Petro News Update - May 2008
APTECH welcomes the following new employees - APTECH would like to welcome the following new employees to the Houston office:
- Steve Cooper – Mechanical Engineer and Manager of Operations
- Walter Wincheck – Senior Inspector (API 510, 570)
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APTECH Completes First RBI Study of Toyota Manufacturing Facility - In March 2008 APTECH completed the first ever RBI study of a car manufacturing facility. After providing an RBI training course at the Toyota manufacturing facility in Cambridge, Canada, APTECH was asked by Toyota’s head office in Kentucky to bid on providing RBI implementation services. Following the successful bid, Tim Malone spent 4 days at the Cambridge plant completing inspections and collecting data on the facility’s piping systems. Tim then completed a risk assessment of the piping systems using RDMIP software and a business risk model. The results of the study will provide guidance to Toyota for their future refurbishment efforts at the facility. It is hoped that the project will eventually be extended to all six of the Toyota manufacturing facilities in North America.
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APTECH Assists with the raising of a Sub-Sea Pipeline - APTECH engineers Bill Witte and Steve Cooper spent 5 days in the Gulf of Mexico onboard a salvage vessel to document the raising of a sub-sea pipeline involved in a litigation project. Following the successful retrieval of the pipeline, APTECH is now responsible for the testing and inspection of the pipeline section.
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APTECH offers new design services - The APTECH Houston office now provides design and operational support services in the pipeline, gas, LNG/LPG, refinery and petrochemical industries. These services include:
- Plant Equipment and Facility Design
- Design Reviews
- Design Verification
- Fitness for Service Evaluations
To conduct design evaluations, APTECH has the in-house capabilities to use a range of software design tools. These include the following:
- CODEWARE COMPRESS® ASME SECTION VIII DIV 1 & DIV 2 ANALYSES and HEAT EXCHANGER MODULE(S)
- PRG NOZZLE Pro
- COADE: CAESAR II®
- COADE: CADWorx Plant Professional®
- PVElite with CodeCalc
- ANSYS
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APTECH Participates in Middle East Pipeline Conference - Phillip Nidd from the APTECH Houston office is one of the renowned industry speakers at the Africa / Middle East Oil and Gas Flow Assurance Summit 2008 in Cairo, Egypt. Some of the key topics for discussion include:
- Ensuring flow and production – Challenges met, Challenges remaining
- Production chemistry / engineering, flow assurance and operability issues
- Flow assurance problem analysis to screen the best technology solutions
- High Temperature and High Pressure (HT/HP)
- Solving gas hydrate problems in subsea pipelines
- Pipelines, Technology, Laying and Operation (Onshore and Offshore)
- Integrity Management
- Shutdown and restart strategy options
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APTECH’s Houston Office Expands - The APTECH Houston office has just completed a 4032 sq. ft. expansion to accommodate additional offices and facilities. Due to an expanding project list and client base APTECH has hired the following new staff:
Bill McKeen – Sr. Consulting EngineerDavid Mosley – QA / QC Manager
Izzy Perez – Business Development Manager
Bertrand van der Heyden – Integrity Specialist
Leonard Thill – Senior Mechanical Engineer
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APTECH Awarded Major Asset Integrity Project - The APTECH Alberta office in Edmonton has been awarded a major project with SUNCOR Energy. The project involves design phase Risk Based Inspection, Corrosion and Integrity studies for the proposed $20 billion SUNCOR Voyageur upgrade project.
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Sub-Sea Pipeline Inspections – APTECH, in partnership with RTD, completed an INCOTEST inspection and fitness for service evaluation of subsea pipelines and pilings in Antigua for TOSL Engineering / West Indies Oil Company.
The project consisted of inspecting five parallel pipelines from the Sea Island Jetty to the Storage Facility on shore. The pipe sizes ranged from 16” OD to 4” OD. The lines were externally coated with Sonomastic coating and the 16” OD line was also weight coated. The entire project was completed in less than three weeks using two divers and an ROV on the subsea and tidal bay sections. The ROV has the capability to video the entire inspection process as well as taking the readings. UT examination was conducted on the on-shore sections.
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IPEIA Conference - Aptech Alberta exhibited at the 13th annual International Pressure Equipment Association (IPEIA) Conference in Banff, Alberta February 14-16. The conference was initiated by the Southern Alberta Institute of Technology (SAIT) and the Alberta Boilers Safety Association (ABSA), Alberta’s pressure equipment regulator, and is the cornerstone for PV reliability in Western Canada. Alberta has the most pressure equipment in Canada. This is APTECH’s third consecutive conference; in 2007 Steve Hall presented a paper on RAM. This year APTECH introduced David Weisgerber and Gordon Bergey as Aptech employees at the exhibition. The conference coincides with Alberta’s annual Chief Inspector’s meeting and includes an exhibition focused on reliability and inspection companies and equipment as well as paper presentations and workshops that take place over several days.
The exhibition was an opportunity to meet new and existing customers. APTECH was able to meet with customers such as Nova Chem, Opti, Nexen and Invista over the period of the conference.
David Weisgerber, Jim Yukes and Gordon Bergey in Banff.
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APTECH’s Safety Reviews - APTECH SUBSCRIBES TO BOTH, ISNETWORLD AND PICS (Pacific Industrial Contractor Screening)
Flint Hills Resources LP (FHR) has recently evaluated APTECH’s safety record through ISNetworld’s petrochemical industry contractor database and ISN Review and Verification Services (RAVS).
APTECH Engineering Services has received a contractor’s score of EXCEPTIONAL which states that: APTECH should be used as primary contractor. Contractor has submitted/shown all required information and has an excellent safety record.
Valero Energy Corporation has also evaluated APTECH’s safety record through Valero Energy SCQ-V Grading process and ISNetworld’s RAVS and the score again is EXCEPTIONAL with no additional approvals required.
APTECH Completes Materials Design Review for Aker Kvearner and ExxonMobil’s Adriatic LNG Project - Adriatic LNG is an Italian company owned by affiliates of ExxonMobil (45%), Qatar Terminals Ltd (45%) and Edison SpA (10%). The company is building and will operate an offshore LNG receiving and re-gasification Terminal that will be located in the northern Adriatic Sea.
The Adriatic LNG terminal will be installed offshore Rovigno, Italy and shall be ready for operation in 2008. The terminal will receive LNG from Qatar, store the LNG, regasify it and feed the gas through a 17km pipeline to shore and the Italian gas distribution system. The construction of the structure started in Algeciras, Spain, in 2005. The Adriatic LNG project will be the first offshore terminal in the world.
The project is organised in four sub projects:
- The concrete GBS - managed by the Oslo team, construction in a dry dock located in Algeciras, Spain, close to Gibraltar.
- The topside facilities - designed and managed by the Houston team. Topside fabrication - subcontracted on international competition.
- LNG tanks – designed and managed by Skanska Whessoe Ltd in Darlington, UK. Tank fabrication - subcontracted on international competition.
- The topsides hook-up – where the topsides facilities will be installed on the GBS and completed in the dock in Algeciras before the entire unit is floated out of the dock and towed to its final location for installation in the Adriatic Sea outside Venice.
APTECH engineer’s worked with Aker Kvaerner’s Houston team to complete a Materials Integrity Report for the topsides equipment.
Algeciras casting basin with Rock of Gibraltar in background (June 2007)
Blue Marlin arrival in Algeciras with LNG tanks (December 2006)
Living Quarters arrival in Algeciras (May 2007)
Pipeline lowering (September 2006)