West Bromwich engineering firm saves millions for oil giant

A West Bromwich engineering firm saved a major oil company millions of pounds by designing, manufacturing and shipping a specialised set of bolt tensioners to the North Sea within 34 hours.

The company turned to Tentec in Guns Lane for help after encountering a problem during a scheduled maintenance shutdown of one its oil rigs in the Norwegian sector.

It faced delays that could potentially cost £8 million a day in lost production. When the problem was identified the company's engineers realised that a customised set of bolt tensioning tools was required to ensure the maintenance shutdown could be completed satisfactorily.

Once the oil company contacted Tentec its team swung into action. The project started at 10am when the design team met to discuss the exact requirements. By midday engineering manager Dave Evans and his team had produced and issued the special tensioner drawings.

Two separate designs were required totaling 20 hydraulic bolt tensioning tools, with approximately 120 machined components.

The raw material was then cut by Tentec's preferred steel supplier who utilised all available personnel and six separate saws to ensure that the pieces reached Tentec's manufacturing facility in West Bromwich by that same evening.

It was then Tentec's manufacturing team's turn and they enthusiastically extended their working hours to meet the deadline, working through the night to manufacture the machined components.

At the same time,operations director Dave Jones, who was co-ordinating the project, oversaw the manufacture of the hydraulic seals, hoses and pumps needed to complete the order.

By the following evening the job was complete with the tools machined, assembled, tested and loaded onto a special courier vehicle bound for Heathrow Airport where it was flown to Norway.

Once it cleared customs, the consignment was taken by helicopter directly to the oil rig. Within 34 hours it was Job Done for Tentec.

"It was a major achievement for Tentec." said managing director Mike Gethings.

"When we were first approached it seemed like an impossible task and I don't think many companies would have even accepted the challenge. However, having the manufacturing and quality assurance completely under our control here in the UK, meant that we could respond quickly.

"Our client was delighted with the fast response and quality of the finished product. Importantly, it saved them millions of pounds as they could complete their maintenance shutdown and get the production platform back on line with the minimum loss of production," he said.