The Equalizer Group, world leading innovator of flange maintenance tools for the energy sector, has set up a separate service company headed up by General Manager Alan Morrison to take forward the development of its award-winning Xtegrity system.
As GM of Equalizer Flange Integrity Systems (EFIS) Alan, who has almost 30 years’ experience in the oil and gas sector, will be responsible for managing and growing all operational and sales activities for Xtegrity.
Upon completion of his engineering apprenticeship, Alan began his career in the Oil & Gas industry as a Site Services Technician with Hydratight before joining Stork (formerly RBG) in 1993. Over the following 22 years he held a number of senior roles with the company in the UK, Qatar and Kazakhstan building up considerable project and operations experience at home and overseas.
Xtegrity was developed as a solution to the industry-wide problem of dealing with heavily corroded or degraded bolts in flange joints. It takes away the need to remove corroded bolts by “replacing” them with a new bolts which clamp around the outside of the flange and are held in place with a floating frame.
Last month, the world-leading technology of Xtegrity was recognised when it won the Grampian Award for Innovation at the Elevator Awards in the UK.
Alan said the system is of particular relevance to the North Sea’s ageing assets and has the potential to achieve huge savings by reducing or eliminating the need for shutdowns.
“Xtegrity has significant operational and commercial benefits which are particularly relevant during the current economic climate,” he said. “It is safer, more cost-effective and more efficient than anything else on the market and because it reduces the time required to carry out work from days to hours, it is very budgetable.”
EFIS was one of the three new divisions established recently by the Equalizer Group. The group also comprises parent company Equalizer International which was established in 1994 as well as Equalizer Americas and Equalizer Asia which were set up in January 2015. The two overseas divisions were established to support Equalizer’s growing international presence by providing a more tailored and locally focussed service to customers around the world.
“We are very pleased to have someone with Alan’s industry experience on board to lead the development of Xtegrity,” said Group chairman Ian McCormick. “Our group is going through an exciting phase of strategic and operational growth. By establishing EFIS we now have a team in place, led by Alan, who will focus on growing that company and maximising the potential of the new system.”