InnovOil Issue 51 April 2017

™ Published by

NEWSBASE

Bringing you the latest innovations in exploration, production and refining Issue 51

April 2017

SNAKE EYES ON THE PRIZE

Eelume’s latest prototype takes to the water Page 22

NEW SQUEEZE

Argonne team devises oil-gathering sponge Page 6

HIRE THE LASER

Is the future of drilling here already?

Page 26

REGISTRATION NOW OPEN BOOK YOUR PLACE TODAY & JOIN

www.22wpc .com

22wpc2017

HOST COUNTRY SPONSOR

InnovOil

April 2017

page 3

Inside Contacts: Media Director Ryan Stevenson ryans@newsbase.com

Charles Villiers Email: charlesv@newsbase.com

Magic sponge

6

Tech Radar

8

What caught our attention this month

Kevin John kevinj@newsbase.com

Action heroes

10

HOME-ward bound

14

SEARingly good news

16

Hot stuff

18

Thoughts from ITF’s annual Showcase

Editor Andrew Dykes andrewd@newsbase.com

New Heriot-Watt project tackles cable failure

NewsBase Limited Centrum House, 108-114 Dundas Street Edinburgh EH3 5DQ

Wood Group’s Australian JIP

Phone: +44 (0)131 478 7000

Exnics wins new funding for thermal device

www.newsbase.com www.innovoil.co.uk

Terradaptable 20 Baker Hughes shows a bit of the future

Design: Michael Gill michael@michaelgill.co.uk www.michaelgill.eu

For subsea’s snake

22

Heave ho

25

Laser insight

26

CERA, later

28

Fuling around

31

No more slips

32

News in brief

33

Eelume updates us on its robotic progress ™

NEWSBASE

ations Bringing you the latest innov

5

Argonne devises oil spill innovation

Media Sales

Published by

A note from the Editor

in exploration, production

GEO and NCT launch new technical vessel

and refining April 2017

Issue 51

Are laser drills just around the corner?

Thoughts on automation from the industry summit

sNake eyes

Eelume’s latest prototype takes to the water Page X

eze New squesponge

hering Argonne team devises oil-gat

China’s latest shale offensive

Page 6

r Hire tHe lase already?

Is the future of drilling here

Page X

Free Stanford tool to tackle fault slips

Contacts 39 NEWSBASE

The Annual Meeting Place for Iraq’s Oil & Gas Industry Produced By

Proud to Work With

22 - 23 May 2017 8 Northumberland Avenue | London | UK

Hear From the Industry’s Major Players Under One Roof

H.E. Jabbar Al Liabi Minister of Oil Federal Government of Iraq

Dr Falah Jassim Alamri Director General of SOMO Ministry of Oil Federal Government of Iraq

Zaid Elyaseri Country Manager BP Iraq

Marcus Antonini Vice President & Country Chairman Shell Iraq

Loris Tealdi Managing Director ENI Iraq b.v.

Platinum Sponsors:

Associate Sponsors:

TOTAL TOTAL_brand_block_CMYK 30/01/2014

alomon de Rothschild - 92288 Suresnes - FRANCE (0)1 57 32 87 00 / Fax : +33 (0)1 57 32 87 87 ww.carrenoir.com

Airline Partner:

RÉFÉRENCES COULEUR

M100% Y80% M48%

Y100%

C100% M80% C70%

M30%

M100% Y80% K70%

View the Full Programme at:

cwciraqpetroleum.com/prog

For more information and to secure your participation, please contact: Phillip Clarke on +44 20 7978 0056 or email IraqPetroleum@thecwcgroup.com

April 2017

InnovOil

page 5

A note from the Editor ALTHOUGH engineers and designers may spend months, years – even entire careers – working to solve or improve a particular problem, they may rarely stop to ask more fundamental questions about what they do, or how they do it. But very occasionally, such questions do come up, and they present their own challenges.

At the ITF Technology Showcase in early March, perhaps the youngest-ever CEO to speak at the event, 22-year-old Josh Valman, posed a question that I have not seen in years of conference attendance: “What is innovation?” It felt stranger than it perhaps should have done in an audience of inventors and industry veterans, but if there was ever a time to question the paradigm, it is surely now.

Thankfully, Valman did define his terms. Innovation, he said, is “the process of executing new ideas,” and approaching it from this perspective makes it easier to understand how it can be done better. Communication, as ever, is vital, but Valman also noted the importance of oversimplification. In oil and gas especially, a common and accepted mindset is that a tool, piece of equipment or technique may require a decade or more to be developed, tested and qualified before it can be a commercial product – but that is not a required state of affairs. Good ideas can come from anywhere, but how they are executed determines their success.

Most importantly, though, is the ability of

everyone within an organisation to contribute to how it innovates. If 2% of ideas can get to market, then the 98% that do not are the most important. Valman’s parting message was a reminder that a failed idea is not wasted time – companies must therefore create environments which allow for that necessary failure, if they are truly to embrace innovation.

With any luck, this edition of InnovOil might be a good place to start. Having graced our cover only a year ago, Norwegian robotics developer Eelume is back with the latest incarnation of its snake-like subsea robot for offshore IMR. We learn how the project has progressed, and what is next for the pioneering firm.

We also feature a raft of co-operative and collaborative projects from Wood Group, Heriot-Watt University, OGIC and the US’ Argonne Lab, tackling subsea power, cable surveying, oil spill clean-up and more.

Drilling also makes an appearance, as Baker Hughes explains the history behind its latest adaptive drill bit technology, and Ros Davidson explores the past, present and rapidly approaching future of laser drilling.

We also have more thoughts and presentations from the sidelines of both the ITF Technology Showcase and IHS Markit’s CERAWeek in Houston.

So, innovators: fail again, and fail better We are pleased to present the April issue of InnovOil.

Andrew Dykes Editor

NEWSBASE

page 6

InnovOil

April 2017

Argonne innovation breakthrough for oil spills A team at Argonne National Laboratory has developed Oleo Sponge – a revolutionary, reusable material which can adsorb hydrocarbons in the water column

O

IL spill response has a range of chemical and material tools at its disposal. However, skimmers and booms can only attempt to contain hydrocarbons as best as possible, or move it towards separators, while surfactants are used for dispersal. Although other molecules can help bond to the oil, aiding recovery, much of the rest must be left to naturally occurring bacteria while other environmental consequences are dealt with on the surface.

Systems for more efficiently collecting spilled oil could improve the effectiveness of clean-up efforts dramatically. Such a possibility may now exist, in the form of a new system developed by the US Department of Energy’s (DoE) Argonne National Laboratory. Researchers here have devised an oleophilic foam, nicknamed Oleo Sponge. The material adsorbs hydrocarbons easily from surrounding water, and will not only collect dispersed oil from the surface, but from the entire water column – something the researchers claim no other product can do. Better still, it is also reusable.

“The Oleo Sponge offers a set of possibilities that, as far as we know, are unprecedented,” said the materials’ coinventor Seth Darling, a scientist with Argonne’s Center for Nanoscale Materials and a fellow of the University of Chicago’s Institute for Molecular Engineering.

A team comprised of Argonne scientists Jeff Elam, Anil Mane, Joseph Libera and postdoctoral researcher Edward Barry

all contributed to the development of the Oleo Sponge. Their preliminary results were collated in their paper – “Advanced oil sorbents using sequential infiltration synthesis” – recently published in the Journal of Materials Chemistry.

Insulation innovation The platform for the innovation was first established in earlier research by Darling and Elam. Previously, the two developed a technique involving sequential infiltration synthesis (SIS), a process related to atomic layer deposition (ALD) – a cyclic, gas phase process for depositing thin films based on controlled surface reactions. The process can be used to infuse hard metal oxide atoms within complicated nanostructures.

The Oleo Sponge begins life as polyurethane foam – the same substance used in everything from furniture cushions to home insulation. This porous foam provides ample surface area with which to collect oil, but does not have a suitable enough surface chemistry for bonding in its ordinary form. The application and adaptation of SIS techniques allowed the NEWSBASE

team to grow an extremely thin layer of metal oxide “primer” near the foam’s interior surfaces, creating a structure suitable enough for another layer of molecules.

The primer provided a base upon which to introduce a second layer, comprised of oleophilic molecules –organometallic precursors (either diethylzinc or trimethylaluminium), according to the published paper. As described by researchers, these molecules “hold onto the metal oxide layer with one end and reach out to grab oil molecules with the other”. The resulting porous material – which resembles a seat cushion, or perhaps a doormat – will therefore adsorb oil from water when submerged.

In their paper, the researchers note that “crude oil sorption on the order of 30 and 90 times the initial foam weight for polyurethane and polyimide respectively, both with highly favourable reusability.” In experiments, some polyimide foams showed sorption capacities as high as 90 g/g.

Because it is porous, it can also be wrung out and reused, and the oil itself can be recovered. “The material is extremely sturdy.

April 2017

InnovOil

page 7

Far Left: Oil is wrung out of the Oleo Sponge and recovered Left: Trials underway at the Ohmsett sea water tank.

Picture: Mark Lopez/Argonne National Laboratory

We’ve run dozens to hundreds of tests, wringing it out each time, and we have yet to see it break down at all,” Darling said.

Big squeeze Practical tests of the material have been carried out in a large seawater tank at Ohmsett, the National Oil Spill Response Research & Renewable Energy Test Facility.

Here the Oleo Sponge collected diesel and crude oil from both below and on the water surface. Indeed, backers of the project include the US Coast Guard and the Bureau of Safety and Environmental Enforcement, both of whom could certainly put the material to good use.

These tests also proved that the concept could be scaled up to practical levels. “Both the SIS and the oleophilic grafting can be done in large batches. For instance, our Ohmsett campaign represented a roughly 10,000-times scale-up compared to our bench-scale studies,” Emal explained in an emailed response to InnovOil. Beyond emergency response, Oleo Sponge could become a valuable tool in more routine cleaning operations – for example,

to remove or reduce oil and fuel fouling in harbours and ports caused by ship traffic.

Better still, it seems as though it could be done cheaply. “The surface treatment is at the monolayer-level, so it uses very little material, and the chemicals are relatively inexpensive – and, of course, polyurethane foam is very cheap,” Elam continued. “We imagine that commercial trawlers could drag large nets that incorporate our Oleo Sponge through subsurface oil plumes to clean up oil.”

The university appears well aware of the commercial potential of the innovation, from material manufacturers, to environmental clean-up groups, to oil and gas companies – and “everyone in between.”

Argonne Technology Development and Commercialization business development executive John Harvey notes that the team is actively looking to commercialise the material. Those interested in licensing or collaborating with the laboratory on further development are encouraged to contact the department via the details listed below.

In the meantime, Elam, Darling and the team are continuing to develop the technology and, they confirmed, are NEWSBASE

experimenting with other surface treatments which may be suitable for attracting other molecules beyond crude and diesel. Elam said that the group would also “explore other applications for our functionalised foam beyond oil clean-up.” Expanding on the plans, he noted: “The technique offers enormous flexibility, and can be adapted to other types of clean-up besides oil in seawater. You could attach a different molecule to grab any specific substance you need.”

Hopes are high that the material could lead to some promising applications elsewhere, but the oil industry and its partners should pay attention. While the lessons learned from major spills like Exxon Valdez and Deepwater Horizon have helped to improve safety and response, technologies like this could make a real difference to any future incidents – and an avenue operators and environmental regulators cannot afford to leave unexplored. n Contact: John Harvey

Email: partners@anl.gov Web: www.anl.gov

InnovOil

page 8

On the radar

What caught our attention outside the world of oil and gas this month

Mussel power Researchers at Purdue University in Indiana, US, have developed a new form of biodegradable glue based on the bonding chemistry of shellfish.

Many adhesives contain carcinogenic substances, which can be released when the material deteriorates. Purdue University Professor of chemistry and materials engineering, Jonathan Wilker also notes that: “Most of these glues are also permanent, preventing disassembly and recycling of electronics, furniture and automobiles. In order to develop the next generation of advanced adhesives we have turned to biology for inspiration.”

His team’s new adhesive combines the bonding chemistry of shellfish with a biobased polymer. Tests have shown it to perform as well as commercially available products, and it can be easily degraded in water.

The material was based on research into the hair-like fibres which allow mussels to attach to surfaces using plaques of adhesive. Proteins in the glue contain the amino acid DOPA, and incude the chemistry needed to facilitate the “cross-linking” of protein molecules, providing

strength and adhesion. These proteins were combined with a bio-based polymer called poly(lactic acid), or PLA, which can be derived from corn. The adhesive was created by harnessing the chemistry of compounds called catechols, contained in DOPA. “This new system may help lead us toward nontoxic materials sourced from nature, capable of being broken down into benign components, and enhanced recyclability of the products all around us,” Wilker noted. n

April 2017

PARC life A recent ARPA-E Innovation Summit provided an interesting update on a Xerox PARC-led project to develop self-cooling paint.

A subsidiary of the global printing and document firm, PARC has been developing the substance via US$1 million grant awarded as part of ARPA-E’s Advanced Research in Dry Cooling (ARID) programme in 2015. The funds were to help the company develop and demonstrate “a massively scalable and lowcost metamaterial film that can ‘self-cool’ in broad daylight, without the need for electricity or water.”

The results, so far, appear promising.

Although it may appear as ordinary white paint, it contains two so-called “metamaterials” – one which reflects broadband sunlight, and another which emits infrared radiation at a very specific wavelength. This radiation, of between 8 and 13 nanometres, can pass directly through Earth’s atmosphere, and causes a drop in the material’s ambient temperature.

Tests with identical tents – one covered with the material and one as standard – reportedly showed that the former remained around 8-12°C cooler on average than the latter. According to PARC, simulations have also suggested that the pairing the material with existing systems offset HVAC energy usage by as much as 50%.

According to IEEE Spectrum, a prototype is already available, and the material should be made commercial very soon, owing to a new partnership between PARC and chemicals giant BASF.. n

The innovative OutoBot ELID Technology International and Nanyang Technological University, Singapore (NTU Singapore) have commercialised a new robotic technology for painting or cleaning structures.

Named OutoBot, the system has a robotic arm equipped with a camera and a spray nozzle that can shoot high-pressure water jets to clean surfaces, or spray paint to cover them. It comprises of a robotic arm with six-degrees of freedom mounted on a specially designed automated gondola and weighs under 500kg.

Powered by a conventional power outlet, the robot can scan

the exterior surface of a building using a camera and automatically plot the areas to spray paint or clean while avoiding the windows.

