I’ve been reflecting on the asset inspection industry which has morphed through various stages of knowledge maturity and equipment evolution to its current zenith of the “mini-aeronautical and ROV drone era” writes Laurie Mackay, principal consultant at MCL Protection Ltd
Advances in industry are always exciting to my mind. New ways of doing repetitive inspection methods break old, inefficient habits and modern technologies can facilitate risk reduction management. It makes sense then to consider alternative visual aids and Non-Destructive Testing inspection (NDT) long range access methods. Thanks to some military advances which cascaded down to the commercial inspection industry, entrepreneurial entities seized upon selective disruptive innovations to offer unique NDT access tools to a myriad of industries. As we enter the decommissioning profile phase of many aged assets (particularly normally unmanned assets), the technical and safety advantage of non-human intervention is obvious.
If the owner does have access to inspection resources, then all well and good–if the asset is topside and scaffolding or specialist access systems can be provided. But what if the asset item is sitting at a depth of 100 metres of water or located at a difficult elevated position? Unmanned ROVs and drones beaming back real-time pictures and NDT data of operational equipment, recording evidence and minimising the risk to humans – surely it’s a no-brainer?
Whilst discussing invaluable inspection tools, it’s important to point out they are not the large bulky pieces of equipment that you may perceive. Don’t take my word for it, call a service provider up and ask for a site demonstration. The equipment provision advances are truly amazing in every engineering sense and they do offer a broad range of applications including; survey data acquisition, asset condition assessment, construction monitoring and engineering maintenance at the cutting edge of a fast-moving market.
Health and safety benefits, cost and time savings through minimising business disruption and removing the hazard of placing staff in a position of risk yet also providing a visualisation tool to place people within a virtual environment for assessment purposes. In my opinion, there remains a requirement for human intervention with boots on the ground for inspection (all disciplines) as there’s no practical substitute for ‘eyes and hands on’ when it comes to practical verification or assurance purposes. I do, however, see a huge advantage in deploying drones when the project objectives and integrity risks are known and mitigated.
Despite the volatility of the petroleum commodity price, it’s an exciting time to be involved with these technologies and be part of the proactive evolution of the oil and gas industry. The UKCS remains a centre of excellence for equipment deployment and hybrid aqua/aeronautical drone usage. Happily, the young graduate and mature engineer still have a lengthy career ahead of them in the asset integrity inspection industry.
Laurie Mackay is managing director of MCL Protection Ltd, a specialist provider of corrosion, coatings and asset integrity solutions to the energy industry. The company operates globally and has extensive heavy fabrication yard and offshore project management experience and a track record in problem-solving for the emerging integrity needs of the asset owner.
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