Cyberhawk, Stork Win Oil & Gas UK Award for Offshore Aerial Inspection Innovation

Remote aerial inspection company Cyberhawk Innovations and Stork Technical Services have won the Business Efficiency category in the Oil and Gas UK Awards 2012 for a money-saving and time-saving assessment of offshore asset condition. The inspection is the first offshore inspection in the North Sea to have been carried out using a Remotely Operated Aerial Vehicle (ROAV).

Working with asset integrity specialists, Stork Technical Services, and building on experience gained in onshore inspections at oil and gas refineries, Cyberhawk carried out a structural and coating inspection of an offshore drilling derrick for a leading oil company on one of its North Sea platforms.

Cyberhawk’s ROAV captured HD images and relayed them live, allowing for a full assessment of the structure and coating condition of the operational drilling derrick. The inspection involved accessing areas that would have been particularly challenging and time-consuming for traditional rope or scaffold inspections. Additionally, Cyberhawk’s inspection took place during live drilling operations and no lost production, which would have cost an estimated £80,000 – £100,000 per day.

The results from the visual inspection allowed Stork to challenge an initial workscope and reduce the quantity of the surface area to be treated by 42% or 1,812m2. Data gathered and engineering expertise supplied by the Stork/Cyberhawk team also provided the certainty needed to impose a deferral – allowing the rig to carry on production for an extended period. In addition, the results enabled Stork to introduce a wax oil preservative coating to treat the drill derrick, which delivered a further saving of 1,725 man-hours.

The wax oil coating workscope could be delivered in a 14 day period compared with six weeks for conventional paint treatments. This meant that the work could be carried out during a planned pause in drilling, rather than requiring a lengthy shutdown, giving an overall project saving of £4.6 million, which would not have been achieved without the data gathered and engineering expertise supplied by the Stork and Cyberhawk team.

Oil & Gas UK’s chief executive Malcolm Webb said: “The Oil & Gas UK Awards – the industry’s ‘oscars’ – have again shone the spotlight on the very best people and companies connected to the oil and gas industry. I congratulate Cyberhawk Innovations and Stork Technical Services for winning the Oil & Gas UK Award for Business Efficiency. They thoroughly deserve this accolade in what was a fiercely competitive category.”

Malcolm Connolly, Managing Director of Cyberhawk commented: “All of us at Cyberhawk are delighted to be joint winners with our project partner Stork Technical Services. The cost, time and safety improvements mean that ROAV inspection is already becoming established as best practice at onshore plants in the UK and globally. The Award is a big vote of confidence in the development of ROAV inspections to broaden the scope of applications offshore, such as live flare tip, flare boom, underdeck and other structural inspections.”

John Kelly, UK Operations Director for Stork Technical Services, said: “We are very pleased to have won the ‘Business Efficiency’ award with Cyberhawk. Together we pioneered the use of the innovative ROAV inspections offshore and, by combining our expert knowledge and experience, delivered significant cost and efficiency benefits for our client.”

The award is the pinnacle of a very successful year for Cyberhawk. Earlier in the year they received institutional investment from Scottish Enterprise and Scottish Equity Partners (SEP), the UK’s leading growth equity and venture capital partner for innovative companies with world class potential. Cyberhawk’s technology is fast becoming the best practice method of technical inspection and surveying in the market sectors in which they operate.

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November 12, 2012