It also gives a more consistent coat of paint compared with manual application.

Instead of a team of five, the robot needs only two operators – one on the ground and one as a safety manager. Working longer hours with fewer staff, the inventors hope the system could reduce costs.

ELID Technology International Managing Director, Dennis Lim, first came up with an idea of the system. Lim said that

it would tackle productivity issues for painting buildings in line with Singapore’s Smart Nation vision. “With Singapore’s rapidly aging workforce, we need to find ways to enable our employees to continue contributing despite their advanced years. Using our new robot, we have shown that a labour-intensive job can transformed into one that can be easily done by an older worker,

NEWSBASE

and at the same time eliminating the risk of employees having to work at heights,” added Mr Lim. The made-in-Singapore OutoBot is now patent pending and has been put through its paces at an industrial building located at Ubi, in the eastern part of Singapore. Patents are pending, and it will be deployed for its first commercial project over the next few months. n

InnovOil

April 2017

page 9

Flexiglass A team at Utah’s Brigham Young University have developed new advances that add flexibility to the normally brittle structure of glass. In allowing the material to bend and flex, the team hopes to pave the way towards the development of a new type of lab-on-a-chip devices.

Electrical engineering professor Aaron Hawkins led the efforts. “We’ve created glass membranes that can move up and down and bend. They are the first building blocks of a whole new plumbing system that could move very small volumes of liquid around,” he explained.

“If you keep the movements to the nanoscale, glass can still snap back into shape.”

Current lab-on-a-chip membrane devices do effectively function on the microscale, but Hawkins’ research, would allow equally effective work at the nanoscale. Chemists and biologists could use these

smaller devices to move, trap and analyse very small particles like proteins, viruses and DNA. BYU Ph.D. student John Stout added: “Glass is clean for sensitive types of samples, like blood samples… Working with this glass device will allow us to look at particles of any size and at any given range. It will also allow us to analyse the particles in the sample without modifying them.”

The researchers believe their device could enable testing using much smaller quantities of a substance. Instead of needing several ounces to run a blood test, the glass membrane device created by Hawkins, Stout and coauthor Taylor Welker would only require a drop or two of blood.

With increased demand for portable on-site rapid testing in the healthcare industry, advances in microfluidic systems such as these could take testing to a new level of detail. n

Laser guidance Functional, large-scale laser weaponry is no longer confined to science fiction. In March, engineering and defense giant Lockheed Martin demonstrated and tested a recordbreaking laser which successfully produced a single beam of 58 kW. The firm says this was a world record for a laser of this type.

The system is a beam combined fibre laser, meaning it brings together individual lasers, generated through fibre optics, to generate a single, intense laser beam. This allows for a scalable laser system that can be made more powerful by adding additional fibre laser subunits.

The system is based on a design developed under the Department of Defense’s Robust Electric Laser Initiative Program, and further developed through investments by Lockheed Martin and the U.S. Army into a 60kW-class system.

It was is now being prepared for shipment to the US Army Space and Missile Defense Command/Army Forces Strategic Command in Huntsville, Alabama.

Dr. Robert Afzal, senior fellow for Laser

and Sensor Systems commented: “We have shown that a powerful directed energy laser is now sufficiently light-weight, low volume and reliable enough to be deployed on tactical vehicles for defensive applications on land, at sea and in the air.”

Afzal added that the Lockheed Martin team created a laser beam that was near “diffraction-limited,” essentially meaning that it was close to the physical limits for focusing energy toward a single, small spot.

NEWSBASE

According to a Lockheed release, the conversion of electricity to laser beam was around 43% efficient.

The test build on a system developed in 2015, in which the company used a 30kW fibre laser weapon, known as ATHENA, to disable a truck from a mile away.

Lockheed Martin intends to develop a family of laser weapon systems capable of various power levels tailored to address missions across sea, air and land. n

page 10

InnovOil

April 2017

Action heroes: Showcasing technology at ITF ITF’s annual Technology Showcase explored how to create a “culture of innovation” in oil and gas, by way of racing, rapid prototyping and more

T

HE first few months of 2017 have likely left anyone involved in oil and gas technology in Aberdeen struggling for breath. A stream of announcements from the Oil and Gas Authority (OGA), the ever-popular Subsea Expo conference and the opening of the new Oil and Gas Technology Centre (OGTC) in early February have all propelled UK innovators into the new year – hopefully with a raft of new ideas. That process is only set to continue in the wake of the annual Industry Technology Facilitator (ITF) Technology Showcase, a key event in the calendar for major operators and fledgling start-ups alike.

Brought together under the theme of “Technology in Action,” ITF again engaged speakers from inside and outside the hydrocarbons industry, mixing the expertise of seasoned oil veterans with some fresh thinking and objective advice. However, this was not just a case of exploring technology transfer opportunities, but something more fundamental: how the industry can create a so-called “culture of innovation” and how this culture might speed up the pace of change.

Pole position Dr Geoff McGrath, chief innovation officer at McLaren Applied Technologies (MAT) and the KPMG McLaren Alliance – the event’s sponsor – was quick to note the difference in his keynote speech. MAT, he said, was not set up to export automotive advances, but to demonstrate how a culture of cutting-edge tech, with racing in its DNA, could be applied to any business.

McLaren Racing preaches and practices this philosophy. McGrath explained how data were used to inform design and monitor performance – the average F1 car contains about 300 separate data streams – and how this leads engineering teams from design,

through simulation and out onto the track.

Rapid prototyping via 3D printing and other technologies, for example, allow the team to create a new part every 20 minutes, and just as quickly determine whether it is of benefit to the vehicle.

“There are strong correlations between motor racing and the oil and gas industry but culture and behaviour towards technology development and innovation needs to be accelerated. Though it is very easy to improve performance technically, it is harder to optimise the whole business – this is a cultural challenge,” added McGrath.

He also discussed the importance of personnel, explaining that the company takes on new graduates and gives them responsibility quickly, precisely because it believes this is when they are most motivated and when they are approaching their mathematical peak. He also suggested that good use of data and analytics could help make up for a limited amount of experience.

“Seniority,” he said, “is just pattern recognition.”

As if to embody that statement, 22-year old RPD International CEO Josh Valman followed with a presentation that would not have been out of place at a TED Talk, tackling the very crux of the issue: what is innovation, and what does it mean?

Defining it as “the process of executing new ideas,” Valman also extolled the importance of a corporate culture which fostered innovation in all its employees.

Whether in production, procurement or reception, employees should be able to contribute ideas which can save money or improve how a business works. If only 2% of ideas get to market, he suggested, the 98% which do not are the most important; companies should therefore “create an environment which allows for necessary failure.”

NEWSBASE

Technology such as 3D printing and predictive analytics can aid this process by making such “failures” cheaper and less time-consuming – and indeed these techniques are starting to take hold in the industry’s consciousness – but this must be underpinned by a culture which encourages their use.

Technology readiness Perspective from inside industry followed.

The director of Strathclyde University’s Oil & Gas Institute, Willie Reid, spoke of the benefits of involving academia in corporate R&D, and of how these organisations can play a key role in bridging the gap between early technology readiness levels (TRLs) and later commercial deployment.

OGTC chief executive Colette Cohen

April 2017

InnovOil

page 11

Left to right: Gunther Newcombe, Geoff McGrath, Geoff Nesbitt, Josh Valman, Colette Cohen, Greta Lydecker, Willie Reid, Paddy O’Brien

discussed what facilities and support the centre would offer industry innovators.

In its current form, she said, oil and gas was “not the industry of the 21st Century” but that centres such as hers could help change this. She also addressed the previous speakers’ comments head-on, reflecting on how the OGTC could help to foster the aforementioned “culture of innovation.”

Affirming the need for cost reductions of up to 50% in the North Sea, Cohen said that the OGTC would focus on new technologies for wells, small pools development and asset integrity – in particular for plugging and abandonment innovations, remote plugand-play tiebacks, new materials, robotics, inspection and repair techniques.

Those efforts may already be bearing fruit; one OGTC-backed field trial is currently

under way, and more are planned for the summer.

Last to present was Petrofac’s Dr Geoff Nesbitt, who mused on the effect that the oil price had so far had on engineering and innovation. With EPC rates as low as US$25 an hour and rigs stacked across the world, he noted that for the foreseeable future the path of technology development would be decided by money. Using a diagram popularised

by Boston Consulting to gauge technology impact, he set out his views on which innovations had the potential to meet that challenge (see graph).

Indeed, much of Nesbitt’s highlights were reflected in the substantial afternoon sessions, which included an in-depth look at the trends and companies working with new materials (3D printing, composites and other advanced NEWSBASE

forming practices), digital (connectivity, robotics, intelligent plant and digital twins) and inspection techniques (AUV surveys, sensors, condition monitoring and smart fibre). For those interested in learning more, full presentations are available through the ITF website.

Expert opinion Following a coffee break, and a tour of the exhibition (which included 3D visualisation walls, robotic arms and some composite aeroplane landing gear), the subsequent panel session brought together the morning’s speakers, with the addition of Chevron Upstream Europe managing director Greta Lydecker and OGA director of operations Gunther Newcombe. Always lively, these sessions give delegates a chance to question

MIDDLE EAST AFRICA

Government supporter

26 & 27 APRIL 2017 - DUBAI WORLD TRADE CENTRE, UAE

The leading event for the Middle East & African tank storage markets

REGISTER FREE TODAY 50+

New

technology global suppliers & product launches

2 day

conference

Unlimited

networking opportunities

Show supporters

Serving the tank storage community globally EXPOEUROPE 28 - 30 MARCH 2017 - AHOY, ROTTERDAM

CHINA NOVEMBER 2017 - SHANGHAI WORLD EXPO, CHINA

Register now qq www.stocexpomiddleeastafrica.com

16 & 17 NOVEMBER 2016 - HAMBURG MESSE, HAMBURG

Organised by

April 2017

– and frequently challenge – operators and regulators on policy and practice.

Proving there were no sacred cows here, one thread of discussion focused on whether the industry had been over-regulated in its technology qualification and HSE requirements. Some panellists were in favour of scaling back the amount of qualification needed, at least in early development, to help get technologies into the field quicker.

McGrath offered valuable advice from the racing industry, explaining that McLaren had brought in the regulator as it developed new innovations to ensure there were no surprises on race day. Valman too noted the importance of working within the rules, but using new innovation as a driving force for bending them – such a model for oil and gas may be worth exploring, particularly as the pace of

InnovOil

global technological change accelerates.

That is not to say the panel offered a united set of opinions. While Newcombe and Nesbitt felt that industry had become somewhat lazy about innovation during the high-price, high-profit years, Lydecker argued strongly that Chevron (and the sector as a whole) had always invested in new technology throughout its history. She added that new recruits would also help push new ways of working, because “people joining the industry straight out of university today come with a much greater aptitude for technology.”

With the growing influence of the OGTC, the OGA and organisations such as ITF and the Oil and Gas Innovation Centre (OGIC), certainly there are more opportunities for innovators to find a platform for their ideas, at home and abroad – indeed, Newcombe NEWSBASE

page 13

praised the “most cohesive period for 40 years” in terms of aligning policy, academia and business.

If there was one key takeaway from the event, it was that the technology necessary to transform the industry paradigm already exists. Whether for inspection, mobility, connectivity or materials construction, there are companies and applications which are proven and working today. The proof will now be in qualifying and realising promised cost reductions – a task which can be achieved in a relatively short time if industry users maintain an open mind. n More information on the Technology Showcase, including all conference presentations, is available here: https://showcase.itfenergy.com/ conference/2017-presentations/

page 14

InnovOil

April 2017

Hybrid robotics come HOME New consortium will explore how a mixture of human and robot-controlled techniques can help monitor cables and perform other tasks in the offshore industry

A

DVANCES in automation and sensing are changing the debate over offshore safety. As technical capabilities increase, industry thinking is moving away from discussions about mitigating risk and towards ways to minimise the need for personnel to be offshore altogether. Doing this efficiently can also carry with it some innate cost benefits.

Yet not all construction, monitoring and maintenance can be done remotely – the marine and offshore industries still need a degree of flexibility.

Such a scenario is being explored by researchers at Heriot-Watt University, who are developing a human-robotics hybrid solution for the maintenance and operation of offshore wind farms. Their consortium – the Holistic Operation and Maintenance for Energy from Offshore Wind Farms (HOME-Offshore) – has recently been given a share of a GBP4 million (US$5 million) grant to create advanced health monitoring of these complex assets, which will integrate the remote inspection and repair capabilities of robotics and autonomous systems to inspect the condition of critical sub-systems, such as subsea power cables, in order to identify problems early and, ultimately, extend their lifespan.

Industry is keen to see the implications of such technology. The grant includes a GBP1 million (US$1.3 million) industry contribution from DONG, Siemens Wind, GE Energy Solutions, Scottish Power Energy Networks, Offshore Renewable Energy (ORE) Catapult, Hydrason, Nova Innovation, British Approvals Service for Cables (BASEC), JDR Cables and the European Marine Energy Centre (EMEC). GBP3 million

(US$3.8 million) has been awarded by the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC).

The Heriot-Watt team includes Dr David Flynn, Dr Keith Brown and Professor David Lane, and combines expertise from the university’s Ocean Systems Laboratory and the Smart Systems Group (SSG).

With the UK government targeting 40 GW of offshore wind capacity by 2050, the need for such techniques is only set to become more pressing. Flynn, the director of the SSG at Heriot-Watt, commented: “The cost of achieving these targets has, until now, focused on the capital outlay for wind turbines, but budgets have largely ignored the operation and maintenance of wind farm assets, including subsea cabling.”

According to the HOME blueprint, the project will therefore involve taking a “fusion prognostics” approach, integrating online and offline data into digital representations of the asset, to predict critical subsystem Remaining Useful Life (RUL). This will be coupled with innovation in sensor technology, robotics and autonomous systems.

Fail better The crux of the matter is that even with current technologies, 70% of cable failure modes cannot be monitored in-situ. Truly accurate cable and asset health monitoring is still hard to come by, and investigations into how this can be done more accurately and effectively will form a key plank of the group’s efforts.

“After reviewing historical failure records spanning 50 years of UK subsea power cable assets, it’s clear that [these] subsea cable failures can be attributed to abrasion, NEWSBASE

corrosion and third-party impacts,” Flynn explained to InnovOil. “There is also a lack of industrial standards to account for abrasion and corrosion failure modes on the sea bed.

The team will therefore look to understand the dynamics of subsea cables and the rates of degradation incurred by these failure modes.”

