UK-based Argo Flare Services is offering a new approach to supporting the oil and gas industry with the design, supply and operation of flare systems both onshore and offshore.

Their focus is to provide a service dedicated to meeting operational targets of low operational and maintenance costs together with reduced environmental impact.
Argo Flare Services, collectively, has a vast amount of offshore inspection experience.  Two of their engineers between them have over 38 years of offshore flare inspections behind them.  Ray Seale and Paul Sharman will probably be recognised by many of those who have been actively involved in offshore flare work.
Seale and Sharman both come from one of the North Sea’s largest flare vendor and have undertaken many offshore inspection and trouble-shooting visits. They have worked alongside contractors such as AMEC, Eltel (formerly Statnett) and Sparrows during flare change-out. 
The pair are both familiar with the working practices of most major operators, and have undertaken flare inspections for many operators including; BP Amoco, Marathon, Mærsk, NAM, Norsk Hydro, Occidental, Statoil, Shell. For a complete list of inspections, please download their information sheet.
The firm can also work closely with inspection teams and review aerial photographs taken of flares. “It is very encouraging, the amount of detail that can be obtained from quality fly-by photographs, details such as cracked flare pilot nozzles are easily seen. To this end we have added a further web page outlining Flare Aerial Inspection Surveys detailing their Helicopter Flare inspection approach,” proudly says the firm.
Aerial inspections
Operators are finding it beneficial to undertake an aerial flare survey approximately 6 months prior to a planned shutdown (TAR). This allows enough time to prepare for the actual work-scope required. 
Some operators also use their Flare services once a month to gauge flare deterioration rates, on problematic installations.
Argo aeral survey package includes a pre-flight brief with the photographer, in which clients request specific areas to be covered, and also describe any particular requests, e.g. to get a few shots of the flare support structure, flare deck covering or flaredeck panels, etc.
Coming as standard is a set of quality photographs taken by a professional photographer (typically 20 - 25 photographs). If requested, the photographs can also be supplied digitally by CD. The firm will also provide a detailed report on the condition of the flares, highlighting any possible areas of concern, along with likely consequences of any failure mode.