Saving money for clients and helping the environment
The latest in a series on our third Queen’s Award win and how the OMS approach to innovation affects our clients and our business.
OMS recently won a Queen’s Award for Enterprise in the Innovation category. This is the third time we have won a Queen’s Award, which are the most prestigious business awards in the UK. We won for our pioneering weld inspection system, which uses state-of-the-art 3D lasers, HD cameras and strobe lighting to inspect welds inside pipes before they are laid.
Saving money for oil and gas clients
A pipe-lay vessel is a highly complex vehicle. At any one time there may be more than 300 people on board, all with specific jobs to do. There are only a few such vessels in existence and their running costs can exceed $500,000 per day. Each hour on board has a defined value to the contractor and their eventual client. If a defective weld is spotted during the pipe-laying phase many hours can be lost as it is cut out and replaced. On a large project with an average weld failure rate of 0.5% this can be up to 50 welds, resulting in 300 lost hours – or $6m.
Pipe-lay vessel
Spotting defective welds early
The OMS weld inspection system identifies defective welds at the inspection stage, helping to prevent expensive cut-outs aboard pipe-laying vessels. Our technology successfully spots problem welds early in the pipeline construction process, potentially saving operators many millions of dollars.
Protecting the environment
Working with hazardous substances in dangerous conditions means that oil and gas companies have significant environmental responsibilities. The potential environmental damage if a defective weld goes into the sea and subsequently fails are enormous. Pipelines with faulty welds will also need to be replaced quickly, causing additional environmental costs. The OMS weld inspection system improves pipeline safety by reducing the possibility of defective welds being laid and increases pipeline lifetime.
Award-winning technology
Winning a third Queen’s Award is exceptional and demonstrates that the OMS approach is one our clients can rely on. If you would like to learn more about our award-winning weld inspection system we would love to hear from you. Please contact us here.
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Posted 30.04.2020
[5 minute read]
By Tim Clarke