One possible solution lies in a technology previously explored by a Heriot-Watt team. Low Frequency Sonar was originally pioneered for use in pipeline inspection in the oil and gas industry. Subsea cables are more complex multi-layer structures, so the team will focus on advanced data analysis – based on co-central scattering theory. “The return echoes from the subsea cable structure will be used to inform a library of failure modes associated to the cable,” Flynn added.

“The university is always keen to transfer technology from the laboratory to the field, so will be working closely with its spin-out company Hydrason.”

Hydrason has commercialised a wideband sonar (WBS) system modelled on the signals used by dolphins for echolocation, and uses signal data that would otherwise be discarded in conventional surveys. The BioSonar system has an effective bandwidth of 30 to 130 kHz, and can recognise, classify and detect objects and structures beneath the seafloor in real time. From the perspective of cabling, the technology allows for more accurate surveying and classification of buried cables and their contents, improving monitoring and asset management, and better informing the causes and consequences of failures.

The next stage would be to design a system with a form factor which would allow the technology to be deployed on an AUV, and to integrate it with current sensors and

April 2017

InnovOil

page 15

Picture: JDR/VBMS

Wideband sonar data from Hydrason. processing to improve its overall detection capability.

In addition to funding, firms are also providing resources. In particular, Flynn said that JDR Cables would be providing access to subsea power cables and that this would help inform how the group’s findings can be used to improve future cable design, planning and installation, as well as ongoing asset management.

The big picture A further problem, as identified by the team, is that remote Condition and Process Monitoring (CPM) applications are singularly focused tools in a complex system. They target only smaller sub-systems – for example gearboxes or generators – with sensors suited to a limited task. That leaves other critical sub-systems in isolation and limits the potential to co-ordinate multiple feeds and actions in an asset.

Ensuring that automated systems can work in tandem with human-controlled ones – and

vice versa – requires a conceptual approach.

Two main sources of information are available in this context: knowledge extracted from the human expert and knowledge which can be inferred from processed sensor data.

For decision-making to be effective, both types of data must be stored, accessed and shared by the humans or systems involved, and in as close to real time as possible.

“It is widely documented that within the oil and gas sector, 70% of offshore data collected is never analysed,” Flynn noted.

“Within this work we are focused on creating actionable information where the emphasis will be on front-end data analysis as opposed to centralised back-end data processing.”

The first part of the project, as is the case with most engineering endeavours, will involve extensive modelling of a wind farm. Many current systems are isolated, and part of the scope of HOME will be investigating how these might be better monitored, or incorporated into larger programmes better able to monitor asset health across the entire system.

NEWSBASE

The team will also explore numerous physics-based modelling options – be they electrical, mechanical, thermal or lifetime/ ageing – to examine benefits, and how they might be incorporated into a smarter monitoring regime. This will provide a much improved understanding of what is happening across the farm and ideally go some way towards integrating disciplines which have traditionally operated as independent ‘silos’.

In the project’s second stage, this model will be validated against real-world and experimental data, and a data analyticsdriven model interconnecting performance and diagnostic information from (previously isolated) sub-systems.

Using the two together, the team will then identify advanced sensing methods, including automated and robotic inspection, which best fill information gaps, improve the quality of information and/or reduce the need for manual inspections.

A busy and interesting path lies ahead for the SSG and its collaborators as the project moves into a number of development phases. Research will inform tests at tanks at Heriot-Watt, before the team moves to demonstrations at the ORE Catapult and a final offshore trial with a working AUV. Thanks to the project partners on board, Flynn is highly optimistic about the prospects and, thanks to the addition of BASEC, that they will even help to inform new best practices and standards in the burgeoning sector. n Contact: Dr David Flynn

Email: D.Flynn@hw.ac.uk Web: www.hw.ac.uk

New sight for SEAR eyes page 16

InnovOil

April 2017

Wood Group-led JIP to investigate subsea reliability enters its next phase

F

EBRUARY saw global energy services company Wood Group announce the beginning of a new phase in its Subsea Equipment Australian Reliability Joint Industry Project (SEAR JIP). The goal of the collaborative project is to develop a better understanding of the reliability of subsea equipment for use in offshore Australia.

Led by Wood Group, the project is supported by a group of high-profile operators that include Royal Dutch Shell, Woodside, Inpex and PTTEP. Now entering into Phase IV, the project is focused on knowledge-sharing between the firms to improve subsea equipment design and reduce the requirement for costly and time-consuming interventions in Australia’s challenging warm-water offshore environment.

Speaking with InnovOil by phone, Wood Group project manager for the SEAR JIP, Adriana Botto, explained how the JIP came about. “The intention was to have a better understanding with regards to equipment reliability. Some operators were experiencing premature failure of equipment and there was

an opportunity for operators to collaborate through knowledge-sharing with the goal of better understanding the causes of those failures.” As a result the lessons learned would be fed back to equipment manufacturers so that they could be designed out by vendors in the future.

Years later in 2017, the scope and direction of SEAR has evolved. “We identified that failures were taking place but there was a need to improve the process by which we understood the causes of failure, and to put a process in place to track those failures,” she continued. “So the concept of creating a reliability database for this region was developed.”

Similar resources do already exist; however, Botto said that the differentiator is the SEAR JIP’s focus is to “come up with a database specific for Australian waters with equipment performance and vendor performance.”

NEWSBASE

Findings forum One of the main undertakings of Phase IV will be the creation of this cloud-based reliability database. So far, this covers mostly subsea control equipment, but will be expanded as the project progresses. At present, it features “subsea control modules, electrical flying leads and umbilicals, but this year we will be adding three more types of equipment,” she said.

From a user’s perspective, the aim is that designers and engineers can simply type in a particular piece of equipment or an issue, and see a list of lessons learned over the years.

This will also feed into what Wood Group has called a ‘lessons learned’ forum, where operators can share their experience about equipment performance.

The JIP will also embark on a twostream testing programme. This will see the companies investigate and benchmark

April 2017

InnovOil

page 17

Left: Marine growth on subsea pipe infrastructure in the Gulf of Mexico. Picture: NOAA

the ability of different subsea electrical cable designs to block gas permeation and migration, and test new technologies to identify their effectiveness at preventing marine fouling. Both issues are “exacerbated in Australian waters,” she said, where temperatures in the shallow environment may reach up to 28°C, compared with the 4°C or so average for an area like the North Sea. “Marine fouling is an interesting issue because there are two components: marine growth, which is bio-organism based; and calcareous deposits, which form through precipitation of calcium carbonate from the seawater,” Botto explained. “These are leading to premature failure and costs millions of dollars to recover, repair or replace equipment.”

The work group will look to understand the phenomena better, and to understand

new technologies, materials or new designs which might mitigate the risks posed.

Existing practices too, such as cleaning or inspection regimes, will also be considered.

The second testing programme concerns the many issues relating to unwanted gas permeating from electrical cables. “The gas could be related to poor cable performance,” Botto added, “so the idea here is to do fullscale test to establish a link between loss of insulation resistance in the cables and the presence of gas.”

Deeper analysis In a statement accompanying the Phase IV announcement, Wood Group’s Specialist Technical Solutions CEO, Bob MacDonald, said: “We are proud to be driving this project, which is delivering a tangible step-change through strong industry collaboration, bringing together the broad expertise and experience of subsea operators, vendors and Australian research institutions to stimulate new solutions for the sector’s reliability challenges.”

Collection and use of data is also of importance. “Our subsea business is using our data analytics capabilities to help improve reliability, and we hope to be able to combine these learnings with the SEAR programme,” he added.

So far, the support from industry throughout the SEAR has been excellent, NEWSBASE

Botto told InnovOil. “We put out a call in 2016 for expressions of interest [EoIs], seeking equipment vendors willing to collaborate to improve equipment reliability in Australian waters, and over 70 responded and were keen to contribute.” The SEAR JIP is also discussing opportunities to collaborate with Umbilical Manufacture Federation vendors.

With a steering committee having selected and shortlisted a number of promising innovations, the idea now is to build a series of subsea structures, deploy them offshore Australia and test them in situ. “It would be like a living laboratory offshore,” she said “And over three years we would have the ability to assess their performance.” Funding is still being assessed, but the aim is to have these in the water by the end of 2017 or early 2018.

For innovators with good ideas, there may just be time to take part. “If there are any technologies or vendors out there which would like to be considered for the testing programme, we are still open and they could be included in the selection process,” Botto said. Those interested in becoming involved in the study should get in touch via the details below. n Contact: Adriana Botto

Email: Adriana.Botto@woodgroup.com Web: www.woodgroup.com

page 18

InnovOil

Subsea power project heats up

April 2017

New backing for Aberdeen-based Exnics will see its Hot Rings system developed into a thermoelectric power generator

G

ETTING power to the seabed is notoriously tricky. Typically facilities are powered from the surface via tieback, which is expensive. Reducing this financial burden could lower the overall costs of production by a sizable margin. The solution, as many see it, could be to site power generation facilities on the seabed itself, but this brings with it a host of new challenges.

One advantage is that many subsea pipes are already carrying hot hydrocarbons.

A typical well will produce up to several megawatts of heat, yet this energy is not used, and is usually allowed to dissipate into

the surrounding water. One Aberdeen-based firm, Exnics, wants to harness this heat and use it to power subsea equipment.

Its so-called Hot Ring technology takes the form of a collar which is attached to the exterior of a production spool. These pieces are comprised of solid-state ceramic, contain no moving parts and generate no emissions.

The collar clamps around the outside of a standard nominal pipe section and will passively scavenge the energy otherwise lost to sea. As the heat passes through the device, some of the energy is captured via a semiconductor material and converted into a DC electrical current.

A single Exnics Hot Ring

NEWSBASE

Suitable for pipelines of between 4 inches and 12 inches (102-305 mm) in diameter, Exnics says that these devices can be deployed and connected at substantially lower cost than subsea power cables and, because they require no input fuel, will also reduce operating costs. Over a 20-year operating life, that equates to significant savings. In addition, because the system is built with chemically and galvanically inert materials, neither will they corrode – reducing the potential for inspection and maintenance.

Watts up The system is a viable solution for flowlines operating at 50°C or over, up to a maximum of 200°C. Power generation and efficiency increase with temperature, and with the diameter of pipe. According to Exnics’ computational fluid dynamics simulations, one ring fitted to a 10-inch (254-mm) pipe operating at 200°C can produce as much as 70 W. Hot Rings are designed to track the maximum power by adjusting to changes in the environment. By monitoring heat flux and the corresponding changes in the internal resistance of the semiconductor over its lifetime, Exnics says the Hot Ring can achieve over 90% electrical efficiency in converting harvested heat to power.

They are also scalable. According to Exnics, a “limitless” number of Hot Rings can be connected together to cater for a variety of power demands, producing a suitable voltage and current to operate subsea controls, sensors, actuators and even pumps.

In particular, the company says that the system works best when used in combination with a Li-ion battery. These will help to regulate DC output to prevent overcharging, but a train of Hot Rings could provide a float charge for larger subsea batteries, allowing generation system to meet high intermittent loads and to maintain power during cold shutdown periods.

Rated to 3,000m, the system would

April 2017

InnovOil

page 19

Exnics have invented, developed and tested Hot Rings, a technology that exploits subsea geothermal power via thermoelectric power generation.

be of particular benefit to deepwater and ultra-deepwater infrastructure, and for infrastructure at high-pressure, hightemperature (HPHT) wells.

TERS response Building on the capabilities of Hot Rings has led Exnics to adapt the technology for use at subsea wells. Locating a thermal energy recovery system (TERS) here not only capitalises on the maximum possible heat output, but also places the generator close to much of the load equipment.

It is this endeavour which will take up much of Exnics’ time over the next year.

The company has recently secured new development funding from the Oil & Gas Innovation Centre (OGIC). As part of the group’s thirty-first project agreement, Exnics will benefit from a share of GBP230,000 (US$290,000) in investment, spread across four new industry technology projects.

The new backing will see Exnics work with Heriot-Watt University to develop a Thermoelectric Generator (TEG) to support its Hot Rings system. A bespoke TEG will be developed which will work specifically with the thermoelectric clamp. The goal is to improve the performance of the product in future deployments and to increase the

NEWSBASE

range of applications where power from waste heat can be used.

OGIC chief executive Ian Phillips commented: “The Exnics project is an example of where further research is being done to enhance new technology, which is already being tested on the market. This technology has the potential to offer cost reductions to companies and a number of operators have already noted interest in the technology.” n Contact: Exnics

Tel: +44 (0)1224 418 255 Email: enquiries@exnics.com Web: www.exnics.com

page 20

InnovOil

April 2017

A bit different

Baker Hughes’ TerrAdapt bit system has variable and adaptable cutting elements, helping to reduce stick slip and increase drilling efficiency

D

IFFERENT drill bits and bit configurations are often used to tackle different formations, but the advantages of doing so may be outweighed by the time and cost of removing a drill string, replacing the bit, and re-tripping. As a consequence, drillers may opt to push through various formations to reach target depth, even when encountering difficult sections, or transitioning between layers of hard and soft rocks.

When a bit with fixed depth-of-cut (DOC) enters into a transition zone between formations, its bite can become too aggressive, causing vibrations and stickslip. These stick-slip events dramatically increase drilling costs by reducing ROP, they result in poor directional control, and can seriously damage the bit and other expensive downhole tools such as (measurementwhile-drilling) MWDs and motors. Even minor changes in the rock can cause impact loading, limiting the life of the bit.

Adjustments to rotations per minute (RPM) and weight-on-bit (WOB) from the surface can help, as well as blades with a variable DOC – but tend to be little more than informed guesswork.

As with many other sub-sectors of the industry, automating some of these processes can hold immense value. It is with a view to solving this problem that Baker Hughes has unveiled its TerrAdapt Adaptive Drill Bit system. Movable control elements in the bit are self-adjusted to vary the DOC, according to the lithology of the environment. The system will also respond to events such as shocks and slips, preventing damage to the bottom hole assembly (BHA) and the bit itself.

For operators, Baker Hughes says, that means “faster, more consistent rates of penetration (ROP), longer bit/tool life and significantly reduced non-productive time.”

Adapt and thrive The TerrAdapt system uses a passive hydro-mechanical feedback mechanism built into cartridges installed inside the polycrystalline-diamond-compact (PDC) bit blades. Elements on top of these cartridges control the DOC, and can be retracted

Movable elements control the DOC, and can be retracted or extended or extended. They respond to loads and vibration, preventing the bit from taking too large a bite in harder sections.

