British expertise overseas: From gas platform to private website

TWO contrasting projects won the innovation prizes presented for the first time this year as part of the British Consultants of the Year Awards, according to The Times.

A revolutionary self-installing platform for gas exploration and a secure directory for gathering information from different sources could hardly be more different but their success indicates the wide variety of expertise available from British consultants.

The gas platform was Arup?s answer to Conoco?s need to develop several large natural gas discoveries in the West Natuna Sea, Indonesia.

The oil company was seeking new technology to capture the gas economically and deliver it to the growing Asian market and Arup?s solution was the ACE platform which can be moved easily from one site to another and install itself with a novel temporary jacking system.

The directory was Roberts & Partners? solution to the problem which always faces different teams starting work on a new construction project: getting all the documents and information on design and construction timetables together in one place.

The RAPID directory is a secure website, an extranet that allows many organisations to log into a private Internet site to manage, view, print, upload and download project information at all times of the day and night.(*)