EM&I at the Offshore Technology Conference (OTC) in Houston

May 11th, 2018

Offshore Technology Conference

EM&I were invited to speak at the Offshore Technology Conference this year, about their ground breaking innovations which are revolutionising the asset integrity industry.

Houston based drilling specialist, Mark Wilson (EM&I’s Regional General Manager for North America), spoke at the Technical Session: ‘Continuous improvement. More for less’ – one of the themes of the OTC this year, was how oil majors will continue to develop their budgets to cope with lower oil prices.

Mark’s presentation: ‘Cost effective asset integrity in a $50 barrel world’, related to the overall theme of the conference, as he focused on innovative technologies which have emerged from the JIP (Joint Industry Project) called HITS (Hull Inspection Techniques & Strategy), which EM&I have been leading on behalf of the FPSO Research Forum from the last 5 years.

Innovations such as the ODIN® diverless UWILD (Under Water Inspection in Lieu of Dry docking), and the NoMan® remote camera technologies were discussed in detail. These have already been proved on a number of projects worldwide for UWILDs and tank inspections to be more economic, efficient, and safer than traditional methods, often saving over 50% or more, and reducing the POB (People on Board) requirement by over 70%.

Mark Wilson summed up at the end of his presentation: “This is a major step change for the industry as we move into robotics and digitisation, with the ability to carry out essential inspection and maintenance work while the asset is on-hire, on station, and in operation”.