Oil & Gas / Energy

Height and hazard drive everything on a plant site

An oil and gas facility puts two demands on aviation lighting at once. Flare stacks, process towers and pipe racks create genuine height risk to aircraft, and the site itself handles hydrocarbons, so any equipment installed on or near it has to survive the environment rather than merely light it.

High intensity obstruction lighting on process structures

Structures that penetrate the obstacle limitation surfaces around nearby aerodromes, or that simply present a height hazard in open desert with helicopter traffic, need obstruction lighting selected by height and location under ICAO Annex 14. Flare stacks, tall vessels and raised pipe racks are common candidates for high intensity units, chosen for visibility across long distances rather than the shorter range that suffices in a city setting.

Helidecks answer to a different standard

Where a facility has its own helideck, whether onshore at a remote site or on an offshore platform, CAP 437 sets the criteria that Saudi operators and their consultants reference for helideck lighting and marking. Helideck status lighting communicates the deck's readiness to an approaching pilot, and it has to be visible and unambiguous under the glare and heat haze conditions a plant site can produce. An illuminated wind cone gives the crew a live read on wind direction and strength, which matters more at a helideck sitting among process equipment than it does at a conventional airfield.

Fire protection matched to a hydrocarbon environment

Firefighting systems on a helideck in a hydrocarbon facility are specified against NFPA 418 principles and the site's own hazardous area classification, not a generic aviation fire package. Equipment selection, cabling and control gear all need to account for the zone they sit in.

One desk for aviation lighting inside a wider industrial project

Oil and gas project engineers already manage long procurement chains for process equipment, and aviation lighting is a small but specialist line inside that chain. Northlane Solutions supplies the helideck and obstruction lighting scope, sources internationally certified equipment suited to hazardous area classification, and coordinates delivery against the project programme. NLS has already supplied cable packages for Saudi Aramco projects, working inside exactly this kind of industrial procurement discipline, and is a registered supplier with Saudi Aramco and registered on the SAP Ariba network, applying the same standard to aviation lighting scopes on oil and gas sites.