The American Bureau of Shipping (ABS) has conducted a remote survey for steel certification at a steel mill to enable work on two Lamprell’s self-elevating drilling rigs.
ABS said on Tuesday that the survey, which it described as “ pioneering ”, enabled work to proceed on the rig to continue despite COVID-19 restrictions.
Lamprell ordered 8,855 metric tonnes of steel for the two rigs from Arcelor Mittal Nippon Steel Mill in Gujarat, India.
Travel restrictions caused by COVID-19 mitigation measures made it impossible for ABS to certify the steel in person, potentially delaying the project.
“ In what is understood to be an industry first, ABS proposed a remote survey option, with ABS surveyors in Mumbai certifying the steel with data provided by the mill, and production continuing of the [rigs] continuing on schedule ”, the classification society stated.
Matt Tremblay , ABS SVP global offshore, said: “ I am proud of how we have innovated to respond to a real-world challenge and support our customers in the delivery of this key material despite the unprecedented challenges created by the virus. ABS is leading the way in remote surveys and this case highlights the breadth and flexibility of our remote capability […] ”.
Lamprell COO Hani El Kurd added: “ ABS’s remote inspection solution has been an excellent mitigation solution to maintain the quality assurance and schedule demands of our projects. It also ties up well with our digitalization strategy which starts with our own processes and those of our service providers and suppliers ”.
According to ABS, it expanded its remote survey capability and is now able to conduct almost all classification annual surveys remotely on eligible vessels and made its remote survey and audit services available to equipment and materials manufacturing clients across the globe.
Wim Van Gerven , director and VP of operations at ArcelorMittal Nippon Steel India, said: “ ArcelorMittal is proud to have partnered with ABS to conduct remote survey and certification of steel during lockdown due to the COVID-19 global pandemic.
“ The development of an online certification process has facilitated ArcelorMittal to supply steel to customers even in the most difficult times ”.