Article originally published at www.energynewsbulletin.net

Swivelpole has a long history with Woodside Petroleum working on the  North West Shelf, and its ST18 with custom heat shield can be seen on  Shell’s Prelude vessel’s Turret.

That work, which was done with SBM Offshore, took into account  Prelude’s safety and longevity given its location in a high wind-speed  region.

Swivelpole also did work with BP for the Angelin gas project offshore  Trinidad and Tobago; with ExxonMobil at the US oiler’s Victorian gas  plant that is fed from the Bass Strait; and BHP Billiton in the Gulf of  Mexico.

Swivelpole is effectively a fixture mounting and lowering system,  incorporating the 45-degree clutch-style safe swivel joint which allows  independent, efficient controlled lowering and raising of a pole and the  mounted fixture to a safe working height.

This enables fixtures like light fixtures, alarms, antennas, cameras and sirens to be easily installed, serviced and maintained.

With a track record of providing solutions both locally and exporting  them to both the US and Canada — particularly in difficult, high clash  or extreme conditions — Swivelpole executive general manager Andrew Tolj  said the company saw a “really big opportunity” upgrading equipment on  recent LNG new-builds as operators seek to boost productivity and  efficiency.

“With the upgrade to LED [lighting], when you bring a pole down you  can convert a pole and do your upgrade at the same time, which allows  the larger facilities to have a phased approach to their rollout of  upgrade,” he told Energy News.

“They’re also looking at other equipment around wi-fi and the  Internet of Things, not just lighting. That’s the future of where it’s  heading.”

“While the principle of our product was for lighting, the need to  access fixtures is universal, be it in wi-fi or digital technology; and  the principles of safety, productivity and return on investment to do  that, particularly as things have got tighter financially for operators  [in a lower-for-longer oil price environment].”

Swivelpole’s innovation and history with larger projects means it has been able to grow its solutions.

“This includes the full lowering pole solution we design and  manufacture, and can convert existing solutions to a lowering pole  solution; or in recent times where you can now build your own lowering  pole solution,” Tolj said.

“So we’ve evolved from being the complete lowering pole solutions  provider; and what we’ve learned from working with global companies is  they have particular needs, so it’s about tailoring designs to fit their  criteria, which can be quite complex.”

Rob Pannekoek, who founded Swivelpole in 1999, worked in the field  installing fixtures and making it safe for one person to operate, and  productive for the operator to get return on investment for the cost of  installation and replacement, which is now the firm’s core principle in  developing the technology.

While Swivelpole has done work in the Middle East, it is engaged in  Asia and Africa, the company also has enquiries coming in from Australia  for the product to be used in other markets.

“We’re also investing in research and development, developing new  products to bring to market, with an eye to going beyond the traditional  industrial markets to commercial and domestic,” he said.