Awards recognizing excellence in technical innovation and ingenuity have been bestowed by the Offshore Technology Conference on 15 companies, of which nearly half are in the small business category.
World Oil staff
In late March, the Offshore Technology Conference (OTC) announced the winners of their 2023 Spotlight on New Technology Award. This esteemed honor, said OTC, is given exclusively to exhibitors, who are reshaping the offshore energy sector through innovation and developing technologies. This year, 15 technologies, seven of them from small businesses, were selected, due to their advancements in the industry.
The award recipients are exceptional, explained OTC, as they were selected, based on the following criteria: product uniqueness, the degree of ingenuity, demonstrated success, commercial viability, and the ability to make a significant impact across the offshore industry.
“At OTC, we take pride in recognizing the companies transforming the future of the offshore energy sector,” said Paul Jones, chairperson, OTC Board of Directors. “The Spotlight on New Technology Award is one of the many ways we like to show our appreciation. Revolutionizing the field is no easy task. It requires collaboration, intense consistency, and the brightest minds in the industry to drive innovation. This year’s recipients exemplify these efforts and we are proud to acknowledge them.”
Detailed below are descriptions of technologies developed by larger companies, followed by summations of technical advances by smaller firms.
Wireline-retrievable safety valve
The Baker Hughes REACH™ wireline-retrievable safety valve (WRSV, Fig. 1) is the industry’s first and only solution for bringing ultra-deepwater wells with failed tubing-retrievable safety valves back online faster, more economically and more safely than can be done by a deepwater workover. The REACH WRSV requires only a riserless lightwell intervention (RLWI) vessel, expediting schedules and enabling wells to be brought back online sooner, while avoiding the high CAPEX of a major workover.
With traditional workovers, pulling the completion string requires considerable operations and logistics, as well as increased exposure to HSE risks. Utilizing the REACH WRSV eliminates problems that may arise with pulling and recompleting wells by reducing the number of personnel required on location, and their associated potential exposure to HSE risks. A proprietary control system design also ensures fail-safe closure in the event of a seal leak, making the REACH WRSV the only fully fail-safe option available on the market today.
Powerful gearless direct drive
The Hägglunds Atom (from Bosch Rexroth) is a powerhouse in miniature (Fig. 2), with a maximum torque of up to 13.6 kNm and an outer diameter of only 350 mm. It has a maximum speed up to 400 rpm, depending on frame size. All sizes allow maximum pressure up to, and including, its maximum speed, meaning an output power of up to 394 kW—with a motor weight of 52 to 102 kg.
The Atom is believed to be the world's most compact, powerful gearless drive that can be used to convert electric energy or diesel power to rotary motion. Due to its compact size, efficiency, safety and reliability, the Atom is ideally suited for marine equipment, such as winches, thrusters, dredgers, and subsea mining.
Submerged turbine technology
Framo’s Submerged Turbine (Fig. 3) turns water from the overboard dump line into money. On offshore installations, huge volumes of seawater are lifted from sea level to deck level for use as a cooling medium for onboard processing.
Framo submerged turbines enable generation of electric power from the wastewater dumped overboard. The solution increases operational efficiency, and operators can save up to 30% of power on cooling systems. It reduces the carbon footprint and enables increased gas exports. Submerged turbines are installed on new facilities or retrofitted on existing installations, and the new technology can be fitted in dedicated caissons, or as a caisson-free version.
Seat gate valve reduces grease
The Active Seat Gate Valve (Fig. 4) from Oil States provides game-changing sealing performance in the field. It dramatically reduces the amount of heavy grease required during operations by hundreds of pounds per well, which significantly reduces grease disposal upon completion. Personnel intervention at the wellhead is cut substantially also, boosting safety and efficiency.
FTLP for wind installations
The FTLP™ Floating Wind Platform (or “Fixed TLP”) developed under Oil States’ OSI Renewables brand is a game-changing approach, Fig. 5. It offers the benefits of a highly stable fixed platform structure to the floating wind market. If features substantially reduced cost and streamlined installation capability, compared to traditional floating wind platforms.
