Consultancy services

Pipeline engineering of subsea pipelines for the oil and gas industries is the predominant business area with recent attention focussing on pipeline integrity management and methods for validating pipelines. Principal areas of expertise are:

• pipeline integrity management and preparation of PIMS
• pipeline life extension assessments
• review of corrosion management systems
• pipeline piggability assessments
• management of intelligent pigging programmes
• span assessments
• on-bottom stability
• fishing interaction
• dropped object assessments
• preparation of specifications
• concept and FEED studies
• tutoring and presentation of pipeline engineering training courses

The main emphasis over recent years has been in integrity management of pipelines and the management of inspection programmes to determine the internal condtion of pipelines using intelligent pigs.

Composite materials can be applied to a range of oil industry applications onshore, offshore, both on topsides facilities and subsea, and downhole. The principal benefits of fibre reinforced plastic (FRP) and glass reinforced plastic (GRP) composites are:

• corrosion resistance
•  lightweight
•  ease of handling

These enable the operator to achieve reduced installation and operating costs as demonstrated by a number of projects in the Gulf of Mexico and North Sea.

Philip Medlicott Ltd was closely involved with the preparation of the ISO 14692 GRP piping specification and was instrumental in managing development activities for the following:

• FRP lined tubing and flowlines for high temperture corrosion resistance
• FRP caissons for long span applications
• GRP grating standard (in-house oil company specification)

Philip Medlicott Lt has provided assistance in the development of composite suspension and flywheel energy storage systems for bus, train and crane applications. These projects, which are managed by Sciotech with the support of Reading University and other partners, are progressing forward with the construction of full scale bogie components for rail applications and a composite flywheel for a crane application. Both these projects incorporate innovative technology. For example, the Eurobogie incorporates the suspension as part of main bogie stucture, which is moulded in one piece. The composite technology enables fibre optic sensor technology to be moulded within the main structural members, which enables the structural response to be monitored in real time. Phil Medlicott was responsible for the composite flywheel design which was originally developed while working at BP during the 1980s. This has now been interfaced with modern high speed electric drive technology to enable efficient control of power flow in and out of the flywheel. Further details of the Eureka Eurobogie and TRUS projects can be found at the Sciotech web site.