Hydratight News

Hydratight Predicts an Exciting Future

Kirstie Jennings-Brown — Mon, 10 Nov 2008 10:16:09 +0000

HYDRATIGHT's Europe, Middle East and Africa (EMEA) region is on target to exceed its annual turnover prediction by almost 20 per cent, reports regional business leader Alain Wald.

Around 70 per cent of the region's business is in the oil and gas industries and Wald, whose target is to build the region to a $100million turnover in the next five years, believes the EMEA region has some of the greatest growth potential, next to traditional world-scale players such as the west coast of Africa, Russia and the Caspian Sea.

Tightening up Shell’s safety: Hydratight helps Singapore refinery reduce its problem-count

Kirstie Jennings-Brown — Mon, 10 Nov 2008 10:00:09 +0000

OLD plants can have many problems, several of which arise from the incorporation of new materials with legacy materials, the increasing complexity of managing what is used and where, and making sure everyone involved knows the procedures and sticks to them.

At Shell's Pulau Bukom refinery on a Singaporean island, reachable only by ferry, there had been several problems with leaking, unreliable flanges and other common problems.

New Guidelines from Oil and Gas UK & Energy Institute:

Admin — Mon, 03 Nov 2008 14:52:38 +0000

Hydratight's technical training manager Gary Milne was one of the speakers at an Institution of Mechanical Engineers event held at Aberdeen football stadium, on 6 November.

Gary presented the new Oil and Gas UK/Energy Institute document: Guidelines for the Management of the Integrity of Bolted Joints for Pressurised Systems, covering onshore COHAH sites and offshore assets.

The document contains essential elements of a management system to aid prevention of leakage or failure of a bolted joint, which can have potentially catastrophic consequences.

Sabic Training

Kirstie Jennings-Brown — Mon, 13 Oct 2008 14:56:29 +0000

Hydratight's expertise in high-pressure jointing was enlisted by SABIC Europe during construction of its £200 million low density polyethylene (LDPE) plant - the world's largest, producing 400,000 tonnes a year - at its Wilton International site on Teesside.

"To ensure our mechanical staff received the high level of specialist skills and knowledge required to assemble and dis-assemble high pressure jointing we commissioned Hydratight," said Mike Jones, LDPE training manager at SABIC

Accreditation for UK Bases

Kirstie Jennings-Brown — Fri, 10 Oct 2008 16:39:27 +0000

WALSALL-BASED joint integrity and engineering services group Hydratight has become the first company in its field to gain full BS health and safety and ISO quality and environmental accreditation across its UK operations.

The awarding of the full BS OHSAS 18001: 1999 international standard for the company's centres in Walsall, Morpeth and Aberdeen follows a rigorous, 12-month revision of safety management practices that is currently also extending to its international divisions across America, Europe, Asia and the Middle East.

Nick Gemmell – Risk Free Experience

Kirstie Jennings-Brown — Mon, 08 Sep 2008 17:03:30 +0000

Hydratight's new global legal advisor Nick Gemmell is a decidedly hands-on legal eagle.

One of his first choices on joining the company was to sign up for a bolting course!

And he followed that with three days alongside company engineers working on a BP plant shutdown. Not the usual place to find a company lawyer.

"I wanted to get a better understanding of the company's core business and the associated risks," he explained.

Hydratight launches new Well-Head Intervention Service

Kirstie Jennings-Brown — Mon, 08 Sep 2008 14:23:37 +0000

Even the most exhaustive inspection & maintenance regimes can't always predict every eventuality - as a major name in the petro-chemical industry discovered when the time came to vent a propylene storage-well at a key UK site.

An isolation valve on a disused branch had seized shut, hampering activities to prepare the well for de-comissioning.

Politics and Pipelines

Kirstie Jennings-Brown — Mon, 08 Sep 2008 10:45:41 +0000

THE oil business may be a deeply political one - but it isn't often oil workers find themselves in the middle of a major political crisis.

Dramatically that was the case for Hydratight's Caspian technicians Elmir Ibrahimov and Tarlan Aliyev, who were working in Georgia on the politically-sensitive Baku-Tibilisi-Ceyhan (BTC) pipeline when the recent Russian incursion began.