UK: AquaTerra Solutions Secures New Contracts

Affirming its status as a leading provider of rope access services for specialist projects, AquaTerra Solutions Ltd has secured a number of contract wins worth more than £4 million.

The majority of the jobs AquaTerra undertakes are on offshore assets for the oil and gas industry and some of their more specialist projects have been within the concrete leg columns of platforms for construction, modification and decommissioning projects.

Many concrete platforms were constructed some 30 years ago and are now coming to the end of their economic production and require significant upgrade. Their initial design was without the provision to access the cells inside the base or the working environment of the leg structures leading to them.

Concrete legs pose a number of challenges and present a potentially hostile environment and leg work is only sanctioned for essential activities.

Along with the air quality, these legs contain process and utilities pipework and are normally filled with seawater, so the working environment for personnel and permits to work are subject to increasing stringent health and safety controls.

Emergency response planning, highly trained and competent personnel and experienced management are critical to the success of working in these environments.

AquaTerra’s experience throughout the years and proven track record on these projects has allowed them to offer the industry a solution to, what will soon be, an increasing work scope across a variety of other ageing offshore infrastructures.

Commenting on the wins, Pete Robinson adds: “We’ve seen a considerable increase of contract activity within the decommissioning side of late and our work on concrete structures has cemented our position as a leading North Sea contractor.

The potentially hostile environment of concrete Legs poses significant challenges. As a consequence, the use of breathing apparatus is essential whilst carrying out the work and all aspects of each project are subject to comprehensive assessment and process planning by the onshore management support team.

Whilst Rope Access is the means of accessing the place of work, it’s the combining of skills and trades of the personnel that are the essential background of each rope access technician. Some are trained welders, pipefitters, electricians, riggers or inspection specialists.”

A quality driven company, AquaTerra has invested heavily on its facilities in Aberdeen where it has over 30,0000 sq feet of onshore training facilities to recreate job specific trials using specialist equipment, tools and techniques to ensure that, when projects are finally carried out at the offshore environment, they are right first time.

Among other things, the pre-trial mock-ups allow AquaTerra to identify the hazards to health and safety, and to determine the actions necessary to avoid or control risk.

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Press Release, August 10, 2012