New products

Vol. 226 No. 10

Sand control tubulars

UniScreen technology from Tubular Perforating Manufacturing, Ltd (TPM), is a new manufacturing method that creates unitized, pre-constructed screen/ shroud cartridges. UniScreen sand control tubulars can be manufactured with standard TPM materials and configurations, or by using custom specifications for the shroud, filter media (mesh) and support core. Unitized construction provides mechanical strength for stress and impact resistance. The cartridge design protects filter media during installation, giving long service life downhole, and it keeps filter media firmly in place. The one-piece design reduces time and labor needed for installation. UniScreen cartridges slide directly over base pipe, and the ends are welded together. The technology eliminates the need to ship base pipe, allowing use of local base pipe at international sites to satisfy Country of Origin rules. 

Cement assurance tool   Easywell has expanded its range of swelling elastomer completion products with the launch of Cement Assurance Tool to secure zonal isolation and well longevity. The tool uses Easywell’s Swell Packer technology and is run in combination with cement to ensure a complete hydraulic seal between the well casing and the formation. The tool swells to fill the mud channel formed during cement placement or the microannulus at the casing cement interface. The concept is based on the swelling properties of rubber in hydrocarbons. The rubber is far more flexible than the cement and can swell into irregular voids after the cement is placed. It expands to up to 200%, sealing un-cemented space. The rubber retains its flexibility, allowing the tool to adapt to shifts in the formation over time while retaining seal integrity. The Cement Assurance Tool can be used in a variety of downhole applications, including single and multi-stage jobs, deviated and horizontal wells and high-temperature/ high/ pressure situations. Select 2 at www.WorldOil.com/RS.html

Continuous duty actuators

For applications requiring continuous duty cycles, at rated capacities, Duff-Norton offers its 7500 series actuators. The actuators perform with efficiency ratings up to 70%, maximum horsepower ratings up to 10, and capacities of 3,500, 12,000 and 27,000 lb. All models are available with top plate, clevis or threaded end mounts. Several design features have been combined to provide the desired continuous duty ratings. The ball screw and ball nut systems provide for smooth efficient linear movement. The positive action of the low-friction screw and nut design provides longer life at load and requires less power to achieve a specified thrust. The actuator’s shell and shell cap are cast aluminum, which possesses better cooling properties than cast steel or cast ductile. The 7500 series’ shell and shell caps are also finned to further enhance the actuator’s cooling properties, and an oil lubricant is specified rather than grease. The actuators can be used individually, in tandem, or as part of a larger mechanical system.

Sand monitor

The AD3000 subsea system, a compact sand detector, has been introduced by Roxar. The system is non-intrusive and virtually maintenance-free. The same detectors can also be used for detecting and monitoring pipeline pigs. Sand is one of the principal reasons for the loss of production and revenue in oil and gas wells, with sand-clogged production equipment eroding completion components, impeding wellbore access and interfering with downhole equipment. The acoustics and monitoring technology is capable of determining sand in the wellstream, and the acceptable sand production rate, the facilities can handle to a high degree of accuracy. The AD3000 system utilizes the acoustic energy generated by the sand particles and shuts out alien noises to provide real-time quantitative monitoring of sand in oil, gas or multiphase pipeline flows. It is also closely integrated with Roxar’s Multiphase Flow Meters, designed to continuously measure the flowrates of oil, water and gas in the wellstream; and Wet Gas Meters, the technology providing real-time accurate flowrates and water fraction measurements. By integrating the digital signal processing in the sand monitors with the velocity measurement from subsea-retrievable multiphase/ wet gas meters, it is possible to determine the sand production rate more accurately. Each AD3000 has its own miniaturized, built-in computer with a unique slave address and a powerful calculation engine that carries out all sand rate or pig detection processing without the need for external computers.

