Over the coming months, specialist engineering consultancy RVA Group is supporting a major oil and gas operator with decommissioning preparations, risk assessments and procedures to ensure the safe dismantling and decommissioning of a sulphuric acid plant at their site in Barrow-in-Furness. With a full-time presence at the site since January following the completion of feasibility and option studies for the plant last year, RVA’s team of consultants will act in a project management and CDM co-ordinator role until the plant has been fully cleared.
The plant is part of a COMAH top-tier licensed operational site handling a large proportion of the UK’s gas supply. Extensive preparation is required to ensure the integrity of the site’s ongoing operations is protected whilst the decommissioning is carried out. RVA is supporting the procurement of dismantling contractor services and supervision of decommissioning to ensure the work is carried out with precision and teamwork. The priority throughout is to ensure the highest levels of safety on the project.
The plant being decommissioned comprises a reactor, concentration structure, furnace and precipitator, stack and pipe work. To avoid disruption, decommissioning will only begin when the new replacement plant has been fully installed and commissioned. This plant is currently being constructed reflecting the operator’s desire to have the safest, most efficient and reliable processing plant available.
Commenting on this project, RVA managing director Richard Vann says: ‘An increasing number of decommissioning projects are being discussed within this sector as oil and gas operators seek to develop the quality and efficiency of their installations and remove more outdated assets that may be approaching the end of their life.
‘RVA’s extensive heavy industrial experience gained from working on complex high-hazard sites means that we are well placed to ensure the safe, secure and best-value execution of even the most complicated of oil and gas decommissioning projects.’
