Baker Hughes
Baker Hughes Incorporated announced the introduction of the StimFORCE Gulf of Mexico (GoM) well stimulation vessel, a new addition to the company's fleet of stimulation vessels.
The StimFORCE GoM adds increased capacity and reduces costs with customized, single trip solutions to the important GoM market. The modular system is designed for offshore and shallow water pumping projects. StimFORCE GoM will join the existing fleet of vessels, Blue Dolphin and Blue Tarpon, currently operating in the GoM.
"The StimFORCE vessel's pumping capacity of 8,800 HHP combined with the large flexible deck configuration allows for multiple well acid or chemical treatments in a single trip, without the need to return to the dock and resupply," said Kevin Wetherington, Managing Director, Gulf of Mexico. "The vessel's fluid system, quality control laboratory and remote data acquisition services ensure critical pumping information is available during all operational phases."
Baker Hughes provides integrated service packages enabling operators to reduce rig time, nonproductive time, and risk while enhancing production and profits.
Fibercore
Fibercore, the UK based designer and manufacturer of specialty optical fiber, announced a new Polarization Maintaining (PM) product designed to offer improved performance in active and passive components, operating in the Raman pump band known as '14XX'.
The new PM fiber, HB14XXT has been designed with optimized Bow-Tie shapes to generate a birefringence typically 50-100% higher than conventional PM PANDA. 14XXT also offers state-of-the-art beat-length (1.0mm typical) and Polarization Extinction Ratio (PER) enabling use over wider operating temperature ranges and more demanding deployment or assembly conditions, without degradation of the overall performance.
Fibercore's special Bow-Tie design allows these extremely short beat-lengths to be achieved while still maintaining exceptional handling, cleaving and splicing characteristics with better than 0.1dB/splice even at 45˚. With the increasing need to integrate more optical components into smaller volumes, HB14XXT enables shorter optical fiber lengths for components such as Lyot depolarizers, saving spacing while still maintaining performance. Furthermore, HB14XXT has been designed to deliver greater resistance to variations in component manufacturing process, improving customer yields and overall performance.
FMC Technologies
Using a new process, the time required for tubing assembly in FMC Technologies' cells has fallen by around two thirds, with the additional advantage of introducing a standardized process with a consistent quality that negates possible human error or fatigue. Six sites worldwide now use Unison tube bending machines in a new production method pioneered by FMC Technologies employees in Norway and Scotland.
The subsea systems supplier used to plan the routes for the hydraulic tubing runs that interconnects the valves and other component parts of the subsea trees, and then fabricates the custom tubular part shapes, as the trees were being built. This process slowed down the build cycle, and limited the total number of trees that could be assembled in the company's sophisticated system building cells.
FMC Technologies investigated the use of 3D modeling of tubing, which would allow the tubing system required for subsea tree orders to be designed and bent in advance of system building and then delivered to the manufacturing cells ready for immediate assembly. As part of this process re-engineering initiative, FMC Technologies also purchased a Unison tube bending machine with servomotor-based actuation, to provide a complete CADCAM solution.
The machine's advanced all-electric architecture was preferred over the more traditional hydraulically-powered bending approach because of the greater precision and inherent repeatability that it supports, allowing tubular part shapes to be bent right-first-time - avoiding scrap.
FMC Technologies selected Unison as its bending machine partner, primarily because of the company's willingness to engineer a bending process to meet the company's precise needs. Unison worked closely with FMC Technologies on developing and streamlining the tubular part manufacturing process including automating the transfer of data from its CAD system and simplifying the subsequent part shape programming process. Unison also supplies benders complete with application-specific tube washing machines, which ensure that tubular parts are provided to FMC Technologies' assembly bays clean and ready to weld - to minimize any welding failures.
Marathon
Marathon Oil Corporation announced that Chad Deaton has been elected to the Company's board of directors, effective Jan. 1, 2014.
Deaton, 60, previously served as executive chairman of the board of Baker Hughes Incorporated from January 2012 until his retirement on April 25, 2013. Prior to that, he served as chairman, president and CEO of the Company from 2004 until January 2012.
"Marathon Oil is very pleased to welcome Chad Deaton to our Company's board of directors," said Clarence P. Cazalot Jr., Marathon Oil executive chairman. "Chad's depth of experience and knowledge of the oil and gas industry, his demonstrated leadership and his keen awareness of the key drivers of success in our industry make him an outstanding addition to the Marathon Oil board."
Before joining Baker Hughes in 2004, Deaton was president and chief executive officer of Hanover Compressor Company from 2002 through October 2004. He was a senior advisor to Schlumberger Oilfield Services from 1999 to September 2001 and was an executive vice president of that company from 1998 to 1999.
