Cokebusters International

16/06/2026

We've spent 21 years concentrating our efforts on delivering leading mechanical cleaning and inspection to tubes, pipes and pipelines to the global energy industry and we've learned a great deal in that time!

Three lessons stand out above everything else:

1. Specialism is a strength, not a limitation.

The temptation to chase every opportunity is real. Twenty one years of focusing on a specific niche - compact inspection, difficult geometry, smaller diameter assets - has taught us that depth beats breadth. We've always been clear about what we do and have established a respected authority in our field, so the clients who need our services most find us first.

2. The people outlast the projects.

Jobs come and go. The relationships built on site over years, the operators who rise to become supervisors, the loyal team members who've been with us since the early days... it is the people who determine the fibre of a company.

3. Shortcuts cost more than they save.

In equipment, in hiring and in the standards you keep on site. Every time the company has invested in doing something properly, such as building its own DPUs, developing its own test loop or investing in R&D, it has paid back. Every time the industry takes a shortcut, someone ends up with data they can't trust.

We understand that failure is an inevitable part of life and business. The fact that Cokebusters is now one of the longest serving companies in its field speaks for itself. We're not afraid to take risks, but we learn from our mistakes fast and we don't make the same ones twice.

12/06/2026

Twenty one years ago, Cokebusters was founded to solve a specific problem: inspecting assets that conventional tools couldn't reach.

That problem hasn't gone away, but the next decade is going to look different and we intend to be part of shaping it.

Evidence over assumption.
The industry is already moving away from time-based, assumption-led maintenance toward evidence-based integrity management. Operators want to know what's actually happening inside their assets, not what's likely happening based on age and history. That shift isn't slowing down.

Data that does more.
High-density ultrasonic inspection has always given us the readings. The next decade is about what happens to that data afterwards; machine learning applied to signal interpretation, faster turnaround and integration directly into digital integrity platforms. Our work with the University of Strathclyde is already pointing in this direction.

Smaller assets, structured programmes.
We're proud to have developed world-class tools to inspect a range of tubes, pipes and pipelines from 1.5" to 12" diameter. As compact inspection technology matures, more of these previously "uninspectable" assets will be brought into proper integrity programmes not as an afterthought, but as standard practice.

Diversification.
Our roots are in fired heater tubes and process piping, but the same compact, geometry-capable approach has clear application in pipeline inspection and it's a space we're actively expanding into.

The next decade is about doing what we do best and continuing to push our technology further! It's about applying twenty one years of engineering experience to a wider range of assets, delivering better data and a clearer evidence base than the industry has ever had.

We're ready for it.

10/06/2026

Construction is now underway on our new Americas Operations Centre in Houston, Texas and this photo marks a moment we've been working towards for a long time!

When John Phipps founded Cokebusters in Chester in 2005, Houston wasn't yet part of the picture. The Operations Centre in Texas came seven years later, established to serve a growing client base across North and South America.

Since then it has grown steadily in capability, in headcount and in ambition.

This building will mark the beginning of the next chapter.

The new Americas Operations Centre will give our Houston team the facility they deserve. It has been thoughtfully designed to support the full scope of Cokebusters' mechanical cleaning and inline inspection services across the continent.

The new site will offer more space, better infrastructure and a permanent home for a team that has long outgrown its current one.

Twenty one years after a small specialist company was founded in the north of England, the foundations are (quite literally!) being laid for the next decade.

We'll keep you posted as the build progresses 🏗️

08/06/2026

Before there was Cokebusters, there was this.

We recently came across this old cutting from an industry magazine and spotted a familiar face!

That's our founder John Phipps, pictured on site at the Esso Fawley refinery back in 1997. It was in that year that John found premises at Hawarden Airfield near Chester UK.

The Armoury Building hadn’t been occupied since the Royal Air Force left in 1957, but it was given a new life. Alongside the cluster of factories where all the Airbus wings are manufactured, the site was and is ideal for pushing the boundaries of technology.

At the time, John was leading the European and Middle Eastern operations of Canadian specialist pigging company, Hydro Kleen. He was overseeing a pioneering mechanical cleaning contract for the Xylenes Project. 700 metres of line was cleaned in three weeks in a service delivered within budget, on schedule and without safety incident.

The headline speaks for itself!

Mechanical cleaning was in its infancy back then and it was this period that gave John the experience, the contacts and the conviction to found Cokebusters in 2005.

Nearly thirty years on from that job at Fawley, the technology has changed considerably, but the standards and commitment to innovation have not.

04/06/2026

The ongoing conflict in the Middle East is having consequences for the energy sector that don't always make the headlines.

Planned maintenance programmes are being deferred, assets are running beyond their scheduled intervention windows and the backlog is building.

As a specialist service provider operating across the Americas, Europe, Africa and the Middle East, we are close to this situation. What we are observing on the ground is worth sharing.

So we've written about it... the parallels with the COVID era, the cost of deferral, and what a credible path forward looks like for operators managing assets through a period of prolonged uncertainty.

It's a practical piece, not a political one and we think it's relevant to anyone responsible for asset integrity in the current environment.