Underwater inspection drone
The FlatFish is an advanced underwater inspection drone (Fig. 6) conceived to inspect and monitor complex subsea infrastructures in an innovative and safe manner, from shallow waters down to 3,000 m of water depth. The drone features an advanced AI-based control system and navigation features combined with state-of-the-art inspection capabilities. These were demonstrated recently in a deepwater pilot project, executed in almost 1,800 m of water depth offshore Brazil with the support of Shell and Petrobras.
It was developed and engineered by Sonsub, Saipem’s center of excellence for subsea technology innovation in Marghera and Trieste, Italy. The FlatFish is part of the Hydrone platform, a ground-breaking subsea robotics program conceived to support remote, vessel-free operations. It also was conceived to reduce costs, risks and environmental impact of offshore activities (90% fewer CO2 emissions, compared to conventional ROV services).
Epilogue dual-string barrier evaluation
Epilogue™ dual-string barrier evaluation (Fig. 7), revolutionizes well decommissioning by evaluating the barrier integrity behind multiple casings without pulling the inner tubing or casing. Introduced and implemented jointly by SLB and Equinor, the industry-first technology enables logging through tubing to evaluate both the A- and B-annuli in a single run. The solution reduces P&A rig days to minimize costs and overall carbon footprint. It also paves the way for fully rigless plug-and-abandonment (P&A) operations. When performing rigless well integrity logging, operators can use the barrier evaluation insights to plan future P&A campaigns, sidetracking, other well intervention activities, and CCS operations, and to optimize future opex and minimize contingencies.
Optical Feedthrough System
The Teledyne Marine 3-channel Optical Feedthrough System (OFS, Fig. 8) is a wet mateable optical connector for use in high-pressure/high-temperature environments within a vertical Christmas tree. It is used to provide pressure integrity barriers and optical continuity through TH/XT equipment.
The OFS utilizes 3 single-mode optical channels, featuring Angle Polished Contact (APC) to maximize return loss measurements. Each connector within the system will include a high-temperature, high-pressure optical penetrator, capable of hermetically sealing three single-mode fibers within the unit.
The OFS is designed for use at a pressure of 10,000 psi and temperature of 250 °F. The connector set can be mated at speeds up to a half a meter per second and is designed to operate continuously for 25 years.
Inflow production tracers
Recently, CARBO and partner GEOSPLIT launched a partnership to globally distribute CARBOTRACE (Fig. 9), a proppant-conveyed inflow production tracer. The technology will enable energy operators to improve their reservoir performance by optimizing drilling and completions designs through understanding the production inflow profiling. Use of the technology reduces the overall cost of the well's ownership, improves the carbon footprint for the well's lifecycle, and boosts the decision-making of the E&Ps for their offset wells.
CARBO says that tracer-embedded coating for propping materials is one of the key solutions in its technological portfolio. Operators will now be able to understand their reservoir performance better through production monitoring, marker/tracer monitoring of production inflow profiles, reservoir management, and digital oilfield services, based on dynamic zonal inflow production profiling.
Deformation and eccentricity tool
GOWell’s Deformation-and-Eccentricity Tool (DEC, Fig. 10) is a 1-11/16-in. O.D tool that, when run inside tubing, has the unique ability to inspect casing deformation, tubing eccentricity within the casing and a minimum distance between tubing and casing. The DEC tool uses a dual array of patented electromagnetic measurements to accurately map the surrounding pipe geometry. The tool employs a unique high-SNR compressed-and-focused magnetic field and an array of magnetic sensors to measure the magnetic flux density distributions azimuthally around the tool, which corresponds to variations in the spacing between tubing and casing. Data processing generates accurate tubular geometry and a 3D color-enhanced image.
