Aerial inspection 'saves £5m' on N Sea platform

Aberdeen, UK – The first offshore inspection in the North Sea to have been carried out using a remotely operated aerial vehicle (ROAV) is said to have delivered savings of almost £5 million, and earned industry recognition for its suppliers.

Working with asset integrity firm Stork Technical Services, and building on experience of onshore inspections at oil and gas refineries, Cyberhawk Innovations carried out a structural and coating inspection of an offshore drilling derrick for an unnamed major oil company on one of its North Sea platforms.

Cyberhawk’s ROAV captured HD images and relayed them live, allowing for a full assessment of the structure and coating condition of the operational drilling derrick. The inspection involved accessing areas that would have been particularly challenging and time-consuming for traditional rope or scaffold inspections.

Additionally, Cyberhawk’s inspection took place during live drilling operations and no lost production, which would have cost an estimated £80,000 - £100,000 per day. The results from the visual inspection allowed Stork to challenge an initial workscope and reduce the quantity of the surface area to be treated by 42% or 1,812m2.

Data gathered and engineering expertise supplied by the Stork/Cyberhawk team also provided the certainty needed to impose a deferral - allowing the rig to carry on production for an extended period.

In addition, the results enabled Stork to introduce a wax oil preservative coating to treat the drill derrick, which delivered a further saving of 1,725 man-hours. The wax oil coating workscope was delivered within a 14-day period compared with six weeks for conventional paint treatments.

This meant that the work could be carried out during a planned pause in drilling, rather than requiring a lengthy shutdown, giving an overall project saving of £4.6 million, which would, otherwise, not have been achieved.

The project earned Cyberhawk and Stork Technical Services first place in the business efficiency category in the Oil and Gas UK Awards 2012 for a money-saving and time-saving assessment of offshore asset condition.

“The cost, time and safety improvements mean that ROAV inspection is already becoming established as best practice at onshore plants in the UK and globally,” said Cyberhawk MD Malcolm Connolly.

“The award is a big vote of confidence in the development of ROAV inspections to broaden the scope of applications offshore, such as live flare tip, flare boom, underdeck and other structural inspections,” he added.

Earlier in the year Cyberhawk received institutional investment from Scottish Enterprise and equity firm Scottish Equity Partners.