Merichem Company
Merichem Company announced that it has received a project award for a LO-CAT® unit to remove hydrogen sulfide from the gas produced by a waste gasification facility in Europe. The LO-CAT process employs an environmentally safe, patented design and proprietary catalytic process to convert the gaseous hydrogen sulfide into a solid, elemental sulfur. The award brings the total number of licensed LO-CAT units to over 225 worldwide within the Exploration & Production, Refining & Petrochemical, Water & Waste Water, Power Generation, and Metals & Mining industries.
NK Technologies
The new CTRC AC Current Transformers from NK Technologies monitor circuits up to 2000 amps and produces a safe, low voltage output proportional to the RMS current value. This output is designed as an input to a power monitor or transducer, replicating the AC wave shape with phase angle resolution better than 2°. The flexible coil design allows the cable to surround multiple conductors or bus assemblies regardless of shape and eliminates the magnetically permeable core of standard current transformers while providing excellent isolation, sensing only the magnetic field of the phase inside the loop. The CTRC can be used in any power monitoring application.
CTRC Current Transformers use the Rogowski coil as the first step in power monitoring. Each coil is matched with a signal integrator, and the output is calibrated for the highest degree of accuracy possible. The resulting 1/3 volt at full range current mirrors the primary circuit wave shape with less than 2° difference in the phase angle and overall linearity of better than 1% of the full scale output. When matched with the circuit voltage wave shapes, a highly accurate representation of the system power, measured in watts, can be derived.
The signal integrator is housed in a compact, DIN-compatible enclosure, with 1.5 meter (59 inches) of lead cable from the sensing loop to the integrator. The signal integrator is powered with 24 volts, AC or DC, consuming less than one watt each. The narrow dimension of the lead cable (0.87 inches) allows for installation in very close quarters, easily possible between the monitored conductor and the adjacent phase. The coils are rated to 600 VAC and do not require shorting blocks between the integrator and the connected load. Even when the current through the loop exceeds the design range, the low voltage output remains at non-hazardous levels.
Omega Completion Technology
Omega Completion Technology has appointed John Donachie as managing director as the company plans for growth in key oil and gas locations in the UK and overseas.
Mr. Donachie joined the Aberdeen headquartered company last year as corporate development manager and has been promoted to the role of managing director to grow the business internationally.
Omega, an independent well completion and intervention equipment developer and manufacturer launched in 1998, employs 60 people at its office and workshop in Kirkhill Industrial Estate.
Omega is a leading technology innovator in the completions market with over 25 patents. Its product range is designed and manufactured in-house and the company recently invested over £2 million in its custom built facility and CNC machining center. Omega also opened an office in Stavanger, Norway earlier this year where it is experiencing growing demand for specialist tools and services.
Mr. Donachie was previously vice president at Simmons & Company International in Aberdeen where he was responsible for mergers, acquisitions and financing of companies in the energy industry. Prior to this he was with Schlumberger for ten years commercializing various technologies and Helix-RDS as a production engineer.
Mark Buyers, CEO of Omega said: "We have invested heavily in developing and manufacturing new technologies in response to global oil and gas production challenges and believe that John's appointment will help to propel our growth at home and overseas."
Schlumberger
Schlumberger announced the official opening of the Schlumberger Reservoir Laboratory in Brisbane, Australia. The facility is the latest addition to the global network of more than 25 Schlumberger Reservoir Laboratories that focus on reservoir rock and fluid analyses, offering services that provide core measurements and analysis for unconventional and conventional plays in the oil and gas industry.
"The new facility brings rock analysis expertise and integrated solutions that enable oil and gas operators to determine reserves in place and better design and optimize stimulation operations," said Sameh Hanna, president, Schlumberger Testing Services. "The timely delivery of accurate reservoir characterization information is essential in reducing project risk, simplifying operations and improving field productivity."
The laboratory offers a comprehensive set of rock mechanical evaluation services including tight rock analysis, field core handling, model calibration, and interpretation. Core measurements together with data analysis and interpretation services deliver key information for geotechnical modeling and petro physical evaluation.
The laboratory personnel work closely with Queensland University of Technology and Schlumberger technical experts to provide a wide range of solutions that enhance understanding of reservoir characterization.
T.D. Williamson, Inc.
T.D. Williamson, Inc., a global provider of pipeline services and equipment, recently launched two new diameters of its Multiple Dataset (MDS) inline inspection technology, 6- and 30-inch. The platforms include Deformation (DEF), Axial magnetic flux leakage (MFL), SpirALL® MFL (SMFL), Low Field MFL (LFM) and XYZ Mapping.
