Marine & Offshore NDT Services in Houston 2026 — ASNT Level III Led

Atlantis NDT delivers marine & offshore ndt services in Houston. ASNT NDT Level III-led. Houston is a key hub for oil & gas, petrochemical & refining operations. Technicians are certified by their employer to its SNT-TC-1A written practice, and procedures and reports are reviewed by an ASNT NDT Level III (UT, RT, MT, PT, VT).

For the national service, with the methods used, what you receive and how crews are mobilised, see maritime NDT services.

Marine & Offshore Inspection Scope in Houston

Comprehensive NDT inspection for Marine & Offshore facilities: pressure vessels (API 510), piping (API 570), above-ground storage tanks (API 653), heat exchangers + columns, fired heaters + furnaces, offshore platforms + FPSOs (where applicable), turnaround + EPC project support. Methods: UT (including PAUT and TOFD), RT, MT, PT and VT.

Code + Compliance

Marine & Offshore facility inspections per: ASME B&PV Sections V + VIII + IX + XI; ASME B31 piping series; API 510 + 570 + 571 + 653 + 936 + 1169; NACE MR0175 + MR0103 sour-service; ASTM E-series; ISO 17635/17636/17640; AWS D1.1/3.6; IACS Rec-20 marine. Records are retained in Atlantis NDT ERP.

Free Consultation in Houston

Atlantis NDT publishes no pricing — pricing varies by region + scope + delivery model. Request your free 30-minute consultation with founder Anoop Rayavarapu (ASNT NDT Level III in UT, RT, MT, PT and VT). Every job is quoted on request. See also verticals, consulting, Houston ERP, Houston training.

What marine and offshore inspection actually covers

Assets in scope: hull plating and internal structure, ballast and cargo tanks, deck equipment and cranes, propulsion shafting and stern tubes, offshore jackets and topsides, risers and mooring systems.

Damage mechanisms that drive the inspection plan

General and pitting corrosion accelerated by coating breakdown in ballast tanks; grooving corrosion along weld lines; fatigue cracking at hard points, bracket toes and hatch corners; hydrogen-induced cracking in high-strength steels; and marine growth masking condition underwater.

Methods applied

Close-up visual survey, ultrasonic thickness gauging against a gauging plan agreed with the class surveyor, magnetic particle on critical welds, and ROV or diver-deployed examination for the underwater hull and subsea structure.

Governing codes and standards

IACS unified requirements and the class society rules — ABS, DNV, Lloyd's Register, Bureau Veritas, RINA, ClassNK — with thickness measurement performed by a firm approved by the class society and the results presented in the society's required format.

What makes this sector different

The class survey regime, not a general inspection code, drives scope and timing. Thickness diminution is calculated against original scantlings, which means the as-built data is part of the inspection record and its absence is a genuine problem rather than an inconvenience.

The Houston asset base

Houston is the global capital of the oil and gas industry, hosting the largest concentration of US refining and petrochemical capacity, with refineries, petrochemical complexes and midstream facilities across the Greater Houston area. The sheer density of pressure vessels, heat exchangers, storage tanks, and pipeline networks makes digital twin technology an operational necessity for integrity managers working across Shell, ExxonMobil, Chevron, and Lyondell Basell assets. The humid subtropical climate and proximity to the Gulf of Mexico create persistent corrosion challenges, making real-time thickness trending within a 3D digital twin a critical risk-management tool.

How the work is controlled

Agree personnel qualification, equipment checks, procedure revision and review responsibilities for the examination. Retain those records with the results and coverage limitations.

Training your own maritime & shipbuilding inspectors

Companies in this sector increasingly pair contracted inspection with in-house capability — Maritime & Shipbuilding NDT training covers the methods, the regime and the certification path.

Marine and shipbuilding NDT beyond Houston

This page covers marine and shipbuilding inspection in Houston. The sector-wide picture sits on the national pages: marine and shipbuilding NDT consulting covers programme authority — written practices, procedure approval, audit defence — in this sector's regime; and marine and shipbuilding NDT training covers the methods this sector certifies in and the career path into it.

Marine NDT around Houston: barges, towboats, ship channel docks and offshore structures

Marine NDT in Houston mostly supports inland tank barges and towboats, ship channel docks and terminals, ships calling at Port Houston, and offshore platforms managed from the city. The work is mainly UT thickness gauging, MT on fatigue-prone details and close visual survey, done to a class society or Coast Guard requirement. Atlantis, a Houston company, sends crews to the vessel, dock or yard.

The inland fleet. Kirby Corporation is headquartered in Houston and is the largest liquid cargo barge operator in the US, with about 884 active inland tank barges and 251 towing vessels. Many other barge and towing companies operate on the Gulf Intracoastal Waterway as well. For NDT, that means a steady flow of shipyard periods. Bottom and side shell plating is gauged, cargo tanks are surveyed internally, and cracked or wasted structure is renewed and re-examined before the barge goes back to work.

Towing vessels under Subchapter M. Since 2016, US towing vessels 26 feet or longer, and smaller ones that move barges carrying oil or hazardous material in bulk, have come under 46 CFR Subchapter M. Owners can run a Towing Safety Management System audited by an approved third-party organization, or have the Coast Guard inspect directly. Either way, hull and machinery examinations need thickness data and records that the third-party organization or the Coast Guard inspector will accept. The gauging plan should be agreed with them before the vessel is hauled out.

Class work and approvals. ABS, a class society, has its world headquarters in Spring, just north of Houston. Its engineers and surveyors set many of the gauging plans that local crews work to. Class societies approve thickness measurement firms one by one. Whether Atlantis personnel are acceptable for a given class survey is confirmed with the surveyor at quotation, not assumed. The rules for that approval are explained on maritime NDT consulting in Houston.

Docks, terminals and offshore structures. Port Houston's complex of over 200 terminals, public and private, handles more foreign waterborne tonnage than any other US port. Their dock piping, loading-arm structures, crane pedestals and fender supports are checked by UT and MT while traffic keeps moving. Offshore platforms on the federal Outer Continental Shelf are regulated by the Bureau of Safety and Environmental Enforcement under 30 CFR Part 250. Topside and splash-zone surveys there rely on UT, ACFM on coated nodes, and IRATA rope-access technicians where scaffolding is impractical.

Tank barges: bottom, side shell and cargo tank gauging during yard periods
Towboats: Subchapter M hull and machinery examination records
Ship channel docks: dock piping, loading-arm structures and crane pedestal welds
Offshore topsides: splash-zone UT and ACFM on nodes without stripping coatings
Hurricane season, June to November, which reshuffles yard and offshore schedules

Next steps. The national service is on maritime NDT services. Related Houston pages cover oil and gas NDT in Houston and every local service on inspection services in Houston. For in-house crews, see maritime NDT training. Gauging records can be kept and issued as signed reports in the Atlantis ERP reports app. Send vessel particulars and the survey requirement through the Houston marine NDT enquiry.