Spotlight on New Technology

The 2006 Offshore Technology Conference (OTC) recognizes 13 innovative technologies with the Spotlight on New Technology award. This awards program gives OTC exhibitors an opportunity to showcase their latest and most advanced technologies to more than 50,000 attendees. The winning technologies will be honored at the Spotlight on New Technology presentation on Monday, 1 May during OTC .06 at the Reliant Center at Reliant Park in Houston.. The Spotlight on New Technology reception will be begin at 3:00 p.m. followed by the awards presentation at 4:00 p.m. in the Rotunda Area on Level 1.

The 2006 award recipients are listed here. Links in this list lead to descriptions below. Click on company logos below to visit their respective websites.

Note to the press: Higher-resolution images of many of the logos and technologies are available here.


MultiBooster™ Subsea Multi-Phase Pump System
The MultiBooster™ subsea multi-phase pump system delivers improved oil recovery and facilitates longer step-out distances between subsea assests and host facilities by lowering pressure at the reservoir and increasing pressure in the production line. Under development since 1998, the system utilizes twin-screw internals and Aker Kvaerner’s pressure-volume regulator to provide a flexible and robust subsea solution. This design provides several key benefits when handling multi-phase flow, including a wide performance envelope, low shear fluid handling, stable speed-controlled operation, and efficient slug dampening. The pump operates efficiently within a Gas Void Fraction (GVF) range of 0-95% and can maintain pressure up to 98% GVF. The pump can also operate at 100% GVF for a limited period, which aids start-up and prevents the need to prime the pump during such a scenario. With rotational speeds of typically less than 2,000 rpm there is little risk of generating emulsions, and the pump can handle very heavy and viscous fluids in excess of 1,000 centistokes. The modular design of the pump system allows for easier subsea installation and retrieval.

The MultiBooster™ pump system has been installed and is operational at the Lyell field (Scotland) with two more systems scheduled for start-up in the Gulf of Mexico early next year. Larger image


Z-Seal™ Technology
The Z-Seal™ is a new and innovative type of high-expansion, metal-to-metal sealing device that uses expanding metals in place of traditional elastomers to form a high-integrity pressure seal on the tubular wall. The Z-Seal technology makes well suspensions and interventions possible in hostile HP/HT environments that were previously deemed inoperable. Larger image
   

Smart Intervention System
Measurements of weight on tool, torque, RPM, bending moment, vibration, and pressure are gathered downhole to provide a clearer picture of what is occurring at and around well intervention tools. Information is then transmitted to surface using mud pulse telemetry and displayed clearly on a rig floor monitor. Larger image


Tordis: A Compact Subsea Separator with Integrated Solids Handling
CDS Engineering and FMC Technologies have developed a topsides-proven, cyclonic separator that is compact, highly efficient, and integrates a solids handling system. This separator plays an integral function of a subsea processing system ordered from FMC by Statoil for the Tordis field in the Norwegian sector of the North Sea. This subsea facility is to be installed in phases starting this summer and will be completed and operational in 2007.

The Tordis Subsea Facility will handle close to 200,000 BPD liquid, representing a substantial increase of the field’s recovery rate due in part to flow-pressure reduction at the manifold. The separator’s innovative technology contributes to this increased recovery through the use of a smaller vessel, which also facilitates its construction and installation and minimizes topside modifications of existing systems. This separation system has undergone full-scale testing at the CDS facilities in the Netherlands and has surpassed Statoil’s extensive technology qualifications program. Larger image


Flex-Flame HC 1100/30 Hydrocarbon Fire Resistant Cable
When fire breaks out, critical emergency systems must continue to operate. One of the potential weak links in the emergency system is the wire and cable and its ability to withstand the extreme temperatures. By passing the 1100oC test, with an energy of more than 200kW/m², which is above the melting point of the copper conductor found in wires, means that the new Flex-Flame HC 1100/30 wire and cables are able to keep emergency power, emergency pumping systems, emergency seawater/fire pumping systems and other critical applications in hazardous areas going during the most challenging and dangerous conditions. To learn more about Flex-Flame HC 1100/30 please visit www.DrakaMOG.com or see us at booth# 1117 during OTC. Larger image


Subsea Electric Actuator System for Manifold Retrofit
FMC Technologies’ Electric actuator technology is a new technology for actuation of subsea valves. The technology offers precise position control and can be applied subsea without hydraulic umbilical, providing a huge cost saving potential. Basing the system on local energy storage with rechargeable batteries enables cost efficient retrofit scenarios like the Statoil’s Norne system in the North Sea, where manual and hydraulically operated valves and chokes will be electrically operated. This modification gives better response times for the chokes, enables free routing of existing and new infield wells and it liberates hydraulic lines in an existing umbilical. The lines in the umbilical will now be used for chemical injection fluids, so the need for a new umbilical for the new wells was eliminated and CAPEX for the field extension was reduced significantly. Larger image


Slimhole Reservoir Drilling and Evaluation System
The Slimhole Reservoir Drilling and Formation Evaluation Solution from Halliburton’s Sperry Drilling Services provides operators with the assurance that wireline-equivalent data (both in terms of sensor type and data quality), including formation pressures, can be acquired and delivered more quickly, while also ensuring the interval is drilled in the shortest time possible.

