INTERTEK, a leading quality solutions provider to industries worldwide, has appointed Andy Duncan as integrity lead consultant for its Production and Integrity Assurance (P&IA) division.

Based at the firm’s Manchester office, Duncan will be developing this new role to lead the integrity service offerings within Intertek P&IA, which employs more than 100 scientific and technical personnel across six countries.

Duncan has more than 30 years’ experience in the international oil and gas industry. He joins Intertek from the Health and Safety Executive’s energy division-offshore, where he was a specialist inspector for eight years and led the HSE’s Key Programme 4 (KP4) - on ageing and life extension. KP4 was referred to in the Wood Report on maximising North Sea production.

The role incorporates responsibility for all aspects of corrosion and asset integrity management within the Production and Integrity Assurance business, which caters primarily to the oil and gas industry. This includes offshore installations and pipelines, life extension management of ageing assets and corrosion threats and risk-based assessments.

Commenting on his appointment, Duncan said: “I am excited about the new challenge with Intertek and having the opportunity to shape the integrity services offering. Looking to the future and managing risks in advance with asset integrity issues is important in both mature and emerging markets.

“Utilising expertise from across our portfolio, we are planning to launch a corrosion and integrity safety case preparation and review capability. This will help clients ensure that their safety cases meet HSE guidelines on the first submission, thereby reducing the time taken for their acceptance.”

Born in Malaysian North Borneo, Duncan gained a BSc in Metallurgy and Materials Science at Nottingham University. Initially joining the oil and gas industry with BP, he has worked in a variety of corrosion and asset management positions in more than 20 countries, and is a chartered engineer.

Jim Palmer, director of Intertek Production and Integrity Assurance, said: “Andy brings a wealth of experience to Intertek in corrosion and asset integrity management issues and we are glad to have him on board.”