When vibrations cease, or during normal drilling, the elements gradually adjust their exposure to keep drilling fast and efficient.

A Baker Hughes spokesperson explained more about the innovation’s history: “The TerrAdapt concept was developed as part of an internal Baker Hughes innovation contest called the Wildcat Challenge.

The first one was kicked off at the end of 2013, challenging participants to think of a solution to a common industry problem that is not being addressed with current research and development projects. The idea of a bit that could be self-adjusting won the inaugural Challenge.”

Having then developed the bit over 12 months, the company launched a formal product development effort in 2015. “It has been exciting to take such a novel idea from concept to commercial offering in less than three years,” the development team told InnovOil.

case study, one driller in the Delaware Basin, Texas was experiencing erratic drilling during intermediate sections running through interbedded shale, limestone and salt. These slowed drilling progress and were damaging equipment, increasing time and costs.

The TerrAdapt bit completed the 3,355-ft (1023-m) section in a single run, increasing ROP by 27% compared with ROP on offset wells drilled with standard PDC bits. Surface torque generated by the TerrAdapt bit was also 45% lower on average and 90% more consistent.

Given these results, drillers are likely to see more adaptive bits reaching their rigs.

According to Baker Hughes, TerrAdapt is the first release in “a line of adaptive bits.”

While the initial release of TerrAdapt focuses on 8.5 inches (216 mm) to 12.25 inches (311 mm), over the next year or two Baker Hughes confirmed that “we will be scoping/ developing the next TerrAdapt/adaptive bit that can adjust other components on the bit to solve other downhole issues.” n

The future of drilling?

Reported results for one operator have been impressive. According to a Baker Hughes

Tel: +1 281 363 6119 Email: Daniell.Fuselier@bakerhughes.com www.public.bakerhughes.com/terradapt

NEWSBASE

Contact: Danielle Fuselier

presents

Following demand from our customers, NewsBase has acquired ProjectsOGP - a global online project tracking database, covering the lifecycle of over 5,000 oil, gas and petrochemical projects.

Premium project tracking solution Over 5,000 projects tracked worth US $7.2 Trillion

ProjectsOGP is a global online project tracking database, which tracks the lifecycle of oil, gas and petrochemical projects. The tracker is a valuable tool for business development, project managers and key decision makers to keep up-to-date with market developments and competitor activity.

FEATurES AND BENEFITS OF PROJECTSOGP

A Z New decommissioning section

• • • •

Full project breakdown: Value • Completion date Location • Oil reserves Ownership • Operators Start date • Contractors

Saves time and money on resources

NewsBase Ltd. Tel: +44 (0)131 478 7000

Create business opportunities and keep an eye on competitors

Extract information by Excel or PDF - from projects, including operators, contractors, values and dates

Tailored to you - receive email alerts on your projects of interest

For more information or to arrange a demonstration, contact news@newsbase.com

page 22

InnovOil

April 2017

Eelume refines liquid snake A progress update from Norwegian robotics firm Eelume on its snake-like underwater robot for IMR

V

ALENTINE’S Day is typically an opportunity to celebrate love and romance. For Trondheim-based Eelume, it was an opportunity to show off the development of its robotic sea snakes.

The firm gained worldwide attention last year – not least in InnovOil itself – on the back of an agreement with Statoil and Kongsberg Maritime to develop the subsea concept. A new video, which was released on February 14, shows how far the firm has come in the interim.

Although eerie, the robotic system could prove to be revolutionary in subsea operations, providing permanent remote maintenance and monitoring at oil and gas and renewables sites. Aimed at the subsea inspection, maintenance and repair (IMR) market, the concept is based on a self-propelled robotic arm. Comprised of modular combinations of joints, thrusters and payload modules, the system is designed to travel long distances and carry out IMR in confined spaces currently inaccessible by conventional underwater vehicles.

Footage from the announcement last year showed two versions of the system – one powered by tail-mounted thrusters and one

Propellers have been added for extra mobility propelled by a swimming motion achieved by moving linkages along its length.

Modular improvements The past year seems to have been a flurry of activity. “During the last year we have built NEWSBASE

the first snake-like vehicle that can dive down to 150m depth, and demonstrated that we are able to conduct inspection,” Eelume CEO Arne Kjørsvik told InnovOil by email.

Certainly, the design has been refined somewhat since its initial incarnation was

April 2017

revealed last year. The resulting system looks far sleeker and sees components housed in a more familiar ROV/AUV-like shell. Gone is the serpentine face, replaced by an altogether friendlier camera, lighting and tool system.

“The current version is built up by flexible joints and pressure-hull sections capable of going deeper than the first prototype built by NTNU. The NTNU version was a multi-joint version equipped with a watertight rubber skin that could operate close to surface,” explained Kjørsvik.

Similar refinements appear along the length of the robot. Forward and lateral thruster modules have been added along the body to enable better manoeuvrability, as well as new payloads, such as a camera swivel module. Further payloads could be added at a later date, but Kjørsvik said that the first iterations would be market and customerdriven.

According to Eelume, the robot’s flexibility also allows for some pretty unique working scenarios. “A dual-arm configuration is achieved by mounting tooling in each end and forming the vehicle body into a U-shape,” the company explained. “One end of the arm can grab hold to fixate the vehicle, while the other end can carry out inspection and

InnovOil

page 23

intervention tasks. One end of the arm can also provide a perspective camera view of a tool operation carried out at the other end.”

All test footage so far has shown the robots connected to the surface via umbilicals.

However, the overall goal is to run the vehicle via rechargeable batteries, wireless communication systems and to include an autonomous control system, enabling the vehicle to be “resident” on the seabed, as envisioned in Eelume’s brief.

Of course the system is still in development, leaving plenty of scope for further refinement, but interest from the industry has already been promising. “The response has been overwhelming,” said Kjørsvik. “We have received several requests about the vehicles performance like depth, size, speed, different tool capabilities, different market segments, delivery time, etc.”

“Since we are currently in a development phase we encourage people to follow our website and stay tuned for updates,” he added.

Here at InnovOil we certainly will be. n Contact: Arne Kjørsvik

Tel: +47 46 500 700 Email: contact@eelume.com Web: eelume.com

NEWSBASE

The robot can form different shapes to use multiple tools

ITF launches Innovation Network to shine a light on SME Technology Development for the Oil & Gas Industry

The aim of the ITF Innovation Network is to provide an effective mechanism for technology developers to promote their technology development efforts to ITF members and the wider industry.

This will be an active and evolving community where we will encourage discussion and engagement on technology qualification, field trials, joint industry projects and new technologies that can be quickly implemented on projects.

Please register to join our community of Technology Developers, https://network.itfenergy.com or contact a member of our team at innovate@itfenergy.com for more information.

FACILITATE COLLABORATE INNOVATE

www.itfenergy.com

April 2017

InnovOil

page 25

Geo and NCT launch Freja vessel Danish firms collaborate on development of new heave compensationenabled drillship

T

HE growth of offshore wind necessitates a more flexible fleet of vessels – but that flexibility can pay dividends to oil and gas too. The latest evidence of that comes in the form of a new collaboration between engineering consultancy Geo and the shipping company NCT Offshore.

The two firms have just launched Freja, an S-Class ROV Support DP2 drillship, which, they claim, is “the only drill ship of its calibre and type in the Nordics.” The 75m vessel offers a flexible range of geotechnical tools, with a particular focus on offshore wind development.

The drilling setup aboard Freja is based on a unique system which provides optimised, heave-compensated drilling conditions. The active heave compensated working platform (HCP) allows the entire drilling floor – including the drill rig and drillers – to move according to the movement of the ship: the vessel follows the movement of the waves, while the deck remains stationary.

This system can compensate for up to 6m of vertical movement by the vessel at the drilling location – typically at the mid-ship moon pool – allowing for around 3m of drilling compensation.

Winds of change Geo Marine Survey department director Jens Brink Clausen discussed the vessel’s development with InnovOil. “For Geo to be able to supply our geotechnical drilling/ sampling services, we needed a suitable vessel to be able to service projects offshore, at water depths of 20-60 m. The main target is offshore wind. In order to be able to supply high-quality drilling/coring, as is possible on shore, the concept of the HCP was developed and combined with our drilling system,” he explained.

On most conventional vessels, typically only the drill string itself is heave-compensated. The addition of the HCP enables drillers to use techniques

A closer look at the HCP system which would otherwise be limited to onshore operations. “The drilling system is a dedicated geotechnical rig, enabling standard drilling – for example using piston/ hammer sampling in soil formations,” Clausen added. “However, the main advantage is that we have introduced highquality triple tube coring system (GeoBor-S) in floating/heave compensated mode, which enables us to recover large-diameter core samples from firm clay formations up to chalk and rock.”

This enables the more complex system to be used to its full effect. GeoBor-S ensures much higher sample quality than that usually attainable with traditional drill ships, which apply the so called ‘piggy back’ approach.

A number of moon-pool configurations are available – either 1,200 x 1,200 mm or NEWSBASE

3,580 x 3,580 mm – and moon-tubes with installed high-precision acoustic positioning (HiPAP).

Freja Is also outfitted with a range of CPT (Cone Penetration Tests) and Vibrocore rigs, and prepared for a suite of geophysical tools including side scan sonar, sub-bottom profiler, magnetometer and hull-mounted multi-beam echo sounder. Geo and NCT have positioned the ship as a multi-purpose vessel to offer the flexibility to take on a wide range of different projects, ranging from large offshore drilling campaigns with core drilling or sampling, handled on the vessel’s on-board laboratory, to projects that only require shallow CPT and Vibrocore.

The cost structure is also set up to reflect the technical capability required. Clausen added: “This should help keep the overall usage up and thereby keep the vessel competitive on a pure cost basis.” That benefits operators too: the less of the vessel that is needed, the lower the rate of hire.

Better geotechnical investigations are crucial for the design and optimisation of foundations for the planned offshore wind farm – which itself affects total construction costs, and the final price for the produced power.

Freja was mobilised at the beginning 2017 and has already completed its first two projects in Danish waters. Its next mission at an offshore wind farm project is scheduled to begin later this spring, running until summer. n Contact: Jens Brink Clausen Tel: +45 45 20 41 84 Email: jbc@geo.dk Web: www.geo.dk

page 26

InnovOil

April 2017

COMMENTARY

At the cutting edge of laser technology Laser drilling has long been touted as the industry’s next great leap, but Ros Davidson explores whether this futuristic technology is set to remain just that

W

ITHIN just a few years, highpowered lasers may be used for slicing through rock – like a knife through butter – deep underground during commercial oil and gas drilling.

In essence, lasers are an old technology.

They derive from the concept of “stimulated emissions” first theorised by Einstein 100 years ago, but were not built in the form that we would recognise today until 1960. Even then, the reception from the scientific and engineering community was that lasers were “a solution looking for a problem.”

In the intervening years, much of their development was driven by military applications, perhaps the most famous example being the Reagan-era Star Wars initiative. In this instance, the idea was to use airborne lasers for shooting missiles out of the sky or for destroying military targets on the ground. But with the end of the Cold War, military interest in their use fizzled somewhat.

“It was the classic example of a technology that had been developed that was waiting for a real need,” explains Dr Ramona Graves, speaking with InnovOil by phone. Graves is the foremost US expert on the application of lasers for the oil and gas sector, and a professor and dean of the College of Earth Resource Sciences & Engineering at the Colorado School of Mines. Moreover, Graves believes that these industries have just such a need.

The fundamental goal with drilling is, of

course, deeper and cheaper – achieved along the way by improving other parameters like accuracy and speed. High-powered lasers, if they can be developed commercially in the way that their backers expect, would be faster, cheaper, more precise and would have a far smaller environmental footprint than even a modern drilling rig.

An underappreciation of advances in the technology – and what these can offer the industry – is still an issue. According to Graves, a high-powered laser will use far less power than a drilling rig. A laser beam is also straight – whereas a drill bit will slip, move around and follow stresses in the earth.

Harnessing lasers for oil and gas drilling would be truly revolutionary, and the first fundamental advance since the mechanical rotary-drilling technique, invented in the UK at the end of the Industrial Revolution and long before the dawn of the age of oil and gas. Not surprisingly, there has been intense interest in high-powered lasers for oil and gas applications from major oil and gas producer and oilfield services companies of late.

“It was the classic example of a technology that had been developed that was waiting for a real need” Dr Ramona Graves, College of Earth Resource Sciences & Engineering at the Colorado School of Mines NEWSBASE

High in fibre The laser itself would sit above ground at the drilling site, with the beam guided down even the deepest well bore via a fibre-optic cable. The beam, carried underground to the rock interface, would then make contact with the rock, heating it to hundreds of degrees, softening, breaking or even vaporising it. A mechanical drilling bit could then proceed faster, and with greater accuracy and ease.

Foro Energy of Texas and Colorado – a company founded by Graves in 2006 – claims that it can deliver multi-kW laser power over many miles of distance for oil and gas or geothermal applications. It has developed a prototype fibre laser – an optical fibre doped with rare earth elements which allow the fibre to be flexible and to produce high output – with Department of Energy [DoE] funding. The company’s design prevents the scattering of the laser as it travels down the fibre-optic cable, and it has also built a fibre connector which can withstand the pressure and temperature in a deep underground well.

One advantage of lasers is that they can easily cut through something as hard as igneous rock, and oil and gas fields can be capped by granite or basalt. With conventional drilling, heavy pressure may be needed to press down on the drill, to proceed through these formations, and the bit can be worn out easily, all of which adds time and expense. With a laser, it should be relatively easy. “The more solid something is,

April 2017

InnovOil

page 27

COMMENTARY

Above: Equipment from Foro Energy’s laser drilling system, including an optical slip ring and downhole connector Left: Ronald Reagan addresses the US regarding his ‘Star Wars’ programme the more [lasers] like it,” says Graves.

Historically, one of the greatest hurdles in deploying laser technology is that it takes a lot of energy to excite light into becoming a laser. When research on lasers for oil and gas applications began in the 1970s, the hydrocarbons produced contained less energy than the laser used to cut or smash the rock.

Yet, laser equipment – once the size of a small building – has become much smaller and cheaper. Suitable equipment can be acquired for as little as US$200,000 – a tenth of the cost of even a few years ago.

More specifically, Foro Energy says that in the past 15 years alone, the cost of its particular high-power fibre lasers have dropped by more than 100-fold – even with addition of modular and ruggedised elements which allows for field transportation.

Foro has partnered with Chevron and the DoE’s ARPA-E programme, or Advanced Research Projects Agency-Energy.