Read the full article via the link below:
https://cokebusters.com/regional-conflict-and-international-maintenance-management/

Regional conflict is driving deferred maintenance across the global energy sector. Cokebusters examines the consequences for hydrocarbon asset integrity and what operators should be doing now.

02/06/2026

What you can't see won't hurt you, right?
Unfortunately not.

Whether it's coke deposits building up in fired heater tubes or limescale accumulating in process piping, the impact follows the same pattern - reduced flow, increased energy consumption, falling efficiency and eventually, unplanned downtime.

The problem is rarely dramatic at first: a fouled tube still functions and a scaled line still flows. But the performance loss is cumulative and by the time it can no longer be ignored, the cost is already significant.

There's a secondary risk that's easy to overlook. Heavy fouling can mask what's happening to the tube or pipe wall beneath it. Corrosion, wall thinning and pitting can develop unseen behind a layer of coke or scale, meaning an asset that appears to be functioning may already be compromised.

Regularly cleaning addresses the operational impact and inspection addresses the integrity question.

Done together, these services give operators a complete picture and the confidence to make informed decisions about what comes next.

That's precisely why Cokebusters has always offered this combined service under one roof.

When did your assets last receive a combined clean and inspection?

Find out more about our combined cleaning and inspection service at cokebusters.com 🔧

20/05/2026

Every Cokebusters deployment runs on equipment we own, build and maintain ourselves.

That's a deliberate choice and one which has defined how we operate since 2005.

Our bespoke Double Pumping Units are the backbone of every mechanical cleaning and combined service job we carry out. They generate the hydraulic power that drives our pigs through tubes and pipelines and their reliability on site is non-negotiable. A pump failure mid-job isn't just inconvenient, it costs our client time and money they haven't budgeted for.

Which is why we don't outsource our machinery.

Every DPU in the Cokebusters fleet is designed and manufactured in-house, tested on our own test loop at our UK Technology Centre in Chester and maintained to the same standard between every deployment, whether it's heading to a refinery in Texas or a petrochemical facility in the Middle East.

The four images here tell that story. From workshop construction to test loop validation, from transit to on-site operation - the journey a DPU takes before it reaches your facility is as considered as the job itself.

Fleet investment isn't always glamorous, but it's what reliability looks like in practice.

07/05/2026

These days every company has "values", but not every company lives by them.

'The CB Way' isn't just a mission statement on a wall. It's a set of behaviours that show up in how we work with each other and with our clients.

In practice, it looks like this:

• An operator who takes the same care on a routine job as he does on a complex one, because the standard doesn't change based on the size of the contract.
• An engineer who flags a concern before it becomes a problem, because integrity matters more than convenience.
• A manager who invests in the right equipment, trains the right people and doesn't cut corners when a shortcut would be easier.

For our clients, 'The CB Way' shows up in reliability:

• Equipment that arrives prepared.
• Teams that are briefed and ready.
• Data that can be trusted.
• A company that picks up the phone when something isn't right.

For our people, it shows up in how we treat each other:

• Promotion from within.
• Investment in development.
• A culture where doing the right thing is expected, not exceptional.

Twenty one years in, these values are as important as they've ever been.

Integrity is at the heart of everything we do.

30/04/2026

When an asset is deemed "unpiggable," it could be a long time before that label is questioned again.

But that label carries a cost... gaps in your integrity programme, risk that can only be estimated rather than quantified and deterioration that goes undetected until it demands a reactive response.

In most cases, the unpiggable designation reflects the limitations of conventional tooling, not physical impossibility. The constraint has been the tool, not the tube or pipe.

In our latest article, we explore what actually happens when operators accept the label and why it may be time to revisit those assets previously written off from the inspection regime.

🔗 Read it here: https://cokebusters.com/what-happens-when-you-apply-the-unpiggable-label/

If you have pipelines or process tubing sitting outside your integrity programme, get in touch. We'd welcome the opportunity to assess whether they still need to be.

Accepting the 'unpiggable' label carries real consequences for integrity programmes, risk registers and long-term asset costs. Find out why the label is worth challenging.

28/04/2026

Finding a defect is only useful if you know precisely where it is.

An inline inspection tool that detects wall loss but can't tell you exactly where to cut or intervene hasn't really solved the problem.

Axial positioning - knowing the exact location of every reading along the length of a pipeline - is what turns inspection data into actionable intelligence. And for applications where that precision is critical, we offer a dedicated odometer solution.

Launched just last year, our Odometer System is a modular enhancement to our compact Smart Pig, replacing the rear brush section with a lightweight precision assembly. Spring-loaded arms with rubber-tread wheels track distance continuously throughout the run, with triple cross-verification logic ensuring positional accuracy at every point.

The result is a fully position-referenced integrity map with every ultrasonic wall thickness reading tied to an exact axial location.

We know how much precision matters when planning intervention. Which is why we offer our clients:
- pinpoint intervention rather than guesswork
- meaningful trend analysis over time
- integration into digital integrity databases and risk-based inspection programmes

Because inspection without accurate positioning is a map without coordinates.