In the offshore Oil & Gas industry, safety and reliability are top priority. The failure of a bolted joint not only could lead to catastrophic consequences for personnel and the environment, but also for the bottom line. On crucial bolted joints Agility Group, a Norwegian engineering, procurement and construction company, uses Nord-Lock safety washers - to the delight of its drilling company customers.

From the Gulf of Mexico to the far north of Norway, Agility Group's PetroFlame? burner booms are trusted by drilling companies to safely flare off oil and gas when the pressure in the well reaches dangerous levels. Jutting out some 30 metres from the side of oilrigs and drill ships, these burner booms are battered by wind, sea spray, and subjected to heavy vibrations, fierce sunshine and ice build-up.

Since being introduced to Nord-Lock Group and their wedge-locking products about five years ago, Agility Group has become a loyal customer. And it is not just its own engineers and designers who have come to appreciate performance and reliability of the Nord-Lock wedge-locking technology; their customers - the large drilling companies - do too.

"When our clients come to us they are normally going to operate in the northern hemisphere, where they know that the waves and the wind can be pretty harsh," says Tom Mathisen, Agility Group's Project Manager Marine Solutions. "They often ask us how we have secured the bolts. When we say that we use Nord-Lock washers, they are confident that everything is okay. They have heard about the Nord-Lock Group around the world and they know what Nord-Lock wedge-locking system is and what it does. They know they don't need to worry about bolts coming loose."

Agility Group is a full service engineering, procurement and construction company specializing in medium-sized projects for the Oil & Gas industry. The company employs more than 1,200 people at ten different locations across Norway and Shanghai.

Growing global demand for oil and gas is reflected in the company's balance sheet; Agility Group expects to double 2011's revenue of NOK 1.7 billion as soon as 2015, selling to drilling companies like Ensco, Seadrill, Odfjell, Transocean and Stena Drilling. The PetroFlame burner boom is essentially a safety valve and it is categorised as well testing equipment. Mathisen explains: "They are used during drilling of new oil wells or for testing of an existing one. If the drilling companies experience very high pressure or temperature, and they can't control the flow of oil or gas, they use the burner boom to flare off the oil or gas."Agility Group has over the last three decades delivered more than 50 burner booms of various kinds - and all are still in operation. Each burner boom - Agility Group has three models, the Swan-Neck, Cantilever and King Post Mounted PetroFlame - has several hundred bolted joints and for many of the most crucial ones, such as the pipe supports, access platforms and walkways, Nord-Lock wedge-locking system is used.

"For the pipe supports we used double nuts before," says Structural and mechanical design engineer Stian Jenssen. "With Nord-Lock washers we can reduce that to one nut, which makes installation easier and we consider it to be a more secure solution. We try to use them wherever we have vibrations. At the moment we are developing a new burner boom design where we are planning to use Nord-Lock products more or less all over."

Petter Viken, Nord-Lock's sales manager for Norway, says that the Oil & Gas sector is growing in importance for Nord-Lock. "For Nord-Lock Norway, the sector accounts for about 90% of our business," he says. "It's all about the bolt security that the products give. Safety is a top priority in the Oil & Gas industry, and although it is a rather conservative sector, the Nord-Lock Group has built up a strong reputation worldwide."

Today Agility Group has much of its production in China, where much of its competition is also found. "We noticed that there are a lot of Chinese copies of Nord-Lock washers there, but we demand the original, of course," says Mathisen.

"It's a great product. They are more expensive than other solutions, but they are a worthwhile investment. One of our strengths is the quality of our products compared with our competitors', and Nord-Lock is one thing that helps us ensure the highest possible quality standards."

(Nord-Lock Pte Ltd, Singapore. Tel: +65 6515 6658. Fax +65 6515 4485. Email: evan.ang@nord-lock.com)