The Offshore Technology Conference (OTC) selected 15 new technologies for its 2015 Spotlight on New Technology Awards. The annual awards program recognizes innovative technologies and allows for companies to show the latest advances in offshore exploration and production (E&P).
Award recipients were chosen based on the following criteria:
- The technology must be less than 2 years old, offered to the marketplace for commercial use between 17 December 2012 and 17 December 2014. If previously advertised at OTC, it must not have been displayed at more than one conference. The technology also must not infringe on any known patents or other intellectual property rights of any third party.
- The technology must be original, groundbreaking, and capable of having a significant impact on the offshore E&P industry.
- The technology must be proven, either through full-scale application or successful prototype testing.
- The technology must have a broad interest and appeal for the industry.
- The technology must provide significant benefits beyond existing technologies. Environmental impact is an important judging criterion.
AWARD RECIPIENTS (listed alphabetically)
Baker HughesMultiNode All-Electric Intelligent Well System The MultiNode all-electric intelligent well system is an advanced completion system that provides remote-controlled monitoring and precise control of production zones to manage water breakthrough and improve ultimate recovery. The system helps operators adjust to changing wellbore conditions by choking or closing high water-producing zones, thus balancing production along the lateral. It consists of a series of remotely actuated downhole active flow control device valves connected to a surface control unit by means of a tubing encased conductor control line. Segmenting a wellbore into a large number of zones with open or cased-hole packers and deploying an active flow control device in each zone enables operators to remotely control flow in each zone from the surface without well interventions, thus reducing health, safety, and environment (HSE) risks and operating costs. The MultiNode system monitors and controls production performance in real time without interventions for the life of the well. |
CameronMark IV High-Availability BOP Control System The Mark IV High Availability control system features a three-points of distribution (POD) design as an option for subsea blowout preventers (BOPs). The third POD provides added redundancy for improved operational availability of the drilling system and each POD’s simplified design improves reliability. Conventional subsea BOP control systems use two PODs, which offers only a single spare if the primary control POD becomes unavailable. The additional POD of the Mark IV control system increases redundancy, which eliminates the need to pull the stack due to a lack of redundancy if one POD fails. This new design boosts subsea control system availability to 98% and reduces the likelihood of a POD-related stack pull by up to 73%. Each Mark IV POD increases functionality and reliability in a smaller footprint, while simultaneously increasing available functions by 33%. Tubing connections have been reduced by 50%, therefore decreasing potential leak paths. |
FMC TechnologiesAnnulus Monitoring System The annulus monitoring system provides independent condition monitoring within the subsea wellhead from the onset of drilling. The communication system delivers information to the operator during critical phases of well installation and commissioning from multiple analog or digital sensors within annular locations. |
Halliburton Energy ServicesRezConnect Well Testing System The RezConnect well testing system offers full acoustic control of drill stem testing tools. Downhole samplers, valves, and gauges are controlled in real-time and their status is communicated to the surface for the ability to control, measure, and analyze a well. |
OceaneeringDeepwater Pile Dredge The deepwater pile dredge is an electrically driven system with pumps that provide water jetting and suction to excavate piles at any depth. The jetting provides a 360° pattern to fluidize the soil inside the pile, and then suction pumps remove the soil from the pile. |
OceaneeringMagna Subsea Inspection System The Magna subsea inspection system is a versatile screening inspection tool that assesses the mechanical integrity of assets at a high rate of speed without disrupting production. The advanced system is ROV-deployable, inspects 360° around the pipe, and provides real-time data of the wall condition with a single deployment. |
OneSubseaMultiphase Compressor The multiphase compressor is a wet gas compressor with no requirements for an upstream separation facility or an anti-surge system, which greatly simplifies the subsea system requirements. The compressor is a contra-rotating machine specifically designed for pressure boosting of unprocessed wellstream. This unique configuration, developed in collaboration with Statoil, allows for a compact and robust design that is easy to install by use of light intervention vessels, and is based on the well-proven design developed for subsea booster pumps. The multiphase compressor is capable of handling high liquid contents without mechanical issues, with gas volume fractions typically in the range of 95% to 100%. The application of a wet gas compressor in the subsea environment simplifies a subsea compression system significantly, as there is no need for pre processing. This will enable the deployment of simplified subsea systems at lower capital expenditures and field development costs. |
SBM OffshoreARCA Chain Connector The technology is a new design of chain connector attaching mooring lines to floating units. Placing the chain articulation in the mooring line allows for floating units to be recovered for inspection and maintenance. In response to market demand, the ARCA also enables diverless connection and disconnection and significant cost reduction for turret mooring systems. |
