Houlder and BMT Nigel Gee today announced that their jointly developed TAS™ (Turbine Access System) has won the  27th Offshore Achievement Award for Safety organised by the Society of Petroleum Engineers (SPE), Aberdeen Section. The award was presented to Frederic Perdrix, Houlder Chief Technical Officer by Walter Thain Vice President, Operations for Petrofac, the Award sponsors, at the dinner in Aberdeen on 21st March.

TAS is a patented motion compensated platform that provides a safe and stable point of access to the Turbine, Offshore Structures or other vessels.

The judges decided that TAS™ clearly demonstrated improved safety for personnel transfers to offshore windfarms and would also allow increase in operability. With improved safety and meeting the operator’s stringent costs requirements TAS™ will mean more work days are possible than with traditional access methods.

Frederic Perdrix commented: “We’re delighted the Houlder / BMT Nigel Gee team has been recognised for innovation. It is genuinely innovative engineering that makes the TAS™ project stand out.”

John Bonafoux, Managing Director of BMT Nigel Gee, commented: “This latest award demonstrates how important the TAS™ system is to safety in the Offshore industry.”

Following successful trials at Rhyl Flats offshore windfarm, the patented TAS™ system has benefitted from significant development effort by both companies and support from the Carbon Trust. Interest is now being shown by wide variety of operators”.