Expertise in world-scale industrial facilities, ranging from $12bn oil refineries to $13bn power & desalination plants to $5bn petrochemical complexes, and covering over 50 countries across five continents.  Underwriting survey types include PD/MB, PD+BI, OEE, TPL, PV, C/EAR, and more.

If you need to fully understand the exposures associated with a large, complex or prototypical risk, then Fíréanta is the partner for you.

Combination of Operational (PD & OEE) and EAR surveys for one of the largest oil fields in the world located in southern Iraq.  This was the first every survey of the asset, requiring collaboration with the client (Iraqi Oil Ministry), the main O&M contractor and various other stakeholders to navigate the complexity of the existing surface operations, the ongoing drilling campaigns and the mixture of brownfield and greenfield construction works.  

A major component of the survey was developing a complete picture of blowout potential and mitigation plans, given that there was over 150 wells already completed and nearly 100 planned for the forthcoming three years.  A key factor in establishing Insurer comfort that blowout risk was on the lower end of the spectrum was the fact that >95% of wells were into the Mishriff formation, which is the pay zone in several other major fields in southern Iraq, and therefore the petrophysical data and drilling experience was very well established.

The survey was executed remotely via proprietary inspection software, and the survey report was delivered within 16 working days of visit completion, beating even the stretched target set in the survey agreement, contributing to the successful placement of an asset which had been uninsured for over five years.  

An ageing asset - with mixed feed crackers dating back to the 1970's - located in the hyper-competitive environment of Western Europe, meaning that capital budgets are thin and operating expenses can only be lowered; not the place where recommendations which involve spending money are going to be welcomed with an open mind.  This petrochemical facility represents a challenge to any risk engineer.

The key factor in improving risk performance at an asset such as this is to engage the creativity of the talented experts at the site, not to simply throw NFPA and API standards at them and walk away.  Getting the experienced managers on board through a collaborative survey approach meant that some interesting ways to handle more serious gaps - such as the lack of fire detection in polymer extrusion buildings and use of single mechanical seals on hydrocarbon pumps in the crackers - yielded real progress while minimising the cost impact to the Insured.

A tailored risk engineering approach for ageing assets is essential if the underlying risk quality is to be properly represented.

This survey involved one of the largest, most complex and highest conversion (Nelson Complexity Index 11.9) grassroots refineries ever built.  As a newly commissioned asset built to very high standards in an exceptionally large open plot, the hardware risk had been inherently minimized to an exceptionally high degree.

Where value could be added in the risk engineering process was in the transfer of best practices in areas such as risk assessment (avoiding group think), choosing performance metrics more wisely, maintenance of fire protection equipment (can catch out even the best operators!) and business interruption scenario planning.  

Even when the insurance market has already developed a very positive view on a risk - as was the case for this particular Insured - if an operator is not continuously improving then they are heading backwards.   And their positive engagement in the survey process ensured that they stayed ahead of the risk management curve.

A Guinness Book of World Records holder.  9.5 GW electricity and 490 MIGD water.  A 4.5 km long site.  $13bn replacement cost value.  There is nothing in the energy industry quite like this Power & Desalination Complex in the United Arab Emirates.

Previous surveys had been done by property risk engineers, resulting in a survey report which leaned heavily on fire detection and suppression elements, largely ignoring the inherent hazards, technological factors and mature management systems which truly characterised the risk.  By deep diving into these previously unexamined aspects it was revealed that the Insured was indeed a world leader in operational risk management and loss prevention, and underwriters could take a more appropriate view of the risk quality of this monumental site.

Furthermore, the loss estimates developed by the previous surveyor missed a significant storm surge exposure (as this is a low lying coastal site), and thus their natural perils EML was three times too low.  Given that the Insured had its own captive that was arranging it's capital adequacy on the basis of this EML, it was crucial that their balance sheet and reinsurance program was based on a fact-based loss estimation method, which only a specialist risk engineer should be trusted with.

This survey concerned a wind power operator with four separate stations along the Kalpitiya Peninsula in Sri Lanka, which had an acute insurance renewal problem.

Large claims following two successive nacelle fires, both of which were linked to electrical faults within the slip control system (a variable rotor resistor with capacitor banks) meant that several Insurers had opted not to quote for renewal, severely limiting options for A-rated reinsurance capacity.  The survey dived into the investigations for these incidents, which revealed a previously non-identified contributory cause; the fact that these turbines were lying idle for long periods due to a fault at the local export substation.  

This led to temperature cycling inside the slip control system electronics panel, resulting in moisture being laid down on the circuit boards, causing corrosion which eventually led to a short circuit.  An important factor in getting Insurers comfortable that occurrence of the same type of fire for a third time was the revelation that the export substation had already been returned to service, and so the main underlying causal factor was no longer in place.

Inadequate root cause analysis (RCA) by Operators in the renewables sector is a common issue, and a risk engineering survey by a suitably experienced engineer can be the crucial component in helping Insurers understand that loss potential is much lower than they had been supposing.