'Close' Remote Working

From Alex Taylor, Project Engineer

Issue date: 19 August 2020

The demand for Produced Water Treatment packages continues to grow, with operators trying extract every last molecule of oil from fields while also effectively cleaning the produced water prior to reuse or discharge. 

A recent produced water treatment package I have led for Alderley consists of an Induced Gas Floatation (IGF) vessel.  This separates the oil from the produced water and allows the separated product to be reused elsewhere on the plant. 

Over the course of a 12-month project timescale, we design the vessel to the required process conditions, procure, assemble and test the complete package.  Recent weeks have seen the assembly of the package and completion of the client Factory Acceptance Test (FAT). However, as with many companies, we have had unprecedented obstacles to overcome in recent months.  

Depending on the project specifications and customer needs, we partner with specialist suppliers for components that are then expertly integrated by Alderley to form the complete package.  So, for this package, I was based in mainland Europe for several months working closely with our international suppliers and overseeing the manufacturing of the essential Vessel.

However, due to Covid-19, associated travel restrictions and individual country lockdown rules, I had to return to the UK on one of the last available flights and before the vessel was complete.  Yet, even though our normal working practises had to change, the overall critical project timing remained. 

Working safely and diligently to local government guidelines, we were able to continue the manufacturing of the vessel.  This involved daily meetings and ‘close’ remote working with the international supplier and an in-country inspector.  This quick adoption of a remote working model and employing additional local support ensured the vessel was completed to our market-leading standards and dispatched to the UK for integration into a complete package.

The next few weeks of this project will see customer approval of the package and preparation for shipping to its final destination in Africa.

It’s been a pleasure to have led a project for a highly demanded and increasingly important solution at the forefront of the Oil & Gas industry, and to have managed so many suppliers across the world – even with the unprecedented challenges.  

I’m looking forward to starting my next project which consists of a two-stream ultrasonic gas metering package for a customer in the United States of America.

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