Muddied outlook Promising though they may be, questions do remain over some elements of laser drilling.

In particular, some experts are concerned with how to extract the rock that has become molten or pulverised to the surface.

Compressed air, or gases – such as helium or nitrogen – could be used but they are more expensive and may not apply to all wells as replacements for traditional drilling mud, says Dr Paul Bommer of the

Department of Petroleum and Geosystems Engineering at the University of Texas at Austin. This would require the laser/rock interface to remain undisrupted. “You need an ‘isolated pocket’ where the laser is not being interfered with by the things it hates,” he adds.

Lasers can also be used effectively under water, counters Graves. The Macondo well, and ensuing disaster at Deepwater Horizon, could have been minimised with laser technology sent underwater on robots and used to cut off the flow almost immediately, she notes.

In fact, Graves’ point is to emphasise that lasers could be put to work on any rock or solid material encountered in the industry, whether shale, concrete, granite, concrete or metal. Every rock, however, will require a slightly different wavelength of light for the system to perform effectively, she notes.

Laser beam delivery can be designed to spall, vaporise or melt the rock, and if there are drill cuttings created, then nitrogen or carbon dioxide are the optimum carrier fluids for removal.

“You need an ‘isolated pocket’ where the laser is not being interfered with by the things it hates” Dr Paul Bommer, Department of Petroleum and Geosystems Engineering, University of Texas in Austin NEWSBASE

In the oil and gas industry, Graves predicts that high-powered lasers will be in use commercially in about five years’ time, though she laughs and recalls that she said that in 2006 and again in 2011. “The technology is there, the science is there, but the industry has not motivation to develop it,” she says. “What do you do with the trillions of dollars invested in everything from platforms to logging tools?” she posits.

“You’d be throwing out so much money.”

Be that as it may, the current downturn in oil and gas may help. “You have to get creative to make money,” Graves says.

Initially, she suggests that high-powered lasers could most likely be used for smaller jobs – such as cutting a hole in a well to sidetrack, perhaps if a tool is stuck downhole, for perforating casing, or cutting windows.

Indeed, InnovOil would suggest that decommissioning operations in particular, whether removing subsea structures or section milling during plugging and abandonment (P&A), could benefit from the precision and power offered by laser technology.

The problem, as ever, is that it is not a technology to which the industry is yet accustomed.

In that sense, lasers may still be “a solution looking for a problem” – but the industry has no shortage of the latter. Perhaps it is time this cutting-edge technology was finally put to the cutting edge in earnest. n

page 28

InnovOil

April 2017

COMMENTARY

Oil industry embracing The shift towards automation and digitisation in order to improve efficiency is starting to yield results, writes Anna Kachkova in Houston

T

budget or 50% late,” he said. Once the oil price HE oil and gas industry is fell below US$50 per barrel, this became even increasingly turning to automation more of a critical issue, according to Nyquist. and digitisation – a shift that has Emerson’s research showed that the top been accelerated by the collapse operators spent half the money and took half in oil and gas prices. With cost-cutting and the time to build a facility compared with efficiency gains being pursued far more the worst-performing companies. Emerson aggressively in a low crude price environment, collaborated with companies oil and gas companies have including ExxonMobil, Royal become ever willing to consider Dutch Shell and BP, as well new options, and automation as smaller independents, to features prominently among identify numerous technologies these. and processes that could Such technological advances address this. were one of the topics discussed “We really focused on three at the CERAWeek by IHS things. One was eliminating Markit conference, held in or automating work,” Nyquist Houston last week. Indeed, IHS said. “The second was reducing Markit’s vice chairman and the complexity of projects.” the chairman of CERAWeek, “The research During the era of high oil Daniel Yergin, observed that the prices the trend had been main takeaway from one March we’d had said 6 plenary session was that “big that 65% of the towards customisation, but as companies sought to cut data” was going to be the next capital projects costs, there was a shift towards technological breakthrough for the industry after shale drilling. over US$1 billion standardisation.

“The third area we worked During the plenary, failed” on was reducing the impact Schlumberger’s executive vice president of technology, Ashok Jim Nyquist, president of of late-stage changes,” Nyquist Belani, said that data usage systems and solutions, said, adding that such changes would always happen. “We was much more helpful as far Emerson’s typically wind up, from an as advances go than the most automation standpoint, recent efficiency gains made on the critical path during the in shale drilling, such as variations in the commissioning.” number of frack stages.

These technologies were already Other speakers at the conference also being rolled out – in Emerson’s case touched on the subject, but noted that the over the past five years. Operators industry was still in the initial stages of and engineering, procurement and harnessing big data and still had much to construction (EPC) companies have learn about this. been seeking a 30-40% reduction in total installed costs, Nyquist said.

Capital project crisis “And we’re meeting that target,” The increased willingness to embrace digital he added, citing ExxonMobil technologies is already starting to yield and Shell as examples of the results, though, officials from Emerson told companies benefiting from this.

NewsBase on the sidelines of CERAWeek.

“I’ve been in this business Emerson’s group president of systems and a long time, but I’ve never solutions, Jim Nyquist, said that in recent before seen a time when years, the oil and gas industry had undergone we’ve had such an a capital project crisis. “The research we’d inflection point, where had said that 65% of the capital projects over we could drive this US$1 billion failed. And that’s either 25% over NEWSBASE

kind of transformational change.” He noted that resistance to change was still a challenge when things had always been done a certain way, but said the awareness and the need to change was also now there.

“And it’s not just the automation system that we’re trying to have an impact on, we’re really using the automation as a lever to other parts of the project,” Nyquist added, citing the elimination of engineering hours and wiring costs as examples.

Operational gains The benefits of automation and other technologies can extend well beyond the capital investment stage of a project.

Emerson’s chief strategic officer, Peter Zornio, cited sensors, control valves and software applications that could all be used to boost operational decision-making once a project has started up. With producers chasing cost savings across the board, there is a considerable amount that can be automated on the operational side as well.

“When we come in and we automate it, we put in sensors – that’s always the first step,”

April 2017

InnovOil

page 29

COMMENTARY

automation, digitisation Zornio said. “You can’t really do anything unless you replace intermittent data with reliable, real-time digital data.” Once such sensors are installed, this allows for the data to be pulled together, and reduces the need for people to be in the oilfield themselves carrying out monitoring, Zornio said, adding that this was particularly important offshore, from a safety point of view.

“Second, we put in controls,” he said, citing the need for controls on separators, valves and pumps. “So we’ve pulled people out, we’ve automated to make it run better and produce more, then we’ll put in sensors to monitor the actual equipment, not just the process.” This includes, for instance, monitoring vibration on pumps, corrosion and the presence of hazardous gases.

For producers that operate large oilfields or multiple offshore rigs, all the data can be brought back to an integrated operating centre, Zornio said. And operators are seeing

this as a “strong, reproducible lever to get costs down and increase production”. He added that using an integrated operating centre provided an opportunity to speed up decision-making because of the multiple disciplines present in such a facility.

But perhaps the biggest benefit, according to Zornio, is the availability of real-time production data that the producer can then compare to its initial reservoir model and plan for developing a given field, readjusting the plan and model if necessary to increase recoveries. “And that’s more of a long cycle thing – 10, 20, 30 years – but that’s really big dollars if you’re looking at something like a field in the North Sea or in the Gulf of Mexico where you’ve made a big investment in a lot of assets.”

Zornio cited a further benefit of digitisation – with the industry concerned over the impacts of a potential brain drain as its most experienced people retire, the ability to process data remotely rather than having to be in the oilfield could allow some of these retired experts to continue working part-time to analyse data remotely.

Asked whether oil and gas automation is a risk to jobs, Nyquist said that it actually creates new jobs, but of a different type and requiring different skills.

“I don’t think we can lose sight of the fact that in countries like the UK and the US, without automation you’re not going be globally competitive against emerging economies that have much lower labour costs,” Zornio added.

NEWSBASE

Culture change Zornio cautioned, however, that while progress had been made, a number of challenges still remained. He cited Shell, BP, ExxonMobil and Statoil as examples of companies that had brought in some of these processes and technologies, but noted that they had done this internally, inside their own computing networks. Meanwhile, he suggested that it could be more beneficial for producers to turn to third parties with outside expertise to analyse their data for them.

“That’s not a model most of these companies are used to,” he said, but noted that as the most experienced people retire from the industry and expertise is lost, there was an opportunity for a third-party service to come in and help.

Now, one of the challenges for companies such as Emerson is making producers more comfortable sharing data with them. Zornio noted that data around equipment was not so proprietary, and companies could be more willing to share that than data around production from a particular field, which is highly proprietary. Once again, though, the oil price downturn has increased the degree of acceptance around the idea of sharing data with third parties in order to cut costs and boost output, he noted.

Companies are not as far along in the digitisation process as the super-majors, especially those with older assets. “Offshore is probably the biggest target because there is the biggest potential for returns,” Zornio said. “The cost and safety implications for the people out there are the highest.”

page 30

InnovOil

April 2017

COMMENTARY Global oil dialogue with Daniel Yergin, Vice Chairman, IHS Markit and Chairman, CERAWeek and Darren Woods, Chairman & CEO, ExxonMobil Cyber-security Another challenge is cyber-security, which is increasingly in the spotlight as the industry adopts the “Industrial Internet of Things” (IIoT). “There are a lot of technologies you can apply to cyber-security,” Zornio said. He noted that when people thought of cybersecurity, they often thought of technological aspects such as firewalls to protect data.

“But the hardest thing in cyber-security is people, again,” he said. According to Zornio, penetration testing on Emerson’s systems found that if the testers get in, it was through social engineering every time.

“That is really the biggest thing that’s got to change in our experience,” he said.

“When you look at safety, people have done a fantastic job of drilling that into everyone’s head. Nobody is going to walk out into the oilfield without putting a hard hat on, or their protective gear, but they still think nothing of writing their password on a sticky note and putting it on the control screen.” But in the same way oilfield safety practices have been instilled into industry workers, cyber-security practices can also eventually be instilled, through monitoring and training.

“In the power industry in North America there is actually legislation requiring a certain amount of cyber-security defences in place around control systems,” Zornio said. “That hasn’t come to oil and gas or other industries yet, but it likely will. I think it’s only a matter of time.”

Justin Trudeau accepted the CERAWeek Global Energy and Environment Leadership Award

What next?

Emerson, like many of the upstream players talking at CERAWeek, is confident that an oil industry revival is under way. “We see work coming back,” Nyquist said, adding that certain projects that had been delayed during the downturn were already being revived. “We can see it in terms of what we call our project pursuit funnel of jobs that we might be pursuing. That funnel is up and we’re doing a lot more proposals.” In line with the industry’s shift away from megaprojects, Nyquist said he anticipated fewer mega-jobs in the industry, but a lot more smaller jobs and phased jobs. “There will still be a lot of projects, I think, especially where we can get low-cost production,” he added.

While he said he expected the Permian Basin in particular to rebound quickly, he also anticipated a global recovery over the next 2-3 years.

Though both Zornio and Nyquist agreed that the industry will not be seeing prices above US$100 per barrel again in the near future, they noted the industry had become much responsive to price fluctuations

NEWSBASE

and was better placed to operate at lower prices. Comments from various speakers at CERAWeek seem to back this up, and efforts to automate and standardise have played a part in this.

Speaking at one of the conference sessions, Shell’s executive vice president of commercial and new business development, Edward Daniels, talked about how the super-major had re-engineered deepwater Gulf projects such as Vito to bring down costs, for example by implementing a phased approach like the one Nyquist talked about. Daniels also noted the company’s efforts to standardise well design and components in order to bring down the cost of the recently sanctioned Kaikias deepwater project.

Onshore, operators are also embracing new ways of working, with Range Resources’ chairman, president and CEO, Jeff Ventura, saying the company was trying to use data better for completions, efficiency gains and improved decision-making.

The consensus, though, is that there is still much progress to be made. n

April 2017

InnovOil

page 31

New push for Chinese shale development

China is stepping up its shale development efforts, with a new centre reportedly planned at Fuling and new partnership agreements between key regional players

C

HINA’S biggest shale gas producer, Sinopec, is reportedly seeking to raise long-term production by investing almost US$50 million in a research base near Fuling, its biggest operational shale project.

Last year, output from Fuling, which is located in the Chongqing municipality adjacent to Sichuan Province, totalled about 5 bcm, Reuters reported, although no official figure has been published so far for the whole of 2016.

National oil company (NOC) Sinopec said earlier that Fuling had produced 3.76 bcm in the January-September period of 2016. The company is seeking to strengthen its position as China’s leading shale gas developer by building the research facility, Reuters reported, quoting rival shale developer China National Petroleum Corp. (CNPC).

Sinopec has not disclosed anything about the Fuling research project and CNPC’s announcement on its own website provided few details.

Sinopec will reportedly spend 339 million yuan (US$49 million) on the research centre in an effort to oversee the expansion of production capacity at Fuling.

Sinopec had previously said it was targeting second-phase development of the Fuling project, which is due to be completed this year and which is anticipated to raise output capacity at the field to 10 bcm per year.

Heading south Following the news at Fuling, CNPC then signed an agreement with provincially owned Sichuan Energy to explore and develop the southwestern province’s shale gas reserves jointly.

Based on the agreement, CNPC’s local upstream arm PetroChina Southwest Oil and Gas will develop shale gas businesses with Sichuan Energy in the Sichuan Basin, with activities to include pipeline construction.

Again, the two sides have provided few details about the agreement, but industry sources have said the companies will develop shale gas plays in the province’s south.

CNPC wants to boost its production of the unconventional gas to 10 bcm by 2020 with a focus on shale-rich regions in south Sichuan that surround the cities of Neijiang, Zigong, Yibin, Luzhou, Leshan, Ziyang and Meishan.

This would represent a more than fourfold NEWSBASE

increase on the 2.3 bcm it produced in 2016 from 120 wells at 26 well pads.

Meanwhile, CNPC’s listed arm PetroChina has begun construction of another gathering pipeline to serve additional wells in its Changning-Weiyuan shale gas block, Interfax China reported.

Changning-Weiyuan, which is also located in Sichuan Province, is PetroChina’s most productive shale gas block to date, yielding 2.5 bcm in 2016. Development has been slow, however. The NOC first started exploratory drilling in Changning-Weiyuan in 2010.

Sinopec already operates a 136-km pipeline connecting Fuling with its pipeline system serving East China’s provinces.

The Fuling and Changning-Weiyuan blocks are both located in mountainous terrain that is challenging to drill and the shale plays are found at considerable depths. Production has improved as the two NOCs have honed their technology and grown their expertise.

