they looked at. As the rig was now floating the pumps installed to supply the generators with cooling water and for the ablutions were also above the water line. The oil rig was hooked up into the mains water supply, but this was costly and wasteful as 75% of the water was just exhausted.

This was when Denorco, now Franklin Electric came up with a solution – which was to hang a submersible pump down the centre pit directly into the sea water below. The easiest and safest solution, they felt, was to use Boreline®, a flexible riser developed and manufactured by Cape Town based company Hose Manufacturers.