Hull Support Services

View the Brochure

Trinidad is an English-speaking two-island state nestled to the South of the Caribbean Sea, amidst the Caribbean Islands.

It is also home to Hull Support Services Ltd; a subsea services and marine company, International Marine Contractors Association (I.M.C.A) member, and “one-stop shop” for their clients in the region.

“The industry here in Trinidad has driven us to multitask and be good in a few different disciplines” co-partner and Director Mr Douglas Boyce says.

“As you might imagine the subsea aspect in Trinidad is more or less unknown in that people only understand what they can see. So when you go out to a platform offshore you can see the above water deck and living accommodation and production facilities and a lot of people aren’t aware that below that deck which is always well-painted and well-maintained, is a sub-structure supporting the entire living accommodation and production facilities. That is the most critical element of the entire facility in that it’s got to be maintained, it’s got to be looked after.”

Boyce graduated from The University of the West Indies in 1995 and has been in the industry ever since, picking up his two partners at Hull Support along the way.

“Hull Support Services was officially incorporated in 1996. It was an existing company which my two partners and myself bought in 2000” he says.

“As the name implies, Hull Support was a small ship inspection type of company here in Trinidad working with commercial liners and freighters and so on. We bought it with the intent to grow it to be a full commercial services diving company for the oil and gas industry which requires a high level of equipment, quality and personal training.”

Trinidadian industry
“Most of our work throughout the years has been here in Trinidad where we are based. It’s been a very good industry for us and we’ve done well. We’ve grown the company slowly but surely, acquiring additional assets in terms of diving kits, growing our office side and adding personnel. Trinidad’s oil and gas industry has existed for a hundred years” Boyce explains.

Some sixty years ago the major player oil and gas companies began operating in the region and offshore structures began to increase, change and grow to meet the demands to manage the gas on the island.

“Obviously with all that offshore infrastructure and pipeline there was a need for the support services which came from a new installation involving installing the pipelines to the constant maintenance and inspection they require” Boyce says.

“We undertake a lot of inspection work where we go and look at the jackets and pipelines then everything else such as platform grouting, pipeline repairs.”
This is where Hull Supports motive to multitask comes in.

“We’ve got to give our hand to everything in order to give our client a one-stop shop, Trinidad being placed where it is also” Boyce explains.

“We’ve had to build our business based on the client’s needs. We really fit in between so we can give the clients quick response, do remedial work. Even in the larger construction projects with the real heavy gear stuff we then to have to go to the United States or the North Sea for those larger bits of kit.”

A job well done
“I think we’ve built a good reputation for ourselves here in Trinidad where a client can call us and rely on us to give them a proposal that meets their needs and to go ahead and solve the problem” Boyce says.

One great example of Hull Support’s pioneering spirit is their Memorandum of Understanding with Integrated Subsea Services, signed earlier last year.
“Basically what that does is to facilitate the integration of our local personnel Trinidadian divers and allows our people to get exposure to the higher level of projects in terms of the larger scale projects which require more planning and have more engineering involved in them” Boyce says.

“Our mode of diving we use in Trinidad is called surface supply diving which allows the diver to go down with unlimited bottom time and where I.S.S come in is they provide the higher end of the scale so to speak which is called saturation diving which is where the guys actually live at depth for the duration of the job. That’s probably one of our highlights we’ve done since last year.”

Amongst the impressive and diverse lists of projects including but not limited to working with Ensco, Inter Isle Construction and Fabrication, Carl King & Company, Melville Shipping and Lazzari Shipping, is another with the National Gas Company (N.G.C).

“Two years ago we did an Anode Retrofit on two platforms and we did platform grouting which was kind of unique because the platforms were installed about 25 years ago. Your normally grout the platform when you install it brand new, but here it was 25 years later that we were going in and doing what should have been done when it was first put it. It went very safely, the client got the quality that they wanted and everybody came out of this very pleased with the end result” Boyce says.

Again Hull Support’s client-centric approach to each and every job wins out.
“A client can come into our office and sit with us and basically get a clear idea of what they’re going to get in terms of job planning, personnel competence and the safety aspect built into the job” Boyce says.

“We pride ourselves on completing each job on time, within budget and giving the client the end result they are looking for.”

With a strong partner relationship, bags of experience, a genuine care for their clients and a diverse offering of highly skilled, highly recognised services, Hull Support is taking care of subsea and marine services in Trinidad with the greatest of reputations behind them.

View the Brochure