The companies have said they expect to be producing 10 bcm per year of shale gas each by 2020. China’s National Energy Administration (NEA) has set a target for the country to be producing a total of 30 bcm per year of shale gas by the same year. n

InnovOil

page 32

April 2017

Finding fault with Stanford tools New, free software created by Stanford researchers could help operators identify the likelihood of wastewater injection wells causing fault slips USGS Forecast for Damage from Natural and Induced Earthquakes in 2017 Seattle

Boston

Minneapolis

Sacramento Denver

Columbus

Lincoln Denver

Nashville

Phoenix

Oklahoma City

Atlanta

A

Chance of damage 10% – 12% 5% – 10%

New Orleans

Austin

LTHOUGH routine, the disposal of wastewater from hydrocarbons production carries risk – most notably that the injection of water into the disposal formation could trigger earthquakes. Although many pose no problems, seismicity has trended upwards dramatically over the past decade as production from onshore wells has increased, according to the US Geological Survey (USGS). About 2 billion gallons (7.5 billion litres) of wastewater are injected daily into an estimated 180,000 wells in the US, mostly in Texas, Oklahoma, Kansas and California.

Currently, there are no methods available to predict whether wells could trigger sizable quakes, or fault slips. However, a new free tool from scientists at the University of Stanford may change that.

“Faults are everywhere in the Earth’s crust, so you can’t avoid them. Fortunately, the majority of them are not active and pose no hazard to the public. The trick is to identify which faults are likely to be problematic, and that’s what our tool does,” said Stanford School of Earth, Energy & Environmental Sciences’ professor of geophysics, Mark Zoback. The tool was

Raleigh

Highest chance

Dallas

Based on the presumption earthquakes occur naturally

Washington

2% – 5% 1% – 2%

Based on natural and induced earthquakes

< 1% Lowest chance

developed by Zoback and his graduate student Rall Walsh at the Stanford Center for Induced and Triggered Seismicity (SCITS), an industrial affiliates’ programme involving 10 Stanford professors, while the software was developed in collaboration with ExxonMobil.

The USGS notes that three conditions must be met for injection to induce an earthquake: presence of a fault; stresses acting on the fault favourable to slip; and a pathway for the pressure increase from injection to interact with the fault. Zorback’s Fault Slip Potential (FSP) tool uses similar information.

The first component is how much wastewater injection will increase pore pressure at a site, and the second is knowledge of the stresses acting in the earth. This information is obtained from monitoring earthquakes or wells drilled previously in the area. The tool then draws on details of pre-existing faults in the area – information typically available in data already collected by oil and gas companies as they explore for new resources.

No more slip-ups Zoback and Walsh have started testing NEWSBASE

their FSP tool in Oklahoma, which has experienced a sharp rise in the number of earthquakes since 2009, owing largely to wastewater injection operations. Their analysis suggested that some wastewater injection wells in Oklahoma were unwittingly placed near stressed faults already primed to slip.

“Our tool provides a quantitative probabilistic approach for identifying at-risk faults so that they can be avoided,” Walsh said.

“Our aim is to make using this tool the first thing that’s done before an injection well is drilled.”

The two also noted that regulators could use the tool to identify areas where proposed injection activities could prove problematic so that enhanced monitoring efforts could be implemented. n The FSP program is freely available for download at SCITS.stanford.edu Contact: Mark Zoback, School of Earth, Energy & Environmental Sciences Tel: (+1) 650 725 9295 Email: zoback@stanford.edu Web: https://scits.stanford.edu

April 2017

InnovOil

NEWS IN BRIEF

BP awards Schlumberger contract for Mad Dog 2

OneSubsea has won an engineering, procurement and construction (EPC) contract to supply the subsea production system for BP’s Mad Dog 2 development in the Gulf of Mexico.

The scope of the contract includes subsea manifolds, trees, control system, single and multi-phase meters, water analysis sensors, intervention tooling and test equipment for producer and water injection wells associated with the project. In addition, Subsea 7, which collaborates with OneSubsea through the Subsea Integration Alliance, was awarded an engineering, procurement, construction and installation (EPCI) contract for subsea controls, flexible risers, pipeline systems, umbilicals and associated subsea architecture.

“Our collaborative working relationship with Subsea 7 empowers our organizations to deliver to BP an integrated EPCI capital-efficient solution, which is substantially lower than the original estimated project cost,” said Mike Garding, president, OneSubsea, Schlumberger.

“Our equipment reliability is a key factor in mitigating project risk and this project will benefit from the supplier-led approach of using standardized equipment designs and specifications.”

Project management, including engineering, fabrication, installation support and life of field activities will be managed by US-based resources and operations in both Houston, Texas, and Louisiana. Teams from both organizations will be co-located to better support project objectives.

SCHLUMBERGER

Proserv seals significant subsea contract with Premier Oil Energy services company Proserv has been awarded a multi-million dollar contract with Premier Oil for work in Asia Pacific.

Proserv will supply a subsea control system and associated equipment for the BIGP (Bison, Iguana & Gajah Puteri) development project, located in the Natuna Sea, Indonesia.

The scope of supply is a three well subsea control system, which includes the company’s award winning Artemis 2G subsea electronics module, tied back to two platforms, Naga and Pelikan, in approximately 90m water depth.

Bison and Iguana will tie back to the Pelikan platform and Gajah Puteri will tie back from a controls perspective to the Naga platform.

The Gajah Puteri well is the longest step out at 21km.

Each well will have a wet gas meter, which is part of Proserv’s scope of supply and the system will be capable of future expansion to accommodate potential future infill drilling.

Delivery of the first phase of equipment is scheduled for May 2018. Work for the project will be carried out in various Proserv service centres and technology hubs around the world, reinforcing the company’s strong inter-regional capability.

This latest award will allow Proserv to build on its installed base of subsea control systems, following the project completed with Premier Oil on the Dua project in Vietnam in 2013.

PROSERV

McDermott signs Aramco MoU McDermott International has signed a memorandum of understanding with Saudi Aramco for a long-term land lease at the new maritime facility at Ras Al Khair in Saudi NEWSBASE

page 33

Mad Dog 2

Arabia, currently being developed by Saudi Aramco.

With a long-term phased approach, McDermott plans to build a new fabrication and marine complex expected to use state-ofthe-art facilities, increased automation and an optimized layout to increase McDermott’s abilities to service its growing Middle East and Caspian markets.

“We are excited about this strategic move and believe it expands and strengthens our ability to service all our growing Middle East markets and our decades-long leadership position with Saudi Aramco and in the Middle East,” said David Dickson, McDermott’s President and CEO “When we look at our next 50 years of business in the Middle East, we see strong benefits to moving our business operations to Saudi Arabia, including the opportunity to modernize our facilities, move closer to Saudi Aramco and other key customers in the region as well as provide McDermott’s world-class training programs to Saudi Arabia’s talented workforce to further enhance McDermott’s Middle East operations.”

McDermott expects to expand its capabilities and capacity in the region to serve its customers in offshore and subsea markets throughout the Middle East, Caspian and other markets in the Eastern Mediterranean Sea and offshore India and East Africa. The future fabrication facility at Ras Al Khair is expected to provide up to 16-million manhours of capacity, up from 8-million manhours at McDermott’s current Jebel Ali facilities, with a gradual transition from McDermott’s operations in Jebel Ali expected by the mid-2020s.

MCDERMOTT

page 34

InnovOil

April 2017

NEWS IN BRIEF

Wood Group to swallow AMEC Wood Group has launched a bid to take over fellow oilfield services firm AMEC Foster Wheeler in a move that could save the merged group GBP110 million (US$134 million) per year in costs.

The offer, of 0.75 new Wood Group shares for each existing AMEC share, was announced on March 13, and has been recommended by the company’s board. This announcement comes days before London-headquartered AMEC was due to suspend dividend payments and carry out a GBP500 million (US$611 million) rights issue in order to boost its struggling balance sheet.

“The combination extends the scale and scope of our services, deepens our existing customer relationships, facilitates further development of our technology-enabled solutions and broadens our end market, geographic and customer exposure,” said Wood Group chairman Ian Marchant.

“Delivering significant sustainable synergies will also result in a leaner and more competitive combined group, creating value for shareholders.”

AMEC Foster Wheeler currently has GBP1 billion (US$1.2 billion) of debt, and has faced considerable difficulties since it was formed in a merger between US contractor Foster Wheeler and UK services operator AMEC three years ago. This came as the collapse in oil prices hit services companies hard, with numerous contracts renegotiated and new projects cancelled.

The takeover bid may have been prompted by a stabilising of oil prices, which have steadied at around US$52-US$56 per barrel. While there has been an appetite for cost saving in the current environment, this volatility could have led to disputes over asset valuations.

In a note to clients, Citigroup described the takeover “as a largely defensive deal given what remains a challenging environment for oil and gas activity”.

“We also believe Wood Group sees the opportunity to simplify AMFW’s organisation, cut costs and position the business to benefit from a recovery in its key end-markets,” it continued.

“WG has identified cost synergies of at least GBP110 million [US$134 million] per annum going forwards (c.18% of the combined group’s 2016 EBITA), aided by the overlap of operations in the UK North Sea.” Edited by Ryan Stevenson ryans@newsbase.com

Second Sha Deniz 2

Second Shah Deniz 2 platform jacket sent offshore In mid-March, the Shah Deniz consortium announced the sail away of the second jacket for the Shah Deniz Stage 2 platforms. The Quarters and Utilities (QU) platform jacket sailed away to the Shah Deniz contract area in the Caspian Sea from the Heydar Aliyev Baku Deepwater Jackets Factory (BDJF) ahead of schedule on 15 March.

The transportation, launch, positioning, pile installation and final completion activities of the jacket structure are expected to take around 75 days, depending on the weather conditions.

NEWSBASE

The construction of the jacket was completed ahead of schedule on 20 February 2017 and was then successfully loaded onto the transportation barge STB-1 at the quayside of BDJF. The QU platform jacket, built by the BOS Shelf, Star Gulf and Saipem consortium, was fully constructed in country at the BDJF, using local construction infrastructure and facilities. 2000 people including sub-contractors and specialist vendors were involved in the construction works. Some 90% of the construction workforce was Azerbaijani citizens.

The QU platform jacket weighs approximately 12,084 tonnes and stands 105 metres high. It contains 31 J Tubes, 7 utility caissons and 3 J tube caissons. The jacket will be installed in a water depth of 95 metres.

BP

April 2017

InnovOil

page 35

NEWS IN BRIEF

contract for the Dalia FPSO offshore Angola, while also continuing its existing contract for the Girassol FPSO, both of which are situated in Block 17.

Among the agreed maintenance services are electricity and instrumentation (E&I), heating, ventilation and air conditioning (HVAC) technology, mechanics, and control systems. Again, the value of the contract was not disclosed. Signing up for work on Egina brings Actemium’s activity in West Africa to five FPSOs, from 2018 Edited by Ed Reed edreed@newsbase.com

ExxonMobil may help Sonangol pay for South Korean equipment

Actemium wins another Total FPSO contract Total has awarded the global maintenance contract (GMC) for its flagship Egina floating production, storage and offloading (FPSO) unit, in Nigeria, to services provider Actemium.

The work will be carried out by a consortium of two Actemium units: Actemium Oil & Gas Maintenance and PACE Nigeria. Beginning in 2018, the contract will run for five years, a statement on February 28 said. No details regarding the contract value were provided.

“The awarding of the Egina GMC by Total strengthens Actemium’s position in offshore maintenance in Nigeria, where we already

deliver maintenance services on the Usan FPSO for Exxon Mobil,” VINCI Energies Oil & Gas’ commercial director, Jimmy Neron, told NewsBase. “We will continue to propose our maintenance services to operators in Nigeria, as and when opportunities arise, as it is clearly within our development strategy in this leading West African country.”

The 200,000 bpd capacity Egina FPSO vessel is being built by Samsung Heavy Industries of Korea, and is expected to cost a total of US$3.3 billion. The facility should arrive in Nigeria in April. The Egina deepwater field is located 130 km offshore, in water depths of up to 1,750 metres. Egina is expected to produce first oil in early 2018.

The contract with Actemium is the second award connected with Total in recent weeks. In early February, Total secured the maintenance NEWSBASE

EXXONMOBIL may step in to help Sonangol pay for two drillships ordered from South Korea’s Daewoo Shipbuilding and Marine Engineering (DSME), assisting the state-owned Angolan company to navigate some of its pressing financial issues.

According to South Korean media, the US super-major is negotiating an advance of US$879 million with Sonangol, which will enable DSME to release two large-scale drilling platforms due to be placed into offshore service by the Angolan state-held company.

Battered by the lowered global oil price since mid-2014, Sonangol has been unable to stump up the 80% advance payment required

by DSME, which has been experiencing its own financial problems. Cited by the Business Korea newspaper, the new chief executive of DSME, Jung Sung-leep, said: “Sonangol is negotiating charter contracts with two to three oil majors and ExxonMobil is the most probable charterer at this time.”

Jung added: “Sonangol is holding negotiations with other oil majors in case the company fails to conclude a final contract with ExxonMobil.”

Sonangol ordered two drillships for US$1.24 billion in 2013 and DSME completed the shipbuilding last year. The two drillships, Sonangol Libongos and Sonangol Quenguela, were ordered for US$1.24 billion in November 2013 and were to be ready in mid-2016.

However, Sonangol made a request to delay the delivery as its financial conditions had worsened

page 36

InnovOil

April 2017

NEWS IN BRIEF

and the company was struggling to secure a charterer.

According to Angolan newspaper Novo Jornal, an agreement had been reached on a payment at the end of 2016. This was missed because of Sonangol’s inability to find a bank ready to accept the high risk associated with the Angolan company.

Sonangol’s tight financial situation has been illustrated by its failure to complete the acquisition of assets from Cobalt International Energy in the Kwanza Basin.

Edited by Andrew Kemp andrew.kemp@newsbase.com

Sovcomflot orders four LNGfuelled tankers SOVCOMFLOT, a maritime shipping company controlled by the Russian government, has placed an order with a South Korean shipyard for four LNG-fuelled tanker vessels.

In a statement dated March 20, Hyundai Heavy Industries (HHI) said that its shipbuilding affiliate Hyundai Samho Heavy Industries (HSHI) had signed a contract with Sovcomflot for the construction of four Ice-Class IA aframax tankers. The Russian company has already arranged to charter the ships, which will be the first LNG-burning aframax tankers ever built, to Royal Dutch Shell, it noted.

