Shell UK Ltd required independent, specialist Gross Visual Inspections (GVIs) for a large quantity of valves on their offshore and onshore facilities in the northern sector of the North Sea, including the Shell St Fergus gas plant and Shearwater offshore platform. These inspections cover hundreds of valves across seven facilities that need inspecting every two years.  

CONSUB specialist inspectors undertook the GVIs. At the St Fergus gas plant, 80 valves with a total of 2,160 inspection points were completed over three days. Inspections for emergency shut down valves were carried out over a four-day visit to the Shearwater offshore platform. 

CONSUB completed this with intrinsically safe tablets and a digital inspection software that CONSUB developed specifically to cater for Shell’s requirements. The software enabled live monitoring from remote specialists to identify any issues immediately, as well as providing auto-generation of reports allowing inspectors to reduce the time taken to complete the GVIs.  

CONSUB found that the inspection time is reduced by 70% with the digital inspection software when compared to conventional inspection techniques for facilities of this size. With only one inspector required on the facility, CONSUB was able to offer Shell significant improvements to inspection time and cost, whilst maintaining the quality of the inspection activity.