Offshore Europe 2023: A reflection by Dave Quelch, ABLE Instruments & Controls Ltd

Having exhibited at Offshore Europe 2023, our inaugural appearance as an Employee-Owned Trust, we were delighted, and somewhat surprised at the substantial footfall we experienced on our stand. After the absence of the show for 4 years due to the COVID pandemic, there was always a concern that people, both exhibitors and attendees, had lost their appetite for such events. Whilst, with 30,000 attendees, the show failed to reach pre-pandemic levels, those who visited our stand were very positive, praising the show’s impact.

It is interesting to look at how the event is evolving against the backdrop of a rapidly changing climate for the oil and gas industry. The sector is not only consumed with matters of taxation, policy and the public’s perception of its actions but a demanding environmental challenge too. However, those of us that supply instrumentation to this industry understand that this major driver of regional economic growth has a strategic role to play in the energy transition.

For ABLE, it was a chance to display some of the new innovations from our portfolio of process control solutions alongside established, tried and tested instrumentation for level, flow, pressure, temperature and analytical measurements. For example, the cutting edge, radar-based resolution to multiphase detection, Magnetrol-AMETEK's GenesisTM attracted a great deal of attention and discussion. One of the major talking points was the ability of Genesis to measure multiple phases (vapour, total level, top and bottom of emulsion layer, sediment) using a patented ‘top down, bottom up’ TDR technology, with not a nucleonic gauge in sight.

Also making its exhibition debut was our new flare gas flow meter, the ABLE FlareMaster FT, the first SIL2 meter of its type and an inhouse development courtesy of our R&D department. The FT incorporates the DataFlow Data Analysis System and FlareMaster Flare Metering Enhancement Tool. The latter confers on the meter redundancy of flow measurement & automatic verification via a secondary measurement method. Furthermore, it facilitates a significantly extended flow measurement range, providing the widest on the market, up to 1,000m/s.

These advances in process measurement & control featured alongside those products that have been key to ABLE's success over the past 4 decades, such as the McCrometer V-Cone DP Meter, Rheonik’s Coriolis Mass Flow Meter and Ametek Brookfield’s AZI Jerome Mercury Vapour Analyser. Also featured was our extensive range of ATEX devices for asset management and field communications, available from 247able, our e-commerce platform.

It was good to be back!

Contact Dave Quelch, ABLE Instruments & Controls Ltd,
dquelch@able.co.uk
https://able.co.uk
https://247able.com