HUVRdata Announces Tank & Pipeline Expert Advisory Collaboration

The HUVR Tank Solution delivers a paradigm shift in Aboveground Storage Tank safety, regulatory and reliability inspections

AUSTIN, Texas--(BUSINESS WIRE)--In the face of SB900, and recognizing the escalating requirements for storage tank safety, reliability, compliance and operational excellence, HUVR and Earl Crochet have joined forces to deliver an industry focused, fit-for-purpose solution to meet growing Aboveground Storage Tank (AST) asset integrity inspection challenges. Both parties recognize that the AST industry, as with many other industrial segments, is changing rapidly. “Never before in my decades-long professional engineering career have I witnessed the perfect storm we see today,” said Earl Crochet, president, Crochet Midstream Consulting. “Industry veterans are exiting and taking their hard-earned tank inspection knowledge with them; at the same time new inspection technologies and regulations are entering the scene.”

Available now, the HUVR Tank Solution (HTS) is a suite of targeted workflows designed to provide clarity of asset health with actionable insight to ensure industrial asset owners not only remain compliant, but also perform to expectation, eliminating downtime and maximizing revenue. Seamlessly integrated into the HUVR Inspection Data Management Platform (IDMP), tank owners and inspection service providers finally have the ability to easily aggregate, analyze and automate all of their tank inspection data—alongside all of their other inspection data.

“Maintaining reliability, compliance and operational excellence with tanks isn’t easy, and it’s only getting more difficult as talented experts retire, new tools and datasets are introduced and sweeping new regulations are passed,” said Ben Schmuhl, VP of product management, HUVR. “We wanted to add even more breadth and depth to the AST workflows already in the HUVR platform, so partnering with Earl made perfect sense.”

Earl Crochet, often called “The Tank Whisperer,” brings over 33 years of experience in pipelines and terminals, and was the director of engineering for asset regulatory support for Kinder Morgan Terminals. He has served on several API committees and subcommittees since 1994, and also served on the Board of Directors for the ILTA until 2015.

“I'm excited to be working with HUVR on the first scalable solution for all of the industries reliant on storage tanks,” said Crochet. “HUVR is truly disrupting the old-school paradigm of manual inspections, paper checklists, siloed data and the resulting, sub-optimal AST health. Joining forces, we'll be assisting tank owners around the world, but also the hundreds of chemical and petroleum companies in Texas as they prepare for the added complexities introduced by SB900.”

Inspired by incidents with tanks during Hurricane Harvey, as well as the Deer Park chemical tank fire outside of Houston in 2019, Governor Greg Abbott signed SB900 in June, 2021, and it went into effect in September. Going forward, more than 35,000 ASTs in Texas will need to comply with myriad new regulations related to inspection and repair (API 653), overfill prevention (API 2350) and reduction of the hazards associated with the storage, handling and use of flammable and combustible liquids (NFPA 30). This law is similar to those in 30 other states, including Florida, which has even more stringent requirements.

About HUVRdate, Inc.

HUVRdata is the first purpose-built Inspection Data Management Platform (IDMP). Created in the cloud, the mobile-connected HUVR Platform enables the aggregation, analysis and automation of visual and quantitative inspection data from any device, sensor, robot or field technician. The largest energy producers and the most specialized inspection service providers have realized immediate ROI using HUVR to plan inspections, manage work, ingest data, assess findings and generate analytical reports – from any workflow. Industrial asset owners finally have a simple and easy way to visualize infrastructure health, ensuring compliance, reliability and operational excellence. For more information visit https://www.huvrdata.com/.

About Earl Crochet

Earl has over 33 years’ experience in pipelines and terminals in various roles in Engineering, Operations, Business Development, EH&S, and Management. He is currently the EVP of Business Development Oil & Gas for Perceptive Sensors Technologies and Owner of Crochet Midstream Consulting. Until November 2020, he was the Director of Engineering for Asset Regulatory Support for Kinder Morgan Terminals. Active in the API since 1994, Earl has been active in the Subcommittee of Aboveground Storage Tanks (past Chairman) and was recently co-chair of the API 2350 Tank Overfill Prevention Committee. He also served on the Board of Directors of the ILTA from 2009 to 2015, including a term as Chairman. Earl has been a Certified API 653 Aboveground Storage Tank Inspector since 1993.