NDT inspection of offshore risers in Lake Maracaibo

Plant Integrity Ltd collaborated with a local company, TechCorr, to bring Teletest ^® technology to Venezuela. A number of demonstrations have been carried out for Venezuelan oil and petrochemical companies.

One of particular interest concerned the inspection of offshore risers. PDVSA own a number of small unmanned gas platforms in Lake Maracaibo. They are concerned about the possibility of corrosion affecting the risers in the splash zone. The purpose of this exercise was to demonstrate in principle that Teletest ^® was capable of inspecting this zone. The photograph shows the transducer ring clamped around a 6" riser. The range achieved was 13m, but was only limited by a change in pipe section. The 'Splashtron' coating, whilst causing some slight attenuation did not significantly affect the ability to inspect the critical region.