Welaptega delivers mooring inspection for Premier Oil

Underwater inspection provider Welaptega has completed a mooring inspection campaign for Premier Oil in the Central North Sea.

An Ashtead company delivered the inspection solution using its Subsea Cleaning Tool and Subsea Caliper attached to an inspection-class ROV.

Deployed directly from the platform rather than from a support vessel, led to significant daily cost savings for Premier Oil.

Welaptega carried out the visual inspection and also chain measurements from the hull interface to 143 metres below the waterline.

The work is part of a wider life extension Premier carries out across the Balmoral field.

The Balmoral Area fields – Balmoral, Stirling, Brenda & Nicol – are located 200 kilometres northeast of Aberdeen.

Premier acquired its interest in the Balmoral area fields together with acquisition of Oilexco in 2009. 

As well as eliminating support vessel requirements, the approach required less technicians offshore to complete the work.

Tyler de Gier, general manager at Welaptega, said:

“Although we’ve proven this model for other clients, this is the first time we have completed an asset-based mooring inspection for Premier Oil.

“We are looking to continue to develop these capabilities this year, with a focus on R&D to extend this method of deployment to our innovative optical Chain Measurement System.