Stork

Drone inspection - leak identification

Information

Client

Major Netherlands operator

Region

Europe

Industry

Upstream oil & gas

Associated capabilities

Challenge

The client identified that the underside of the living quarters (LQ), which is also the temporary safe refuge (TSR), was leaking air when pressurized but the exact location of the leak was unknown.

A workorder was raised to build a scaffold underneath the LQ to find the leak using a smoke test. Constructing underside scaffolding is a potentially hazardous, costly and time-consuming activity.

Solution

Stork analyzed the situation and recommended to first use a drone to carry out the underside inspection.

This was very successful as the leak location was identified within minutes. Subsequently only a very small section of scaffolding was needed to get reach the leak and repair it.

Benefits

Safety improvement: Safer compared to major scaffolding work, as a major portion of the working-at-heights scope was removed

Lower Cost: Stork’s approach reduced the Client’s scaffolding costs by approximately 90%.

Shorter lead time: The inspection work could start almost immediately as there was no lengthy wait for all the scaffolding to be constructed.

Project details

Project: TSR leak identification and remediation

Location: North Sea

Services: Drone inspection, scaffolding, leak repair works

Date:  2016