HHI further stated that it intended to deliver the first of the four ships in the third quarter of 2018. It also said that the DWT 114,000 vessels would be 250 metres long, 44 metres wide and 21 metres high.

According to the statement, the value of the deal amounts to US$240 million. South Korean media agencies have speculated that the price

tag will be closer to US$250.5 million, but HHI and Sovcomflot have not commented on the matter.

The South Korean company did stress, though, that the new ships would have a lower impact on the environment than conventionally fuelled tankers. “By running on LNG, the IceClass IA tankers can emit 90% less SOx, 80% less NOx [and] 15% less CO2, along with 50% reduced engine noise,” it said in its statement.

HHI also quoted an unnamed representative of HSHI as saying that the Sovcomflot contract was a positive development for the shipyard.

“We believe the winning of the world’s first LNG-fuelled aframax tankers is the proof of our world-leading eco-friendly shipbuilding technology,” he said. “As the demand for ecoships increases with tightening environmental regulations, we will further accelerate our efforts to win eco-ship orders.”

This is not Sovcomflot’s first order from HHI. The Russian company’s Soviet predecessor signed a contract with the South Korean conglomerate in 1989 for the delivery of six DWT 41,000 bulk carriers. Since then, it has ordered a total of 65 ships from HHI, which is the largest shipbuilder in the world.

Edited by Joe Murphy josephm@newsbase.com

CIL pursues CTL technologies STATE-OWNED Coal India Ltd (CIL), the country’s monopoly miner, has been seeking to tap technologies that allow for cleaner use of the fuel.

CIL has invited bids from licensors of coal gasification technology to build a coal-tomethanol plant in West Bengal, Indian Minister of State for Power, Coal, New and Renewable Energy Piyush Goyal said last week. According

NEWSBASE

Bengal smog.

Picture: Nasa

to Goyal, the plant would be built at the Dakuni coal complex.

Goyal said the government had appointed a consultant for the formulation of bid and model contract documents for the development of underground coal gasification (UCG) in India.

Meanwhile, in separate comments, again last week, CIL’s chairman, Sutirtha Bhattacharya, said the mining firm had authorised one of its subsidiaries to invite expressions of interest (EoIs) for a proposed coal-to-liquids (CTL) project.

“We have authorised Central Coalfield to float an expression of interest for a CTL project at Chatar (Jharkhand),” Bhattacharya said, adding that further details of the project would only be revealed after agencies had studied the technologies that are available.

Previously, CIL has had discussions with South Africa’s Sasol, a global leader in CTL technologies, to set up a plant in India. However, nothing concrete materialised. It is estimated that investments of about 100-120 billion rupees (US$1.5-1.8 billion) will be needed to produce liquid fuels from coal at modern refineries.

Currently, the state-owned Central Institute of

April 2017

InnovOil

page 37

NEWS IN BRIEF

Mining and Fuel Research is seeking to adapt CTL technologies to Indian grade coal.

CIL’s efforts to produce CBM have also received a boost, with the government last month approving pricing and marketing freedom to CBM producers.

CIL and its subsidiaries have been allowed to carry out commercial exploration and production of CBM from their coal-mining areas. Oil and Natural Gas Corp. (ONGC) and CIL are joint partners in developing the Jaria and Raniganj North CBM blocks, which have already entered the development phase.

Edited by Andrew Kemp andrew.kemp@newsbase.com

Ashtead invests in inspection technology Ashtead Technology has expanded its equipment rental pool following a significant

investment in the latest Pulsed Eddy Current (PEC) technology to deliver faster, more accurate asset integrity inspections.

Ashtead will now supply the Eddyfi Lyft™, an inspection tool for identifying corrosion under insulation (CUI), a major asset integrity issue for the oil and gas, and petrochemical sectors.

CUI is a type of corrosion that occurs as a result of a moisture build-up on the external surface of insulated equipment.

The corrosion is most commonly galvanic, chloride, acidic, or alkaline, and if undetected, the consequences can lead to the shutdown of a process unit or an entire facility.

Lyft™ can be used to accurately measure corrosion and wall thickness on insulated pipes without the need to remove insulation, significantly reducing time and costs.

It’s suitable for use on a number of materials including metal, aluminium, stainless steel and galvanised steel weather jackets, to provide real-time C-scan imaging, wall thickness measurements and NEWSBASE

fast data acquisition (up to 15 readings per second).

Allan Pirie, chief executive of Ashtead Technology said: “This investment underlines our commitment to the subsea and nondestructive testing markets, by offering the latest, cost-effective technologies ensures our customers are getting the most efficient, reliable solution available.

“CUI is one of the most difficult processes to prevent. No matter the precautions taken, water invariably seeps into the insulation and corrosion occurs.

“With traditional methods it was near on impossible to identify and measure the severity of corrosion without physically removing the insulation, however Eddyfi Lyft™ provides a fast, reliable and flexible solution.”

Headquartered in Québec, Canada, with offices in France, USA, and the UAE, Eddyfi focuses on offering high-performance eddy current and electromagnetic solutions for the inspection of critical components and assets.

ASHSTEAD

page 38

InnovOil

April 2017

NEWS IN BRIEF

EPIC pipeline planned for Permian PRODUCERS in the burgeoning Permian Basin will be able to reach new markets in about 2 years’ time thanks to a planned new pipeline.

Three companies are planning to build a 730-mile (1,175-km) pipeline named EPIC, which will be routed from West Texas to the Port of Corpus Christi on the US Gulf Coast.

The port is an infrastructure hub located close to over 1 million barrels of refining capacity.

The pipeline is due to be operational by the first quarter of 2019.

EPIC will be built by EPIC Pipeline, which is comprised of TexStar Midstream Logistics, Castleton Commodities International and Ironwood Midstream Energy Partners.

The scheduled start date of construction has not been announced, but 45-day open season has been launched for the first 200,000 barrels of capacity. The Permian Basin already has mature conventional oil and gas production and thus had adequate take-away capacity even before shale development brought about a second boom in the region.

“We see Permian Basin expansion,” TexStar’s marketing manager, Jeff Dorrow, told the Midland Reporter-Telegram. “We’ve already acquired 2% of right-of-way and we expect to hit the ground running by June 1.”

The pipeline would be able to move up to 440,000 bpd of oil and condensate, which is also a common product of tight oil plays. It would transport crude from Orla, Pecos, Crane and Midland in the Permian’s Midland and Delaware sub-basins. The system will consist of four

smaller pipelines measuring 16, 20, 24 and 30 inches (406, 508, 610 and 762 mm) in diameter.

“When Midland capacity gets tight, when Cushing [oil hub] capacity gets tight, if you’re able to freely flow crude onto water, it’s not only a freight advantage but a cost advantage because you’re eliminating that differential,” Dorrow said.

DataWing Global will also use its drone technology to monitor the pipeline for leaks, he told the Reporter-Telegram.

Edited by Anna Kachkova annak@newsbase.com

£1m funding to encourage oil and gas innovation The Industry Technology Facilitator (ITF) and the Oil & Gas Innovation Centre (OGIC)

NEWSBASE

have joined forces to fund and support the development of innovations which could reduce costs, raise production efficiency, and improve safety and environmental performance.

OGIC has made £1 million available to support companies with projects that require research and development to be undertaken at a Scottish university. OGIC can fund up to 70% of these costs and ITF can potentially ‘topup’ financial support if an innovative project engages the interest of its members.

Accessing Scottish university capability and industry expertise will help developers get their innovations closer to market.

Ben Foreman, ITF Technology Manager, said: “This is an exciting opportunity for technology developers to progress their ideas from the desktop towards the marketplace. The oil and gas industry has undergone tremendous changes over the past few years and new technology is crucial to see it become more efficient, sustainable and safer in the future.”

Applications are invited for all types of innovation that will benefit the oil and gas industry. The developer can be of any size and from any country. Supported innovations must involve research and/or development work in a Scottish university.

Ian Phillips, Chief Executive of OGIC, added: “Successful applicants will benefit hugely from the top quality research and development expertise on offer from Scottish universities and will be fully supported throughout its progression by OGIC, ITF and its members.

This initiative should not only be seen as a call for proposals to the developer community but a call to action to the industry as a whole to embrace smart solutions and alleviate barriers to implementation.”

The closing date for applications is April 30 2017. For more information visit: www. itfenergy.com/calls-for-proposals/joint-ogic-itfcall-for-proposal/ n ITF

April 2017

InnovOil

What next …?

To make enquiries about any of the products or technologies featured in this edition, use this list of vital connections If Exnics’ Hot Rings technology, or the prospect of its Thermal Energy Recovery System (TERS), could assist your subsea assets contact the company on +44 (0)1224 418 255 or email enquiries@exnics.com Dr David Flynn and his colleagues are now embarking on their bold new vision for a hybrid of humans and robots to manage offshore systems.

For more information about the Holistic Operation and Maintenance for Energy from Offshore Wind Farms (HOME-Offshore) project, contact D.Flynn@hw.ac.uk or visit www.hw.ac.uk If you would like to learn more about the Oleo Sponge, or are interested in its commercialisation, please contact John Harvey at partners@anl.gov Stanford School of Earth, Energy & Environmental Sciences’ free tool to predict the chances of Fault Slip potential is available at scits.stanford.edu/software For more information on Baker Hughes’ TerrAdapt adaptive drill bit, and how it can help your drilling operations, contact Danielle Fuselier on +1 28 13 63 61 19, or via email at Daniell.Fuselier@bakerhughes.com Eelume’s robotic snake is still making waves in the subsea market.

To find out more about how it can help your assets, speak with CEO Arne Kjørsvik on +47 46 50 07 00 or contact@eelume.com For enquiries regarding the Freja vessel, or its innovative heavecompensated drilling platform, contact Geo Marine Survey department director Jens Brink Clausen on +45 45 20 41 84, or via jbc@geo.dk If you have an innovative technology which can aid subsea reliability, there is still time to participate in the SEAR JIP. Contact project leader Adriana Botto on Adriana.Botto@woodgroup.com

NEWSBASE

page 39

An asset to energy professionals

Published by vNewsBase

Bringing Bringing you you the the latest latest innovations innovations in inexploration, exploration, production production and and refining refining Issue Issue 39 22

by

SE

shed Publi

by

Page 20

OCEAN OF SAVINGS

FoundOcean discusses offshore cost-efficiency Page 9

A look at the companies and WORLD technologies FIRST leading the US trend HIL testing with Page 12 Marine Cybernetics

™

NEW

SBA

SE

RTS D SPI ffer LIFTEforecastsunoities

t m Deco ew oppor n at

49 Issue

u the ng yo Bringi iew

innov latest

u , prod ration explo nSsEin

io novat test in ew the la the nmalLasBTringing you nOinrg anBd ff t Div ing aO thriv a E2 xp0o17 se d by Publishe

nual Rev 2016 An

NEW

Dyform Bristar ropes from Bridon

Page 7

RETURN OF REFRACK

ning d refi 2017 ion an ™ March roduct g tion, p ra lo refinin exp n and February 2017 ns in vatio ductio o E ro n S p A , in t SB ration NEW lates d by explo u the Publishe ns in ing yo fining vatio SE Bring SBA and re ber 2016 t inno NEW lates uction 50 e Decem by d Issue th , prod Publishe you on 5 ti 1 g ra e in g lo g fining expPa Brin and re ber 2016 ions in ction

shed Publi

ON A WIRE

Siemens’ magnetic oil-free steam turbine

™

SBA

November April 2015 2014

NONFRICTION

™

NEW

Page 6

Also available on your tablet

™

™

Decem

Ba Newsrs look edito d ahea

“The article on Kongsberg Maritime’s Munin AUV is excellent!”

™

ASE WSB

Mark Hempton, Manager of Exploration and Technology at Shell International Exploration and Production Inc.

STACGKE IMreAmonitoringse TAUR Fla umaSeCnAP FLAG from L S DTHE R TO

EA GROUNmic THElatest in sicesis The eophys and g

NING UESTIOITO Q R yeYtu SHAPHEIPS INTEOGiL sseats t an OF S OCEK ONA lookcaa lution

NONty so integriHow oil- g FRIC TION din Siemens’ R sforming nomo ra Page A g e M d L DICtrAansfer tran auto te vessels a helpagnetic ING MEte ch is bacteri spom remo BREAK The oir analys nsl-efree Sls and reserv Page 16 BOND spill re oisteam sing chemica RM TO CO Pag

Page 28

turbine

Th tio 12 revo GluS corrosion Page fluids IN LIN oilfield s fight SILagVelEinRinthPaggeepo17lymer e

Sw

ni

Page 20

Porta Page 30

“The article was great and we .

