By Phil Paterson, Business Development Director for ICR, Houston 

The USA is a thriving market for ICR Group. In recent months we’ve doubled the size of our American business, and we have strengthened our team to help us capitalise on new opportunities in diverse market sectors.

As a provider of specialist maintenance, integrity and inspection solutions, we have a range of unique products that provide significant benefits to customers in industries ranging from oil & gas and renewables to defence, nuclear and telecoms.

Stemming from our focus on technological innovation – and founded on the principles of safety, reliability and efficiency – our products serve to protect and maintain assets and critical infrastructure for customers around the world. One of the products that is gaining significant traction in the USA is Technowrap™.

Technowrap™ is a versatile structural, pipework and pipeline repair and rehabilitation technology that offers a long-term alternative to steel replacement that requires minimal disruption to operations. Applied to live targeted areas, with no requirement for shutdown, Technowrap supports safe operations, while delivering tangible cost savings and environmental benefits.

One of the key benefits of the technology is its versatility. Our bespoke engineered repair systems use either glass or carbon fibre stitched cloths, combined with two-part epoxy resins. Technowrap™ is suitable for use on pipework and piping components, valves and flanges as well as repairs in the splashzone as well as structural components, including decks, roofs, beams, caissons and risers, blast walls, tanks and vessels.

Technowrap™ is internationally recognised and all engineering is bespoke and completed in-house, in accordance with the latest issues of ISO 24817 and ASME PCC-2, offering a repair life of up to 20 years dependant on design conditions.

There are numerous examples that attest to Technowrap's increasing popularity among US customers, for example:  

• We provided an engineered composite repair on a large methanol drip pan on an offshore platform in the Gulf of Mexico – with a 10-year design life. 
• Technowrap™ was used repair to reinstate the integrity of two pressure vessels for a major operator in the Texas Eagle Ford Basin. This solution has a 20-year design life as well as long-term corrosion protection.
• We partnered with a local specialist provider to refurbish a corrosion-hit main deck on a platform offshore Trinidad & Tobago. The work, for a global operator, constituted a cold-work solution as the platform was online.
• Technowrap™ was used to reinstate a production chemical injection skid pan on an asset in the Gulf of Mexico, for a global major operator. Again, this was engineered with a 10-year design life.
• Several areas of a logging support deck plate on a global supermajor’s platform in the Gulf of Mexico were repaired using a Technowrap™ application.

Each of these projects posed unique challenges, yet they all shared a common priority: implementing a robust repair solution that would restore confidence in our customers regarding the integrity of their infrastructure. 

We’re continuing to grow our reputation in the States – and indeed internationally – as a specialist partner looking to identify and safely deliver the optimum solution. 

I’m proud of what we’ve achieved in the US to date, but we’re only getting started. We plan to grow our profile, grow our business - and grow our track record of front-line success.

Houston-based Phil Paterson is ICR Group's Business Development Director. ICR Group specializes in asset integrity, maintenance and inspection across various sectors, with a strong presence in the US and the Gulf of Mexico. 

KeyFacts Energy Industry Directory: ICR Integrity