The present torch model (Comex Pro bell torch) is extremely rare since it had proven to be inefficient with the light it produced and COMEX quickly replaced it with the improved Divex model. Modern offshore drilling began in 1947 in the Gulf of Mexico to accommodate an American surge in oil consumption and operations utilized little more than simple extensions of systems already tested on land. As the industry evolved rapidly in the 1950s, worldwide demand for crude oil and products refined from it exploded and logically, in the ensuing decades offshore drilling operations advanced into areas such as the North Sea, demanding innovative methods. While commercial divers worked initially at depths between 5 and 30 meters and used compressed air like in the 19th Century, now the oil industry?s increased demands asked for improved techniques to dive deeper than a maximum of 60 meters. Consequently, a professional diver?s routine included dealing with life-threatening risk and between 1965 and 1990, 56 confirmed diving fatalities occurred in the North Sea alone. Industry pioneer Henri Germain Delauze founded the COMEX (Compagnie Maritime d?Expertise) firm in 1961 at a time, when industrial deep-sea diving didn?t yet exist. A southern France native born in 1929, Delauze became an engineer and started diving during his military service, before working for several companies focused on diving equipment and oceanic exploration. Quickly, Marseilles-based COMEX realized a significant need to develop novel technologies and thus, became a global leader in deep-sea diving operations for the offshore oil and gas commerce. COMEX divers descended into the oceans in manned or unmanned underwater missions, made significant advances in saturation diving during the 1960s and 1970s and worked at depths in excess of 500 meters, thanks to the use of helium and oxygen in their breathing mixtures, which replaced normal air. Delauze was a participant in the first dives utilizing helium at depths of 335 meters and 360 meters, investigating and describing the ?high pressure nervous syndrome?, which until then put many lives at risk during hazardous diving missions. At first, COMEX relied upon American know-how in gas mixtures and decompression, but the firm?s divers gained own expertise through a series of research programs. By the 1970s, COMEX devised systems, gas mixtures and decompression tables that placed any depth within their divers? reach, at which oil companies operated at the time. In 1974, COMEX was involved worldwide in roughly 30 offshore contracts, spanning from Brazil to the North Sea, in water depths of up to 180 meters with circa 15 operational diving contracts in the North Sea alone. After the 1970s ?oil crisis?, thousands of offshore platforms were installed internationally and COMEX was almost the sole company capable of repairing or working on the rigs. Since the beginnings and under Delauze?s visionary leadership, COMEX continued its development, diversified activities and today manages the operations of the Marseilles-based ?Hyperbaric Experimental Center? (C.E.H), established in 1964, which features exceptional testing equipment, where engineers and scientists can study the effects of pressure on a diver?s physique. Over time, teams directed by Henri Delauze and Dr. Xavier Fructus have conducted more than 5300 experiments including over 2700 human dives, tested equipment or researched scientific topics with more than 400 divers participating and the ?Hydra 10? mission set a still standing world record of 701 meters in depth. Nowadays, still chaired by Henri G. Delauze as a majority shareholder, the COMEX holding defines the main orientations plus long- and midterm strategy for the entire COMEX Group with over 2000 employees, including 800 highly specialized divers operating internationally.