Innovative thinkers

When Cubility Chief Technology Officer Jan Kristian Vasshus was a teenager, he worked at a gas station, vacuuming interiors and cleaning cars. As an adult, looking to overcome complex on-site fluid treatment challenges, he thought, “Why not use the same technology?”

Nearly a decade ago, Vasshus and Cubility co-founder Trond Melhus were tasked with finding a solution to potential shaker problems aboard Rosneft’s Ispolin drillship, which was built in Russia and planned for deployment to Kazakhstan. The Ispolin, built much like a Lego structure, was not engineered to handle the old style of mud shakers necessary to execute the project. Each of the ship’s modules fit one on top of the other, and its shaker room was simply too small. Vasshus needed to come up with a way to increase the ship’s filtration capacity, while reducing the shaker footprint.

One day, while still working on the Rosneft project, Vasshus drove past the old gas station, where he used to work. It was then that he saw the vacuum, usually used to remove dust from floorboards, and was inspired to apply the same concept to engineer a new type of mud shaker. Borrowing technology from the mining industry of the 1930s, operators had employed larger, messier, vibration-based machines to filter fluids. Vasshus thought to place a vacuum under a rotating filter belt, to try to achieve greater efficiency than using gravity alone.

As it turns out, he was on to something. Combining gravity, micro-vibrators and vacuum technology, Vasshus and Melhus were able to conceptualize a shaker-type machine that could solve the space and efficiency limitations on the Ispolin, and beyond.

In a matter of weeks, Vasshus and his team had a solid concept, and brought the idea of a vacuum-based filtration system to Statoil in 2005, where they met with solids control and drilling fluids expert Arild Saasen to get his thoughts. As Vasshus presented 3D drawings of the new shaker concept, the only question Saasen had for the team was, “Do you have a patent?” From there, Statoil was onboard.

Combining funding from Statoil and Innovation Norway, a government body that sponsors research throughout Norway, Vasshus was able to build the first prototype of what would become the MudCube in 2006. “Without Innovation Norway, we wouldn’t have been able to start up MudCube in the first place,” said Vasshus. “They are a great enabler of bringing technology to the world.”

By 2009, the MudCube was ready for offshore field testing at Statoil’s Oseberg field, on the Norwegian Continental Shelf. The technology eventually received a Technology Readiness Level of 7, the highest rating, and was approved for commercialization. Vasshus said the MudCube is now being used in the North Sea to help operators reduce their drilling waste.

Looking ahead of, and beyond, the technology he helped create, Vasshus said there still remain challenges in the industry, especially when it comes to filtration techniques. “The biggest challenge we have now in the industry is the knowledge gap,” he said.

Professionals on today’s operations must be equipped with a better, more complete, understanding of the subject matter with which they work for real progress to be made, said Vasshus. Taking a bird’s-eye perspective of a given project, instead of focusing on the minutiae, might help engineers and geoscientists brainstorm alternative solutions to specific problems.

Whether innovation comes from NASA or the local gas station, it is important to keep in mind that major change often involves abandoning the old ways of thinking, in exchange for even better ones.

“There are a lot of people who see good technology outside of the industry,” Vasshus said. The key, now, is to get to a point, where conservatism is trumped by creativity.