Press Release: HUVRdata and Earl Crochet Create Resources to Guide Aboveground Storage Tank (AST) Owners and Operators Through New TCEQ Regulations

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Posted on December 01

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HUVRdata and Earl Crochet Create Resources to Guide Aboveground Storage Tank (AST) Owners and Operators Through New TCEQ Regulations

HUVRdata offers a way to navigate and thrive in the new era of SB900

Austin, Texas – December 1, 2022 – Today, HUVRdata is pleased to offer thought leadership, training and a purpose-built solution to enable AST owner/operators to thrive in an increasingly complex regulatory environment. HUVR has developed an industry-focused answer to the question of how to handle the soon-to-be-in-effect, new TCEQ regulations by working with advisor Earl “The Tank Whisperer” Crochet–a world-class expert who has a hand in influencing the regulations.

The devastation caused by Hurricane Harvey in August 2017 and the following incident at a tank farm near Deer Park, TX in March 2019 spurred Texas legislature to pass into law SB900 – a new Senate bill mandating that API construction, inspection, and repair standards as well as spill preparation and prevention measures that previously only applied to below-ground storage tanks now be applied to all ASTs with >21,000 gallon barrels. The law is set to go into effect in September 2023, impacting an estimated 36,000 currently unregulated tanks in Texas with significant regulatory repercussions for owners/operators found to be non-compliant.

HUVRdata has collaborated with Earl Crochet on a number of pieces of thought-leadership. The most recent is an article published in Inspectioneering entitled Texas Storage Tank Owners: Are You Prepared for SB 900. The article is a deep-dive into what SB900 mandates, the specific standards involved and what it means for tank owners/operators who want to thrive. You can read the full article here>>

For in-person assistance, Earl Crochet and John Evans, business segment director—oil and gas, HUVRdata, are teaching a class based on the upcoming SB900 release at the NISTM International Aboveground Storage Tank Conference in Houston on Wednesday, December 7th at 1:30 PM. The course will cover SB900 and what it means for asset owner/operators, including how seemingly burdensome regulations can be delicately applied and executed leveraging state of the art digital solutions with efficiency gains that not only address the immediate need, but also improve operating performance, ROI and safety. Sign up here>>

To ease ongoing AST integrity requirements, owner/operators can take advantage of HUVRdata’s purpose-built suite of targeted workflows designed to provide clarity of asset health with actionable insights not only specific to accommodate the eventual release of SB900, but also to support future regulatory demands. Managing SB900 while also supporting other regulatory demands is a key capability of the HUVR IDMS platform that will help ensure industrial asset owners remain compliant and perform to expectation, eliminating downtime and maximizing revenue. Find out more here>>

Earl Crochet said, ”Each tank requires an owner to maintain a lot of tank-specific inspection data, such as monthly reports, annual reports, ultrasonic, CP – and much more – and different regulations require different documents.  A fit-for-purpose platform, like HUVR, can digitalize checklists and tie information to assets and reports. Start digital, stay digital.”

“We’ve called the current operational environment a perfect storm,” said John Evans. ”New regulations coming on the back of the Great Resignation and a rapidly-shifting paradigm involving emerging inspection tools. It was from these concerns the idea for the HUVR Tank Solution was born.”

Check out our NISTM event page>>

About HUVRdata

HUVRdata is the next generation Inspection Data Management Software Platform. Purpose-built in the cloud, the mobile-connected and vendor-agnostic HUVR IDMS 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 and in concert with any existing systems of record. 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. More on Earl Crochet, visit LinkedIn.

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