POWERR. received our first sales lead as a DEEPE era in A new le tion GY mp the resultTOcofof NAOsLOarticle today.” iDCsHh TE Plu D…YNE ™

™

™

Y th refining -dRep inCU sn, production and July 2016 AMnER atio INinGau lorlu LL expti FAtio ns N at ey’s ™ ova rs , production and refinin2015g ok lo st inn d bytth ectolor lisheMa nson JM nn June you the late JohPub SPEC co ation RAea exp PU Bringing in bs fortions su gyova olo inn hn est tec lat ning 6 removal Issue 44 ge ry you the Parcu tion and refi duc Bringing Page 24 me pro n, by 2015 March Published exploratio Issue 34 ovations in Page 14 the latest inn g Bringing you Page 12 and refinin Publ

Issue 36

D iveLE MrTE ar FRO

Alex Oure-Grant, OiL yFu prooasFset tu Product Manager IAL logy canAnein-adetyptanhdlootekchatlnoLine BSEA SPEC

™

ATING ise Eti-mIN ea ples SU egrit intlbig dDrilling, How oi PSOp ime S Well Atlas Copco EELAUUV-IM r Q&A grap r VERSATILE pPTH degradingOu e ROVs lp Big Data VEHeICvLLE with he ia er BV ct THE aDy’sEsubsea snOCakEANNGSOF ba Th se on sp from C T re SAVI ill I IF Norw KRIEG sp H S NT yne IC led PR M TZ n Te + LI 12 o 9 M B ge p RL ge Pa CT Pa IS GAME OF SEg IS aBotix de Hoo BOPS LS

EEK OUR P TAKEbleY3D printing

Page 28

E E -2 DDO systems NLVSUPPeLs 11 from g IA COGEM PageP8EC Pa S UN w

ThinkTank Maths’ latest achievement

Page 4

SBA

S AL

E NEW IONINSID DIRECTION NTMENT 7

AWARD SEASON

fining and re ber 2016 ™ uction Novem NE d by n, prod Issue 48 Publishe oratio pl ex g ons in W S B A S E ™ refinin E novati n and tio test in Published by N r 2016 la uc obe e Oct od th ion, pr ng you plorat Bringi g inS ex in ASE ns fin B re tio W ™ NE n and Issue 47 innova by 6 ber 201 Septem e latestPublished Roductio n,Epr ioV you th LE plXorCat ex EO A SB chno’s Bringing S B in eavaNrEtioWns ing Gas Te ini GTL einybyno TPuteh M w and refin 2016 sthed blis n e6 1 ie Issue 46 la -2 tio Pag ™ v e uc e 13 e Jun Page you th in r e best of n, prod Th il ploratio Bringing SE InnovO 6 ns SinB Aex refining Page 23 novatio SEMI,D Issue 45 n and Page 1 inhed by N E W ™ tio t es uc il 2015 blis lat od Apr E Pu M n’s oratSioE n, pr you the SKIM tio ex Solu Bringing ini™N E WplS B A er tio nsSe Takee by m Akva ing hed blisan ™ and refin 2016 ir st innoPuLe Issue 43 n te design8 la la tio e Cyo uc th e July g u re of Pag A S E n, prod EWSB ng d refinin e futu ring gita Thur

by N exploratio Brin ito 6 ap Published uction an in onTS od aC m er 2015 M ns pr ge emb G Se Pa tio n, CO Page 17 Dec e E Issue 42GH EN innova ploratio ™ How thDDEcoVul d PnsM ELO fining ns inN EexW S B A S E e latest tio ld,’sd more ging you th ed by novatio n and re luor systemP&thAesow NSed latest in Publish er 2015 n an Brin productio Novemb you the boratio oration, ECISauIO ™ unlockcolla tomatmarket Bringing s ns in expl A S E S, D refining Issue 44 ol tio d e 15 N va gs an g po d Pag l no n in in B IO n EWS uctio est in smal 2015 d by N ng’s brto the drillhe ha Issue 40 Month u the lat DECivIS ion, prod Publishe g e Drilli inging yo explorat Page 8 N in te Agencyeys Br in O d Mot on-makin ns E Y tio ir E B ish Spac e suSrv nova SBASE RIESs could decisi Issue 39 e latest inPublished by N E W ER duction and refining Dan es IT BATTr E dron IVE oring 3 g you th BETTon batterie Page 6 , pro r 2015 Bringin expl Hotte downhole Page 1 ForUG ak monit atiBIO Septembe explor ITH INGS power ent KINGPage 26hane le k at ning ations in W Issue XX OD T2 H est innovN E W S B A S E We lootafib® TRAoiCl trials met the FLiakes progress fuel on and refi lat O equipm to G the u by L Be , producti August 2015 Published NOlyst turns CO Stat inging yo n SENSE moyment e 26 lor Cosun’s nd 3-Ds A Br ieration O Pag hi exp sif H be co in T s 24 vis E L cata am Page t”srock The tece Well-DAS depl innovation arlk ta Page 16 37 m est RN Issue “s lat O d y you the ASE with6 Slls-Rproine 12te us and NEWSB Page 6 Bringing X ished by Page VERLo

e Subs 2017

™ ™

NEWSBASE

Published by

Issue 31

the Bringing you

Page 17

d in Diamonarn GE and neLe w i make anshiptO FLENSE’s Well-S tion partner interven n Page X revolutio

cean FoundOes offshore discuss iciency cost-eff

Page 6

Page 9

OF RETURNK AC REFR the A look aties and an 18 mp co ge Pa gies technolothe US leading trend Page 12

2015 ary2015 ary Febru Febru Issue 30

™

g and refinin , production January 2015 exploration ovations in Publ innby stished you the late ™

Bringing

™

Zn

Annual

Zn

Page xx

Published

by

Published

™

page 1

g and refinin production tionThe, chain 2014 December sRin explora YOU tion AT ges latest innovaSERVICE ch-ch-chan you the Zn Published

™

page 1

November

™

2014

November

by

Bringing you

2014

November

by vNewsBase

the latest innovations

in exploration,

production

Bringing you

and refining

the latest innovations

in exploration,

production

and refining

August 2014

Issue 26

February 2014

track & trace Supply chainOilfield Services from Swire

Issue Twenty

2014

™

Page 10

“Following the article we experienced increased level of UNLEASHING ie interest in AyTITAN and we lf our products it oi r g te can directly attribute significant in et s s new customeraenquiries to the publication.”

14 Annual and refining

OFZn GAMEging Brin DRONES UNLEASHING A TITAN 29 DE could SI ng Issue 3-D priINnti 2014 Se November Zn HowZn s Published by Page 6 oilTand ga change EN 3 DE ™ SI Page 8 EM -2 Zn future of and refining N 28 9 IssueZn ?on PL Zn TI ucti Are UAVs the Dis ng prod ori P ion, N nit s D orat GPUSA’s July 2014 mo 7 ™ t rce seexpl ns in e Nw AN ME -2 SU gEA Page X t innovatioas Seismic Sou the lates E 1 Published by a FICIENPTLZn AL CL Brineging you Page 6 CI P 1 t P D EF NSE E en i RESPO ™ lem RAPID U es on s 25 P T OptimiseROBOST? nIssue Our supppro L S du and refining gcti ti eOR production MISSIO ENN imadv tackleEsCIA Pa ovations w MsAN June 2014 pr MONITORING en 1 es sea equipment exploration, HUol ancsub d by ns in HtSP ncy inn stunistque innovatio n to late d ligZer em -2 The EM ging you the latestPublishe efficie Thevic es’late SOUND DowRO Lux SPEED OF tion pl 9 tionand Heatdrilan V Ser pec duc pro ling from Pages 11-25 in ins PL Brin Utility P from up es ion -SV nce Lasersat UV s Issue 24 ena P imi The int opt 6 g ma Page Page 10 U al Valeportproduction and refining ielde Page 26 oilfav strategies pply ci Pa al w mice in exploration,xx etion Sin-line inspec che May 2014 al e sufutureaw LS bl of the om Page 17 gtionsOM Page sp you the latest innova ed es SOnide and foron ar Bringinged ainatak FP IA AN abolrati Sca sustobe e on the an eriz entific Drillin colltoo IN FRAN ART ING Sh ing Sci a l’s ve’s anc me Issue 23 e The Contain Halfwa LD22 EC Mariti NTROLLng AkzoN tion with nuV onal’s TITCO erg Enh

arten InnovOil, from the NewsBase Prof. Ma p learning couldy how dee nise seismolog revolutio group, is a technology-driven, monthly magazine which aims to provide a platform for innovators and engineers to share to share their ideas and expertise. Our publication remains a trusted, solicited information source for technology news across the complete spectrum of the upstream, midstream and downtream oil and gas sectors.

ON

Issue 30

to 27 Pages 13

on search latest New re ission Thse tion AUV m produc tion Page X optimisa s strategie

duction loration, pro by Published ovations in exp latest inn

Bringing you

the latest innovations

in exploration,

production

Issue 28

2014

A closer look

DOF Profiling Subsea

SE NA G/ TIO s IN N L al E IL ic V N m DR e CO ch UN lD of the future Are UAVs monitoring? asset Page X

CE THE SOUR FINDINGtributed

Page 18

December

Issue 29

Zn

at ONS 2014

Page 4

Page 5

TighT securiTy

Drilling Scientific nal’s TITAN22 Internatio ce drilling motor performan

DRONES

Nord-Lock No Need introduces For Retightening Page 8

see clearly Vigilant

Page 13

Yokogawa’s Plant concept Page 7

IN FROM THE COLD

Cold Temperature from Demulsifiers Services Clariant Oil p. XX

CORE QUESTIONS Q&A with

THE FLAG & CAPTURE Carbon Capture

Our

Scottish Storage roundtable

Production experts Efficiency p. XX

LISTIC the PHOTOREA introduces

Schlumberger reservoir geology Quanta Geo

by

the latest innovations

in exploration,

production

Page 9

™

Published

™

™

Published

™

Bringing you

DHL’s integrated solutions

Page 4

Page 2

by

Page 10

Page 17

PageX

Published

VITAL S LOGISTIC

SLD Pumps and Power

Tranter’s innovative plate design

The IChemE qualification process safety

service

POWER SUPPLY

HEATING UP

NG SAFETY its new ENGINEERI highlights

Page 4

PIPELINE N PROTECTIO

corrosion Monitoring Oil with TeledyneGas and

the latest Bringing you

and refining

innovations

in exploration,

Issue 22

July 2014

Published

by vNewsBase

production

Bringing

and refining

in exploration,

production

Bringing you

and refining

the latest innovations

G PIONEERINVE PERSPECTI EOR at Heriot University

Watt

CORE NS QUESTIO InnovOil goes

& TESTED TRIEDPaar’s Callisto 100

AGR’s Page 6

AWARD SEASON Maths’

ThinkTank latest achievement

HIL testing Marine Cybernetics

Anton

WATER IN THEfrom BWA

Published

Bringing you

Page 6

the latest innovations

in exploration,

production

and refining

March 2014

ent SUIT UP ng equipm Heated divi ront re feent from ct a bitDrildif Page’s18non-conta ? ling of P&A re Is GA futu , NEW T the PLASMABINEW YEAR ES Page xx don CHALLENG Issue Twenty

Page xx

One

Page 5

Issue 27

SURF’SOilUP Page 10

ALL IN THEY CHEMISTR

Page 8

September

2014

Page 14

Bringing you

™

the latest innovations

in exploration,

Issue Nineteen

Maersk Oil’s

Page 8

TRACING TO WINtagging Tracerco’s technology

MAXIMUM

VOLUME

Trican’s latest frac fluids

Page 12

Bringing you

and refining

by vNewsBase

TEST RUN

with HIL testing Marine Cybernetics Page 7

the latest innovations

in exploration,

production

ORING MONITSubs ea Subsea systems

CORE Modular S ESTION Monitoring fromQUOur Q&A with Kongsberg Production LET ULTRAVIO atg UV water purification

iNTO THe blue reports

GOiNG DeepeR

Subsea UK on the industry

Fugro’s innovative ROVs Page 5

20

Scottish CTIVE dtable Storage roun PERSPE t Watt EOR at Herio University

CORE QUESTIONS

InnovOil asks the drilling industry Page 4

Page xx

& TESTED TRIED the to 100 Paar’ss Callis

n duce Anto r intro service Schlumbergerese Page xx rvoir geology Quanta Geo

WATER IN THEfrom BWA Biocides Page xx

rts Efficiency expep. XX 21ST ceNTuRY buOYmarginal field ABTOG’s solutions development Page 19

Page 2

Page 9

FLAG E THEture & G CAPTUR Cap NEERIN Carbon PIO

Page 17

January 2014 Issue 18

9 Sea HeRefrom Zetechtics Page

Page 4

Page 4

and refining

January 2014

Page 10

TriGen

Page 2

Published

7 SubSea Dem ices 13 N Clariant Oil Serv p. XX -2MIS PageSIO

production

ENHANCED project PRODUCTION

Viscodrill™Oil & Gas OMNOVA

Andy Hill, LISTIC Group Marketing Manager PHOTOREA IPU Group Page 4

Page 8

Automated

™

e

by vNewsBase

Page 6lem

3 p up s 1 l s ge ia ec Pa sp

and refining

EXTENDING LIMITS from

winning Page 18

production

Page 4

GA LIGHTINE AL TACTIC ION LIFELINy’s awardPhotoSynerg FORMAT LIGHTPATH AccuLite Trican’s system cementing

in exploration,

Society The Royal talks of Chemistry oilfield innovations

Page 2

Bronswerk’s A look at cooling compact

innovations

flowback

Atlas Copco’s rig mobile drilling

ER TRANSF WINDOW

by

the latest Bringing you

Clariant Services’ T® SURFTREAaids

THE CT PERFE TOR PREDA

s Neil Gor Subsea UK’ field surveys the

Published

Oceaneering

THE perag ernati sidtem motor Delivery tSys in Int Temllin ture ceialdri Cold ix rformanSpec n Botpe ulsifiers from from Sea Published

™

™

by vNewsBase

Page 14

Page 8

Page 11

CONTROL Solutions POWER AND Umbilical

Copco

Lumasense’s system monitoring

DDO systems from GEM

Biocides

from Atlas IN THE PIPELINE pipe laying

SIXTH SENSE flare

NEW ION DIRECT

Page 6

Page 4

Page 10

subsea

Page 4

InnovOil drilling industry

INTEL GATHERING iQx™ software

WORLD FIRST with

Page 6

June 2014

ONSE RAPID RESP

CORE QUESTIONS asks the Page 4

seain es low n ld unc Subrels reionfu Cabill bar interventio Coura 141 8 uss Pagedisc sioning Tom Leeson revolution ext decommis Page 6 prices and

and refining

UND SPEED OF SO

Page 6

Page 10

Page

COLe nica nigsb arKon Page 26 commu SP Ete ICSS from i ba AS Page xx deTH gK unlock an Page 16 tO FLENSE’st Slog s imulatinion hno tecRT doiesn ctivity fields?

EXalPE an Well-S onvent l abQ&A low-produ

production

ized The Container Delivery System from SeaBotix

Modular Subsea g from Monitoring Kongsber

Page 7

in exploration,

Issue 24

May 2014

Issue 23

Dyform ropes from Bridon

from The UV-SVP Valeport8

innovations you the latest

April 2014

ON A WIREBristar

Issue 25

by

PIPELINE PROTECTION

subs InnovOil goes Page 4

corrosion Monitoring dyne Oil with Tele and Gas

PageX

SAFETY EERING its new ENGINmE highlights tion The IChe ty qualifica process safe Page 10

GATHERING INTEL re

AGR’s iQx™ E softwa 6 Atlas Copco IN THE PIPPageELIN laying from

pipe Automated Page 14

CORE QUESTIONS ea

E SIXTH SENS flare

L CONTRO ions POWERngAND Umbilical Solut Oceaneeri Page 8

Lumasense’s monitoring system

“We were pleased with the immediate interest that our on article Kongsberg attracted.”

Page 14

“The article Oxford Catalysts Group Maritime’s Munin AUV is excellent”

Mark Hampton, Manager of Exploration and Technology, Shell Exploration and Production Inc. Published by

e-mail: sales@innovoil.co.uk Phone: +44 (0) 131 478 7000 www.innovoil.co.uk