By Alison Lawlor
Progress Media
The Deepwater Horizon disaster is just one example of how Welaptega Marine is making the oil and gas sector safer and more efficient.
In the weeks following the April 20, 2010 explosion on the Deepwater Horizon rig in the Gulf of Mexico, a Halifax-based high-tech company worked tirelessly to help contain what has become the largest offshore oil spill in U.S. history.
As 4.9 million barrels of oil leaked from the damaged BP Macondo well into the Gulf, Welaptega Marine lent its expertise by building a high-resolution 3-D model to confirm the dimensions of the wellhead, leading to a cap being successfully installed on the wellhead almost two months post-explosion.
Welaptega technology helped to resolve BP oilspill
With cameras attached to a remote submarine, Welaptega created a 3-D video, similar to an IMAX movie, plus 5,000 photos of the damaged infrastructure to develop a model that engineers then used to build a new cap.
“We knew we had technology that would help them,” says Tony Hall, Welaptega Marine’s founder and CEO. “It felt good to be contributing to the solution in such a positive way.”
Continue reading “Welaptega using innovation to manage offshore risk” »
Halifax, Nova Scotia, May 2012 – Welaptega Marine, world-leader in underwater inspection on offshore installations, is pleased to announce it has been awarded a patent for its Rope Measurement System (RMS).
The patent was awarded by the US Patent and Trademark Office.
The RMS identifies potential damage to the interior and exterior of wire and fibre ropes used in mooring systems on offshore facilities.
“Rope measurement improves asset integrity
At the moment, operators are limited to time-consuming and expensive, visual inspections,” said Anthony Hall, CEO and founder of Welaptega Marine. “The RMS gives them the opportunity to measure and monitor rope mooring lines without removing them from the water. This reduces downtime and risk.”
Deployed by ROV, it identifies changes in rope or wire geometry. These measurements are indicators of potential deterioration which can increase the risk of failure in a mooring system.
Moorings are safety critical systems
Mooring failure is considered to be a Class 1 Hazard, the highest rating issued by the UK offshore regulator, the Health and Safety Executive.
The system has been deployed in Norway, Spain, the UK and Australia.
RMS is part of the Welaptega Subsea Intelligence Suite™ comprising the Chain Measurement System (CMS), 3Dimensional Video (3DV) and 3Dimensional Modeling (3DM).
The RMS has Canadian and EU patents pending, and is accredited for mooring inspection by both Lloyds Registry, and the Norwegian equivalent DNV (Det Norske Veritas).
Halifax, Nova Scotia, May 7, 2012 _ Welaptega Marine is pleased to announce that it will take part in the prestigious Joint FPSO Research Forum in Wageningen, The Netherlands, May 7-11.st
Welaptega CEO Tony Hall, will join other members of the invitation-only forum to discuss issues around design, fabrication and operating of FPSO (Floating Production Storage and Offloading vessels.)
Hall is a founding member of the Joint Industry Project on Mooring Integrity. It began in 1998.
Forum focuses on structural and marine issues
The FPSO forum will focus on structural and marine issues such as corrosion, fatigue, roll, double bottom/single bottom, metocean and rogue waves, welding rules, etc. Progress reports will be delivered on studies on ‘FPSO Integrity’ (MARIN), ‘Fatigue Capacity’ (DNV) and ‘LNG FPSO’ (Chevron).
Welaptega will join organizations such as ABS, MARIN, DnV and Noble Denton at the forum.
Welaptega develops imaging technologies to help operators solve complex subsea problems on FPSOs and other offshore structures.