Sperry’s Slimhole Reservoir Drilling and Evaluation Solution, which includes the 4 ¾-inch GeoTap® slimhole formation pressure tester and Geo-Pilot® 5200 Series rotary steerable system, now gives operators the first comprehensive slimhole drilling and formation evaluation solution. The introduction of the 4 3/4-inch GeoTap tester completes Sperry’s Stellar® slimhole LWD package and provides accurate formation pressure testing while drilling, eliminating the need for expensive pipe-conveyed wireline logging operations in high-angle wells. The service can conduct multiple tests at any point in the open hole interval, utilizing a multi-stage extending probe with a filter cake-penetrating snorkel feature. Utilizing the Geo-Span® downlinking system for tool control, the GeoTap tester can be commanded to take multiple drawdowns at a single point to ensure accurate pressure measurements, while the Geo-Pilot rotary steerable system can be controlled on-the-fly with zero rig impact. Real-time transmission of the pressure profile to the surface allows operators to instantly validate the test. Pressures can be transmitted back to the reservoir engineer to verify the accuracy of the reservoir model and assist in real-time reservoir exploitation decisions such as sidetracking or extending horizontal section length. These real-time drilling decisions are then precisely executed with the point-the-bit rotary steerable system. This expedited decision process can add tremendous reserves that would otherwise be recovered much later in the field life or left behind completely. Larger image


The PowerAMPS™ Automated Managed Pressure System
The PowerAMPS Automated Managed Pressure System, a product developed by the Power Chokes division of PowerWell Services, addresses many long-standing drilling and wellbore stability-related issues – elimination of pressure surges when stopping / starting circulation, improved drilling fluid management, enhanced ECD control, improved hole conditions, and perhaps most important, the ability to drill more efficiently within narrow pressure environments.

The PowerAMPS System, a continuous circulation variation of MPD technology, is fed data by a hydraulics well-modeling program that reads and processes data, including RPM of the drillstring, ROP, drilling fluid viscosity, density and temperature, etc., and then predicts the annular pressure profile. Once the desired pressure profile has been determined, PowerAMPS automatically modulates the choke, making micro-adjustments as necessary, to compensate for changes in the annular friction pressure as annular flow rates increase or decrease.

The PowerAMPS System provides better control of the well and achieves more precise wellbore pressure management, containment and diversion of mud returns with fewer interruptions to the drilling process. Larger image


The CTour Process
The CTour Process enhances the traditional hydrocyclone process by injection of a solvent, i.e condensate or Natural Gas Liquid (NGL), into the water stream upstream the hydrocyclone. The principle of The CTour Process is rooted on solvent extraction using a hydrocarbon (condensate) as solvent. The condensate, which is collected from the production stream, is used to extract dissolved and dispersed hydrocarbon contaminants from produced water. Larger image


EcoScope Multifunction Logging While Drilling Service
The EcoScope multifunction LWD service features pulsed-neutron technology, enabling simultaneous formation evaluation and drilling-related measurements without chemical sources such as americium-beryllium. In addition to a patented pulsed-neutron generator that produces neutrons on demand, tool design includes a single, short collar that delivers a suite of drilling and improved formation evaluation measurements taken at the same depth at the same time. The collected data is used for drilling optimization, formation evaluation and well placement. Compact design not only reduces flat time associated with BHA makeup and breakup, but also reduces the amount of rathole needed to perform necessary measurements. Unique LWD measurements available with this service include neutron-induced capture gamma ray spectroscopy data, formation sigma as a salinity indicator and neutron gamma density (a measure of gamma rays generated from neutron-formation interaction). Larger image


QuickSilver Probe Wireline Sampling Tool
The long-promised delivery of zero filtrate contamination during sampling of formation fluids is here. The newly-developed and field tested Quicksilver Probe* captures quality representative samples rapidly−a significant benefit, particularly in deep water. An innovative technique, the focused sampling method separates drilling mud filtrate at an early stage of the sampling process. The probe design effectively separates pure reservoir fluid (moving down the center of the tool) from the contaminated fluid (entering the perimeter of the probe). The fluids remain isolated from each other and are pumped into separate flowlines. Both lines are monitored in real-time to control the focused sampling operation using two independent pumping systems. The result: a drastic reduction in station times (up to 60%) due to faster cleanup and samples with zero-to-low contamination (10 times cleaner than with conventional sampling techniques). The collection of high-quality fluids enables real-time downhole fluid analysis and characterization. Larger image


UniTong

  • The world’s first multi power tong concentrically parked around the drillstring covering the entire operation regarding connections/disconnections of tubulars from 2 3/8” to 20”, handling of power slips, slips segments, master bushing and bottom hole assembly
  • The tong combines spinner and torque tong in one
  • No machines moving on drillfloor during operation – HSE greatly improved

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PowerStroke™ Milling System
The Weatherford PowerStroke™ milling system is the only system of its kind in the market. Formation subsidence, combined with shifting, causes severe deformation in casing wellbores. Mechanical failures created by extreme dogleg offsets in short distances cause casing to shift so severely that production is restricted or lost altogether. This unique milling system offers an innovative, cost-saving solution for straightening or aligning shifted casing sections in a single run. Larger image