Operators of smaller diameter gathering and midstream lines can now achieve comprehensive integrity assessment in a single run with TDW's new 6-inch MDS platform. The compact tool weighs only 146 pounds (66 kg) and is a mere 73-inches (1.85 m) in length. Counting the 6-inch inspection runs previously executed in 2013, and those currently scheduled, 14 segments and almost 600 miles (966 km) of pipeline will be inspected in the diameter's first months on the market.
On the other end of the spectrum, larger diameter transmission operators are also benefiting from TDW's new 30-inch MDS technology. In late October 2013, TDW completed a successful inspection of a 30-inch pipeline, 43 miles (69 km) in length. The operator was pleased with the process and results, and scheduled several additional segments for inspection in the coming weeks.
DuPont Chemical Solutions
DuPont Chemical Solutions and Baker Hughes Incorporated announced their strategic arrangement aimed at bringing a more sustainable water treatment technology to the oil and gas industry. The two companies have been collaborating since early this year.
Baker Hughes will use the chemical compounds and generators from DuPont, as well as their expertise in the application of chlorine dioxide (ClO2), in conjunction with Baker Hughes' H2prO™ water management service to augment its Pressure Pumping operations. The cooperation between Baker Hughes and DuPont will lead to industry-leading best practices for water treatment and knowledge sharing between the two companies.
"DuPont is privileged to work with Baker Hughes, a global leader in the oil field services industry," commented Bill King, North America Sales Manager for DuPont Water Technologies. "Baker Hughes is a respected brand in the industry and they will be a strong advocate for our technology in the upstream markets for supporting hydraulic fracturing and other oilfield water treatment operations."
ClO2 is used to treat water in the pressure pumping process. While this compound is in its infancy in the oil and gas industry, it has been used for more than 60 years in municipal drinking water, food processing and industrial cooling applications. Process water in oil and gas operations is treated to prevent the growth of bacteria and other organisms to maximize the performance efficiency of wells and minimize issues such as souring, fouling and corrosion. It allows for precise dosage, requiring the use of much smaller quantities of biocide as compared to other treatment options, and is EPA drinking water approved, providing greater environmental sustainability. Using this DuPont chemical compound, the water used in pressure pumping can be treated on-site and reused.
In addition to providing ClO2 to treat water, DuPont also provides custom-engineered generators that can be designed to achieve optimal treatment results and can be fitted to Baker Hughes' treatment trailers. The experience in equipment design provided by DuPont ensures the safe and efficient generation of ClO2.
Johnson Electric Group
Johnson Electric announced a miniature drives platform for insulin pump. This platform is developed with coreless brushless DC motor technology with an integrated high precision position sensing system and a precise miniature planetary gear box. It is industry's highest position sensing resolution that enables highest dosing precision for the insulin pumps. Precise and robust mechanical design extends the product's life over 25% compared to existing motion technologies. This robust mechanical structure is suitable for insulin pumps designed for juvenile patients.
"Precise dosing is a critical feature for insulin pump" said Jim Dick, Johnson Electric's senior vice president of Strategic Marketing. "This miniature drive platform is designed for robustness and safety of insulin pump." he added.
Abakan Inc.
Abakan Inc., an emerging leader in the advanced coatings and metal formulations markets, announced completion of Phase I of its PComP nanocomposite coatings growth and expansion strategy, which involved installing additional powder microencapsulation equipment to double throughput. Phase II, expected to be completed by the end of 2013, will add more nanoparticle production equipment and sintering furnaces to expand production of this highly engineered product to 18 tons per year. Phases III and IV are scheduled to expand production to 60, and then 180 tons per year over the next twelve months. Further growth and expansion plans over the next 3 years call for the acquisition of up to 10 US based thermal spray production businesses that will have a total of 30 to 40 spray booths that service the growing oil and gas sector, each coating cell can generate up to $5 million in revenues.
"PComP nanocomposite coating materials have proven their ability to extend component lifetimes while improving efficiencies and economics of the coating process. These advantages are now attracting the attention of large oilfield equipment manufacturers for replacing chrome and improving life of drilling and flow control components.
"Current capacity is sold out for the foreseeable future, making it extremely important that we scale-up production to fulfill customer requirements," said Abakan CEO, Robert Miller. "Our long term strategy is to transform the productivity of the metal coatings industry through the introduction of our scalable, productivity and performance-leading PComP nanocomposite materials. Execution of this strategy calls for both building our own and acquiring metal finishing shops, improving their productivity and profitability through the introduction of better products through advanced technology."
The initial scaling up of powder production capacity of PComP thermal coating powders is to be financed by the proceeds of a recently closed secured term loan and exchange agreement and a demand note in the net amount of $1.22 million in new debt.
