The Changing Landscape of UK Asset Integrity in a Shifting Energy Market
By Greg Drane, Commercial Director, Sutro Group
Recent policy shifts in global energy markets are creating significant ripple effects across the UK’s industrial landscape. As we navigate through 2025, asset owners in the oil, gas, and renewable sectors face a complex set of challenges and opportunities that require strategic foresight and adaptable inspection approaches.
The current energy context
The energy sector is experiencing transformation on multiple fronts. The renewed emphasis on domestic energy production, shifting global trade patterns, and ongoing climate commitments are creating a distinctive operational environment for UK asset owners.
The UK’s energy strategy now places greater emphasis on security and self-sufficiency while maintaining decarbonisation goals. This dual focus creates a unique tension: established assets in traditional sectors may see extended operational timelines, while renewable infrastructure continues to expand rapidly.
Balancing extension and transition
For operators in the oil and gas sector, this shifting landscape translates to a complex balancing act. Many facilities originally designed for 25-30 year lifespans are now approaching or exceeding these timelines. The current emphasis on energy security means that decommissioning decisions are being reconsidered, with many assets now expected to operate well beyond their initial design parameters.
This extension creates distinct challenges for asset integrity:
• Ageing Infrastructure: Components and systems operating beyond their initial design life require more frequent and thorough inspection regimes.
• Regulatory Evolution: Compliance requirements continue to evolve, often requiring retrofitting or operational adjustments to ageing assets.
• Economic Constraints: Extending asset lifespans must remain economically viable despite potentially increasing maintenance costs.
Meanwhile, renewable infrastructure—particularly onshore wind—continues its rapid growth trajectory. Both the UK and European renewable energy capacity has seen consistent expansion, with new installations featuring increasingly advanced technology. With operating centres across the UK and in Poland, Sutro Group is well-positioned to serve clients throughout these expanding markets. These assets present their own integrity challenges:
• Site Conditions: Assets in diverse and sometimes challenging environments require innovative inspection approaches.
• Scale Considerations: Larger structures with more complex components demand new inspection methodologies.
• Operational Pressures: The drive for efficiency means minimising downtime during inspection cycles.
The role of inspection innovation
This complex landscape creates both challenges and opportunities for inspection methodologies. The traditional approach—shutting down operations, erecting scaffolding, and conducting manual inspections—is increasingly misaligned with the economic and operational pressures facing both traditional and renewable assets.
Advanced robotics and UAV technologies
The most significant shift we’re witnessing is the accelerated adoption of robotics and UAV (drone) technologies. These solutions are revolutionising how critical infrastructure is inspected:
Robotic Inspection Systems: Our recently announced partnership with Square Robot exemplifies this evolution. Square Robot’s advanced robotic inspection solutions for above-ground storage tanks (ASTs) allow critical assessments to be conducted while tanks remain in service. This eliminates the need for costly tank drainage, confined space entry, and operational shutdowns—transforming what was once a major disruption into a routine maintenance activity.
As Richard Denmead, our Technical Director noted when announcing this partnership: “Their advanced robotic technology delivers superior data quality while tanks remain in service, offering our clients a solution that transforms integrity management with improved cost-effectiveness and safety compliance across multiple sectors.”
UAV/Drone Technology: For external infrastructure inspections, advanced drone systems are similarly transformative. The Elios 3 with its SLAM-based stabilisation and FlyAware™ technology ensures rock-solid stability even in challenging conditions, while the DJI Matrice 30T delivers exceptional versatility. These platforms, equipped with high-resolution visual cameras, thermal imaging sensors, and LiDAR capabilities, can:
• Inspect elevated structures without scaffolding or rope access
• Complete comprehensive site surveys in a fraction of traditional timeframes
• Perform thermal analysis of operational systems without shutdowns
• Access confined spaces too hazardous for human entry
The Elios 3’s 180° field of view 4K camera and thermal imaging capabilities are particularly valuable for confined space inspections across the oil and gas, chemical, energy, and renewables sectors. Its LiDAR and 3D mapping features provide real-time, high-density point cloud maps, enabling the identification of potential issues with exceptional accuracy—all without putting personnel at risk.
Beyond these technologies, we’re seeing asset owners embrace several other key approaches:
1. Data-Driven Decision Making: Digital documentation systems integrated with asset management platforms enable better predictive maintenance rather than reactive approaches.
2. Combined Access Methods: Integrating specialist access techniques like rope access with advanced NDT technologies delivers comprehensive inspection outcomes with minimal disruption.
3. Efficiency-Focused Methodologies: Streamlined inspection approaches that maintain or enhance quality while reducing time and resource requirements.
At Sutro Group, we’ve observed these trends firsthand across our diverse client base. For instance, our work combining UAV inspections with targeted rope access interventions has allowed industrial asset operators to reduce traditional inspection timelines while enhancing documentation quality.
Future outlook
Looking ahead, several factors will likely shape the UK’s asset integrity landscape:
• Technology Integration: The continued integration of AI and machine learning with inspection data will enhance predictive capabilities.
• Skills Evolution: The inspector of tomorrow needs both traditional technical expertise and digital competency.
• Strategic Maintenance Planning: As economic pressures increase, precisely targeted maintenance based on comprehensive inspection data will become increasingly valuable.
• Regulatory Adaptation: Inspection protocols will continue evolving to address the unique challenges of both extending traditional asset lifespans and ensuring renewable infrastructure reliability.
Conclusion
The UK’s energy transition creates a complex environment for asset integrity management. With traditional infrastructure operating beyond initial design parameters alongside rapidly expanding renewable capacity, inspection methodologies must evolve to meet these varied challenges.
Our partnership with Square Robot represents a perfect example of how innovative technology can address these emerging needs. By enabling tank inspections without drainage or human entry, we’re delivering a solution that aligns perfectly with the current industry imperatives: extending asset lifespans, enhancing safety, and maintaining operational continuity.
Similarly, our continued investment in advanced UAV technology allows us to offer inspection solutions that reduce carbon footprint, minimise disruption, and provide superior data quality—all critical considerations in today’s energy landscape.
This isn’t simply about adopting new technologies. It’s about developing integrated approaches that balance thoroughness, efficiency, and cost-effectiveness in a changing energy landscape. By combining remote inspection technologies with specialist access techniques and advanced NDT methodologies, we can address the diverse integrity challenges facing both traditional and renewable assets.
For asset owners navigating this transition, partnerships with specialist inspection providers who understand both traditional and emerging integrity challenges will be increasingly valuable. By combining technical expertise with innovative methodologies, these collaborations can help ensure that UK energy infrastructure—both established and emerging—maintains the highest standards of safety, reliability and operational efficiency throughout this period of significant change.
Greg Drane is Commercial Director at Sutro Group, specialists in asset integrity inspections using rope access, UAV technology, robotics, and advanced NDT techniques across the UK and Europe.