SchlumbergerGeoSphere Reservoir Mapping-While-Drilling Service The GeoSphere reservoir mapping-while-drilling service reveals subsurface-bedding and fluid-contact details more than 100 ft (30 m) from the wellbore. This reservoir-scale view provides an unprecedented depth of investigation, enabling operators to optimize landing, maximize reservoir exposure, and refine field development plans using deep-directional measurements enabled by real-time interpretation solutions. |
SchlumbergerQuanta Geo Photorealistic Reservoir Geology Service The Quanta Geo photorealistic reservoir geology service redefines imaging in oil-base mud to provide highly detailed, corelike microresistivity images that visually represent formation geology. These images enable a visual identification of facies and determination of directional trends, thus reducing uncertainty in reservoir models, making better field development plans, and quantifying project economics. |
TracercoTracerco Discovery The Discovery subsea computerized tomography scanner is a major breakthrough in subsea pipeline inspection. It allows oil companies to nonintrusively inspect complex subsea flowlines (including pipe in pipe, risers, and pipe bundles) for flow assurance issues and integrity flaws from the outside of the pipe without removing any protective and insulation coatings. The scanner provides data on pipeline integrity and flow assurance problems to an accuracy of close to a millimeter, without stopping production or removing coatings. |
VersabarVersaCutter The VersaCutter provides a solution for subsea cutting operations. The current version has been deployed for platform salvage and removal operations while the VersaCutter delivers a large-scale abrasive cutting wire of up to 20 ft below the mudline. The cutting wire is able to cut through the soils, platform piles, and well conductors with internals all in one operation. The tool combines multiple operations that have been used historically for subsea cutting. Specifically, it eliminates the need for internal pile jetting and cleaning, internal cutting tools or explosives, and divers for situations in which external jetting and cutting must |
WeatherfordRed Eye Subsea Water-Cut Meter The Red Eye subsea water-cut meter uses near-infrared light to provide water-onset detection, water-cut measurement, and water-to-hydrate interior ratio measurement. The meter can operate in a full three-phase flow stream at any gas-volume fraction and is not affected by changes in salinity, hydrogen sulfide, or carbon dioxide, eliminating the need for corrections related to these factors. It is capable of measuring water cut in a multiphase line and enabling-measurement of relative concentrations of water and hydrate inhibitor. A subsea flow measurement system typically measures the commingled production from multiple wells. The Red Eye subsea water-cut meter enables operators to track the water production of each individual well. It also offers the ability to track hydrate-inhibitor concentrations to ensure that conditions are outside of the hydrate-formation range. |
WeatherfordTotal Vibration Monitor With Angular-Rate Gyro The total vibration monitor with angular-rate gyro is a downhole logging-while-drilling (LWD) sensor that provides drilling dynamics data in real time and recorded formats and utilizes a MEMS-based (microelectromechanical system) angular-rate gyro. This device enables downhole-sensor measurements of angular rotation (rev/min) in detail, yielding new insights into drillstring dynamics and drilling management. The sensor has a 1000-Hz sample rate and high bandwidth that enable detection of damaging high-frequency torsional dynamics that are typically undetectable by conventional downhole rev/min measurement devices. The sensor measures true angular rotation, even when subjected to severe downhole vibration and magnetic interference. |
WelltecWelltec Annular Barrier The Welltec Annular Barrier is an expandable, metal annular barrier engineered and qualified to replace cement in well construction. Its rugged design, qualified to meet ISO V0 standard, has been utilized as a cementless, primary well barrier to prevent surface annular pressure over the life of the well. |
OTC Creates Spotlight on New Technology Small Business Awards
In support and recognition of innovative technologies being developed by small business, OTC created a new Spotlight on New Technology Small Business Award in 2015. The small business applications were evaluated using the same criteria as the Spotlight on New Technology Award, but each applicant was required to have fewer than 300 employees.
“Our Spotlight Award winners embrace OTC’s mission to advance technical knowledge of offshore operations and environmental matters,” said Steve Balint, Spotlight Award committee chair. “And with the creation of the Small Business Awards, we are supporting the idea that companies both big and small can develop innovative technologies and creative solutions to meet the world’s energy demands.”
The 2015 Small Business Award winners are:
- Fishbones, Dreamliner drilling system. The drilling system defines a new level of simplicity, accuracy, and efficiency in reservoir stimulation. It increases productivity by creating an array of targeted small-diameter laterals into formations. Numerous laterals are individually but simultaneously drilled by harnessing fluid flow through turbines utilizing standard rig pumping equipment and existing wellbore fluid.
- WiSub AS, Maelstrom Pinless Subsea Wet-Mate Connector. The subsea connector system eliminates the pins from subsea wet-mate connectors with a solution based on solid-state electronics, providing increased mating cycles, reduced operational cost, and increased reliability of subsea connections. The Maelstrom connector applies inductive coupling for power transfer and patented microwave communication methods for 100Mbps data rates.