Read about the latest happenings and press releases here at EM&I

From concept to decommissioning, EM&I Alliance services optimise the integrity of assets for clients in the oil, gas and petrochemical industries – arenas in which the highest standards are promoted and upheld.

EM&I is a global organisation with a proven track record in industry-leading standards of service, boasting a client base that includes all of the oil majors for which they have been a trusted partner for more than 30 years.

Aberdeen is the primary operating centre for EM&I UK, as well as the focus for Bureau Veritas EM&I, a joint venture (JV) which, with EM&I UK as one of its main suppliers, manages a leading oil major’s UK North Sea assets – a project which has generated around £33million, for the JV alone, over the last four years.

Three categories of service are managed out of Aberdeen, forming a complete ‘one-stop-shop’ for asset integrity. The first aspect is consultancy, characterised by EM&I’s Operational and Asset Integrity Management System (OAIMS), a proprietary management system, and suite of best-in-class documentation, developed over the last 15 years. O-AIMS is a life cycle management system incorporating bespoke criticality based programmes to ensure that inspection, monitoring and repair / maintenance activities are focused on reducing costs and minimising the risk of unexpected events, including failures, which can cause unplanned shutdowns. This objective goes hand in hand with the most important of objective of optimising health, safety and environmental performance.

“O-AIMS helps our clients raise the standard of their integrity systems”, explained EM&I’s Chief Operating Officer Alexander Constantinis; “This element of our business is about demonstrating control and managing risk, focusing spend and ultimately, improving efficiency, safety and environmental performance. This is done in compliance with both local regulatory demands and our client’s own exacting corporate governance standards - our clients want consistency in their operations; they want to take best practice around the world and we help them to achieve that goal.”

Consultancy services are complemented by integrated inspection management. EM&I teams implement best practice  criticality-based inspection systems, with a focus on innovation through a combination of the latest technologies from market and EM&I’s own proprietary techniques. “We were one of the first vendors in Aberdeen to bring in digital radiography, for example,” said Constantinis, “and are currently developing a new product that will enhance the safety and efficacy of that  service in conjunction with a Canadian university. In terms of inspection services, our niche is high end techniques underpinned by more than just a love of fancy gadgets - our ultimate goal is non-intrusive methods that minimise disruption and downtime.”

The third category of service is repair and maintenance, again at a highly specialised level – recent challenges include  carrying out major flare stack repairs on a fixed jacket in the UK North Sea as well as a steel renewal project on the deck of  an FPSO while still producing. Again the focus is on the application of techniques that cause minimal disruption, with  solutions from market or from EM&I’s own innovative product range. A good example of the latter is automatic IGLOO which  received its UK patent priority date on 15 December 2009. IGLOO – a hot work habitat system - has been in use for some  years, creating a safe and controlled environment within a hostile, potentially explosive environment. Said Constantinis: “The  IGLOO system is quite simple, as most good inventions are, but in order to reduce the number of operatives needed we  developed a computerised, automatic control system. This advanced solution enables us to monitor the environment in a  much more robust way, and helps increase safety and reduce the Person On Board (POB) requirements.” EM&I UK does  offer each of its service categories on a stand alone basis where required, but finds that most clients value the efficiency of a  one stop shop and a single point of contact.

Another key advantage is the company’s global structure, which generates a wealth of experience that is shared across the  organisation on a regular basis. Indeed a network of strategically located bases worldwide coupled with regular Global  Workshops, training events and the discipline of weekly and monthly meetings ensures best practice is communicated across the organisation at regular intervals.

Going one stage further, EM&I’s technical team is a complementary mix of discipline engineers with backgrounds not limited  to oil and gas. In fact EM&I’s industrial experience has its founding roots in nuclear and aerospace, industries which  are recognised leaders in the asset integrity management concepts now being applied in the oil and gas world. The  company’s track record speaks volumes about the effectiveness of its approach – having worked on over 40 floating  production and 60 fixed installations worldwide, EM&I has worked with all the oil majors, many of the minors, and is developing strong relationships with the major lease operators. Confidence is high for international growth, said Constantinis: “The UK will always be a key market, but we see major growthlocations as being Asia-Pacific, West Africa and the Americas – at the moment we are focusing a great deal of attention on the development of our Houston operation with strong support from Stantec, one of our JV partners, who is a key player in the region.

“Our track record is vital to us. We have never had a major marketing budget; our client base knows us by reputation, and the strength of our reputation has seen our growth catapulted in recent years.”


EM&I’s commitment to health and safety standards is clearly demonstrable. The company holds a host of industry  certifications and awards and indeed CEO Danny Constantinis was a founding member of IRATA, the Industrial Rope Access  Trade Association, an involvement that was triggered by the company’s commitment to the provision of safe working  environments. More recently, in 2009 EM&I was awarded the RoSPA Gold Award for Occupational Health and  Safety for the second year in a row, in acknowledgement of continuous improvement - no mean feat when standards are exceptionally high to begin with!