DNV GL, a leading provider of technical assurance and risk management services to the oil & gas industry, has approved the STATS Group's new Techno Plug and BISEP range of pipeline isolation tools.

Obtaining type approval from DNV GL ensures clients that STATS Group products are fully compliant to the highest standards and are ‘ready to go’ without the need for further work or adaptation by the end-user.

More than 200 Tecno Plug deployments, including recent isolations in Oman, Malaysia, Canada and the UK Central North Sea – with high profile projects including the isolation of the Forties Pipeline System (FPS) for Apache North Sea Ltd -- have been approved to date.

STATS Group technical director, Bill Herron, said: “The DNV GL certification of our tools is effectively an international benchmark on the quality of our products and services, from design concept all the way through to final customer delivery.

It gives our technicians and engineers set standards to be achieved on every tool we build, but equally important, it gives our clients the reassurance that every product in those two ranges is designed, built and tested to the exacting standards required by the oil and gas industry.”