Logging while drilling tool

The SURVIVOR Slim Density Neutron Standoff Caliper Tool (SDNSC) is the second addition to PathFinder’s SURVIVOR suite of high-temperature/ high-pressure (HTHP) logging-while-drilling (LWD) tools and is compatible with the company’s other LWD tools. Like its companion tools, it can operate in extreme hot-hole and high-pressure wellbores (350°F and 25,000 psi), in real-time, memory and stand-alone modes. Features of this tool include real-time bulk density, neutron porosity, photoelectric index, standoff and caliper measurements, plus rigsite-replaceable batteries. The tool offers increased capability to the PathFinder Slim Tool Suite using dynamic standoff-based processing that virtually eliminates standoff effects on density and neutron measurements. A formation porosity estimation technique, including water measurement analysis for the neutron measurement, significantly reduces borehole effects. SDNSCTM is the first to use californium-252 source for an LWD neutron measurement. Use of a lower-energy, shorter half-life chemical source is more environmentally friendly than other sources.

Heavy duty hydraulic ROVs

Schilling Robotics’ UHD ultraheavy-duty hydraulic ROVs allow operations at depths up to 4,000 m. The 150-shp ROV systems utilize Schilling’s Digital Telemetry System with a gigabit Ethernet backbone for plug-and-play interface capability with a wide range of sensors and cameras. The telemetry system supports both digital and analog video. The vehicle systems also come with StationKeep as a standard feature. This allows ROV pilots to automatically hold the vehicle stationary (within a decimeter) for unlimited time. The vehicle can also accurately displace to another location, allowing it to perform precise movements, automatically follow a set of way points or fly a pre-planned path. The UHD systems also include Schilling’s XE hydraulic TMS, which supports vehicle excursions of over 800 meters. 

Well integrity management tool

Integrated services consultancy egis (a subsidiary of the Expro Group) introduces its egis Integrity Manager web-enabled management tool. It is a “built for purpose” software package designed by egis well engineers with both current and historic well data, enabling a systematic approach to integrity management. The system provides a live “well integrity health check” and well maintenance archive in a single data source available to nominated personnel regardless of location. Maintenance schedules are planned onshore, while offshore personnel have a clearly defined work program. As pressure and function tests on the wellhead are completed, results are entered in the system onsite. Any test failures are highlighted graphically, and key individuals are notified immediately with further details. Numerical data, such as annulus pressures, can be automatically graphed, with the capability of setting maximum and minimum values that can be used to trigger alerts..

Well control model

Maurer Technology Inc. has released version 4 of WELLCON Well-Control Model, an engineering tool for comprehensively planning and evaluating well-control procedures. A new component of the program, WELLKILL, provides an easy-to-apply kill sheet for use after a kick is taken while drilling. WELLCON describes complex multiphase flow that develops as a gas kick is circulated out of a well. The program calculates kill-mud weight, the drill-pipe pressure schedule, and the kill sheet. It predicts pressure changes and equivalent circulating densities (ECDs) at the choke, casing shoe, wellhead, end of the well, and at any other locations specified. Maximum ECD along the wellbore is also calculated and compared with pore-pressure and fracture-pressure gradients, essential for determining whether equipment is adequate, along with verifying operational safety. New features include: a kill sheet generator to allow a quick analysis of the well-control process; the capability of maintaining bottomhole pressure during kill procedures to maintain over- or underbalanced pressures; and a leak-off test feature to calculate maximum allowable mud weight for comparison with kill mud weight.

Gas custody transfer meter

GE Industrial Sensing offers Sentinel, a high-accuracy, multi-path ultrasonic flowmeter specifically geared for fiscal custody-transfer of natural gas. The meter body is composed of a length of carbon steel pipe with flanged ends, rated to the pressure requirements of the individual installation, and two pairs of pre-installed ultrasonic transducers. The system can be used for such typical natural gas applications as transmission, distribution and storage, or for any measurement point where high accuracy is needed. Sentinel is available in pipe sizes ranging from 6 to 24 in. and meets AGA9 criteria. The system employs a two-diametrical-path, single-traverse meter body design with a 10-in. diameter, upstream pipe run and a flow conditioning plate. This configuration provides sufficient flow conditioning to handle any upstream flow disturbance and provides a well-known flow profile at the meter body. Advanced ultrasonic transducer technology, combined with signal processing optimized for speed and robustness, give the system the capability to operate even in air at atmospheric pressure – important for field verification of the meter system during commissioning.