HYDRATIGHT¹S highly-professional team of refinery trouble-shooters endured searing heat, time pressures and even an earthquake on a recent contract in Greece.

The company was hired to fix leaks and ensure the integrity of high-pressure lines throughout the Motor Oil Hellas catalytic cracking plant at Corinth - a two-month contract through June and July 2008.

But it looked like the schedule would be blown when site supervisor Peter Sexton awoke to ground tremors that reached 5.7 on the Richter scale, part-way through the job.

↑ Front Row from left: Peter Sexton (Project Supervisor), Eugene Weber, Chingiz Huseynov. Middle Row from left: Elmir Ibrahimov (Shift Supervisor), Mick Bray, Tarlan Aliyev, Jeff Carr. Back Row from left: Christophe Doussaint, Russell O’Brien, Thierry Gaschy

↑ Ron Braid training Slovac technicians the Hydratight way

Since Hydratight¹s regional business leader Jeff Stewart had assured the plant¹s owners, weeks earlier, that the company¹s first multi-national team could handle virtually anything thrown at them, Peter and his stirred but unshaken team put their experience to work and cast off their worries - even though a similarly-sized quake 100km away just days before had killed two people.

"It was a little disconcerting," said Peter. "I woke up at 5am that morning to find my room had been rearranged as I slept.

"Luckily, no one in the region was badly hurt this time. Greece is the most seismically active place in Europe, so I suppose locals have their own ways of coping. I just didn¹t handle it quite so calmly ‹ for a couple of hours at least!"

Peter and his colleagues had worked through early June¹s searing 40C heat to do pre-shutdown preparation work, including the marking of suspect joints and the training of support technicians in the company¹s high-precision methods. The earthquake hit mid-way through the shutdown.

Peter and his squad (from the company¹s French, UK and Azerbaijan offices, with a small group of Slovak technicians whose presence meant the project could be completed more quickly) finished on schedule, with no site incidents and no leaks.

The plant¹s owners were delighted.

Senior shutdown coordinator Panagiotis Tsalamandris commented: "The performance of Hydratight¹s team and their attitude has been very professional. We are very satisfied with the overall outcome."

↑ Eugene Weber (left) and Thierry Gaschy

↑ Christophe Doussaint (top) and Jeff Carr