diff --git a/requirements-swh.txt b/requirements-swh.txt
--- a/requirements-swh.txt
+++ b/requirements-swh.txt
@@ -1,6 +1,5 @@
-swh.core >= 0.0.44
+swh.core >= 0.0.54
 swh.journal >= 0.0.5
 swh.model >= 0.0.27
 swh.objstorage >= 0.0.17
 swh.scheduler >= 0.0.39
-swh.storage >= 0.0.102
diff --git a/swh/archiver/db.py b/swh/archiver/db.py
--- a/swh/archiver/db.py
+++ b/swh/archiver/db.py
@@ -5,7 +5,8 @@
 
 import datetime
 
-from swh.storage.db import BaseDb, cursor_to_bytes, stored_procedure
+from swh.core.db import BaseDb
+from swh.core.db.db_utils import stored_procedure
 
 
 def utcnow():
@@ -25,7 +26,7 @@
         """
         cur = self._cursor(cur)
         cur.execute("SELECT * FROM archive")
-        yield from cursor_to_bytes(cur)
+        yield from cur
 
     def content_archive_get(self, content_id, cur=None):
         """ Get the archival status of a content in a specific server.
@@ -101,7 +102,7 @@
 
         cur = self._cursor(cur)
         cur.execute(query, vars)
-        for content_id, present in cursor_to_bytes(cur):
+        for content_id, present in cur:
             yield (content_id, present, {})
 
     def content_archive_get_unarchived_copies(
@@ -150,7 +151,7 @@
 
         cur = self._cursor(cur)
         cur.execute(query, vars)
-        for content_id, present in cursor_to_bytes(cur):
+        for content_id, present in cur:
             yield (content_id, present, {})
 
     @stored_procedure('swh_mktemp_content_archive')
@@ -187,7 +188,7 @@
         cur = self._cursor(cur)
         cur.execute("select * from swh_content_archive_missing(%s)",
                     (backend_name,))
-        yield from cursor_to_bytes(cur)
+        yield from cur
 
     def content_archive_get_unknown(self, cur=None):
         """Retrieve unknown sha1 from archiver db.
@@ -195,7 +196,7 @@
         """
         cur = self._cursor(cur)
         cur.execute('select * from swh_content_archive_unknown()')
-        yield from cursor_to_bytes(cur)
+        yield from cur
 
     def content_archive_update(self, content_id, archive_id,
                                new_status=None, cur=None):
diff --git a/swh/archiver/storage.py b/swh/archiver/storage.py
--- a/swh/archiver/storage.py
+++ b/swh/archiver/storage.py
@@ -11,8 +11,7 @@
 from .db import ArchiverDb
 
 from swh.model import hashutil
-from swh.storage.common import db_transaction_generator, db_transaction
-from swh.storage.exc import StorageDBError
+from swh.core.db.common import db_transaction_generator, db_transaction
 
 
 class ArchiverStorage():
@@ -25,13 +24,10 @@
             db_conn: either a libpq connection string, or a psycopg2 connection
 
         """
-        try:
-            if isinstance(dbconn, psycopg2.extensions.connection):
-                self._db = ArchiverDb(dbconn)
-            else:
-                self._db = ArchiverDb.connect(dbconn)
-        except psycopg2.OperationalError as e:
-            raise StorageDBError(e)
+        if isinstance(dbconn, psycopg2.extensions.connection):
+            self._db = ArchiverDb(dbconn)
+        else:
+            self._db = ArchiverDb.connect(dbconn)
 
     def get_db(self):
         return self._db