TerraFusionTM tool
The TerraFusion tool (Fig. 11) from Oliden Technology offers great insights for geosteering, borehole quality, and geological structures, as well as revealing fracture networks in all mud types. Available in two sizes (4.75 in. and 6.75 in.), the TerraFusion is a latest-generation azimuthal gamma ray and ultrasonic imaging LWD tool incorporated into a single collar. Designed for both oil base and water base muds, it provides a full reservoir description through the structural analysis, sedimentology and sequence stratigraphy.
The TerraFusion tool offers multiple source-less borehole images that are derived from the ultrasonic measurements in all mud types. The integration of the annular pressure sensor (APWD) with ultrasonic imaging provides insights for advanced geomechanical analysis. The tool is the shortest in its category, making the BHA less sensitive to borehole conditions and the measurements closer to the bit.
Software optimizes drilling performance
Opla Energy's OplaSmart™ (Fig. 12) is a system designed to optimize the efficiency and performance of onshore and offshore drilling operations. It achieves this by providing real-time key performance indicators (KPIs) for complex Managed Pressure Drilling (MPD) operations, enabling well-to-well monitoring and comparison. The system is cloud-based and seamlessly integrated with data-lake, IoT, and AI environments, ensuring scalability, storage, and security. OplaSmart™ is equipped with smart, automated analytics that can continuously detect drilling dysfunctions and alert operators, reducing non-productive time (NPT) and enhancing drilling rates of penetration (ROP).
The system's advanced automation reduces gaps in drilling operations and increases efficiency. The next-generation hybrid AI technology, OplaSmart™ Digital Twin Wells, provides a 360o simulation to predict the evolution of drilling operations in uncertain environments, optimizing IoT-based operational planning.
PMD enhances efficiency, trims expenses
Opla Energy's Pressure Management Device (PMD™) is a cutting-edge technology (Fig. 13) that enhances efficiency and minimizes drilling expenses for both onshore and offshore drilling. The PMD™ is a compact, fully electric, and fully automated device that integrates machine learning, artificial intelligence, industrial internet of things, and cloud computing modules. This improves its performance by recognizing events and selecting appropriate actions, based on constantly expanding data.
The PMD™ is installed on top of the BOP and consists of a rotating control device, dual choke, choke isolation valves, and bypass valve, minimizing high-pressure piping typically required for managed pressure drilling (MPD) equipment. The compact size and ability to use rig electric power eliminate the need for auxiliary equipment, simplifying transportation and reducing transportation costs and emissions. With these features, the PMD™ reduces rig-in man-hours and surface free-flow restrictions while enhancing safety and performance, making it an essential innovation.
Device ensures isolation during maintenance
Valvetight’s DBB-SAVER technology (Fig. 14) makes safe working behind otherwise leaking valves possible without shutting down the plant, platform or pipeline. The DBB-SAVER provides an absolutely hermetically tight isolation, using a vacuum lock. It works either in a conventional Double Block & Bleed isolation or with most types of single valves. It makes any passing towards safe working area physically impossible.
The DBB-SAVER can be used temporarily, to place blind flanges in a safe way, or if positive isolation is not feasible, perform the work simply behind the valved isolation with 100% tightness guaranteed by the DBB-SAVER. It works for any media, gaseous or liquid, and now also for liquids becoming gaseous under atmospheric conditions like LNG and LPG.
At-bit resistivity tool
The GeoTracker™ at-bit resistivity tool (Fig. 15) from Well Resolutions Technology performs propagation resistivity measurement at similar frequencies as used by the conventional LWD propagation resistivity tools. Average and sixteen sectors of attenuation and phase-difference resistivity data are acquired in the tool memory. Four quadrants of resistivity data are available for real-time transmission. The larger depths of investigation offered by the resistivity measurements help reduce unplanned exits from payzones.
The GeoTracker™ tool employs a modular, side-mounted EM wave propagation resistivity sensor to perform resistivity measurement with a 16-sector azimuthal resolution capability. All the data are temperature-compensated to provide stable measurements over a wide range of borehole temperatures. By design, the tool operates in all types of mud, including OBM. WO