Absolute Completion Technologies

Absolute Completion Technologies

10th Anniversary Profile

ABSOLUTE

SUCCESS

BY MARY SAVAGE

Thane Russell, VP Business Development and Technology and Jay Haskell, President and CEO

A

MeshRiteTM Sand Control Manufacturing

Alberta is home to many innovative minds, but Absolute is more than just another Canadian how often do you hear about a local company success story; they bring absolute innovation, that has achieved international success? It’s rare! absolute determination and absolute solutions Beyond the innovative concepts, it takes years, if to the global well completions business – they not decades of perseverance, an extended reserve are “changing the game.”

Glenn Woiceshyn, VP Engineering of resources and an unwavering commitment to succeed. And such is the case with Absolute Completion Technologies Ltd. (Absolute).

Absolute was founded by a group of innovative engineerAbsolute is an Alberta-based firm that has succeeded by ing professionals with extensive knowledge of completion tool designing new technology-based solutions and developdesign and sand control technology. This team had engineered ing unique manufacturing processes to create products that and developed the patented technology to manufacture a revoenhance sand control, flow control and well completion perlutionary sand control product called MeshRite™. formance. Absolute’s founders set out to “build better wells” MeshRite was designed specifically for sand control in heavy and after achieving success in international markets, heads are oil, and employs a filter technology which had repeatedly demstarting to turn in North America. They have stayed true to onstrated superior performance over conventional filter media their objective and as a result, they have helped hundreds of in laboratory testing and proven field results. oil and gas operators achieve better results by helping them to A large international firm made a bid to purchase this breakadopt technological advancements. through product and the MeshRite technology was sold in Absolute has experienced a 40 per cent growth rate – com1999. “In 2002, we approached the company who had bought pounded annually – since 2002. They’ve gone from three the technology because we felt they weren’t maximizing its employees to more than 100 in Canada, while deriving 70 per potential,” says Thane Russell, vice president, business developcent of their sales revenue from outside North America. Their ment and technology. products are installed in 35 countries spanning all the major Absolute bought the technology back and agreed to work continents. They have partnered with one of the largest firms with the firm as their worldwide distribution partner. “We in the oilfield service industry – to provide worldwide disramped up manufacturing and started aggressively educating tribution – yet Absolute has retained independent Canadian clients and repositioning MeshRite in an effort to increase ownership.

History in the Making

Absolute Completion Technologies 10th Anniversary Profile | Page 1

Absolute Completion Technologies

10th Anniversary Profile

worldwide including Canada. acceptance in the global marketRecent enhancements to the place,” adds Thane. “It truly is a laminate technologies by Absogroundbreaking technology and lute and one of its partners have history has proven its merits.”

TM FacsRite Manufacturing yielded a superior filtration During 2002, Absolute manumedia, which is leading to a step change in the performance factured about 2000 linear feet of MeshRite and 10 years later, of the FacsRite product. Early deployment results are very 2012 will see approximately 250,000 feet produced out of their encouraging.

Edmonton facility.

A third innovation to emerge from Absolute is FluxRite™, a In 2007, they started to look beyond MeshRite and into the technology that combines superior sand control with pressure development of new products, including FacsRite™. “We had profile and flow control. “Flow control is a newer concept for been researching advanced filtration technologies for years and Canada, but it has been deployed extensively internationally were closely following the development of fusion-bonded lamover the past five years. There are pockets of the international inates,” adds Thane. “These laminates, combined with a unique industry where the benefits of this very exciting technology screen geometry, proved to be the integral design components are already well understood and in use,” remarks Thane. “Effecin the FacsRite filtration technology.” tive inflow and injection control is critical to the production By 2010, Absolute had developed and patented FacsRite, and by December of that same year, the product was commerefficiency of SAGD or CSS well geometries, therefore we are cialized. Today they see a growing demand for its application confident that FluxRite will have a significant role to play in

MeshRite™ MeshRite™ is a sand control system that’s completely unique in the industry and Absolute is the only company that manufactures it. “Effective sand control involves a few key components, and primary among them is very high retained permeability. Whatever system you put in place, it needs to retain its flow capability through the life of the well,” says Glenn Woiceshyn, vice president engineering. “MeshRite has very high flow capability. Its performance is unique because it has a wide distribution of pore sizes and shapes that give it extremely high retained permeability when tested by virtually any distribution of particle sizes. Simply put, it can handle high production rates with a very low-pressure drop for a very long time,” explains Woiceshyn. “It can be used in any sand control application and we build it to virtually any length and size.”

With MeshRite, the operator gains significant advantages: longer-life wells, higher-productivity wells plus wells that are de-risked with respect to changing sand sizes encountered along the length of the well bore.

“MeshRite can handle a large variety of sand sizes and mechanically, it’s very tough.You can bend it, torque it, compress it, or expand and contract it thermally and it stays together. The filter media is inert to temperature, so neither filtration performance or mechanical integrity is affected even by extreme changes in temperature typical of Canadian operations,” he adds. “These three advantages are powerful incentives for operators to use it in their wells.”

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Congratulations on the Completion of ten absolutely amazing years.

To all our friends at Absolute Completion Technologies, happy anniversary.

PERFORATED TUBES I N C O R P O R A T E D

www.perftubes.com Absolute Completion Technologies 10th Anniversary Profile | Page 3

Absolute Completion Technologies

10th Anniversary Profile Canada, and in other heavy oil markets.”

Although Absolute’s main objective is to design better performing technology, another key priority is getting people to understand that there are better products available now. “We are trying to raise the level of awareness of new technology within the technical community, and to raise the degree of understanding of how these new products and technologies work within the well bore system,” says Jay Haskell, president and CEO. “When people have a greater understanding of the science that underpins the behaviour of these products, they begin to look beyond the status quo and to realize what’s possible to achieve out of their wells. That’s how we unlock the potential to really improve well performance,” says Jay. “We provide engineering services in an effort to ensure companies are using the right solution – even if it is not our solution. We have a history with many different technologies and applications and we are happy to offer an alternative or a different approach to optimize well performance,” adds Jay. “We have a fairly conservative industry when it comes to new completion technology and it takes time for new solutions

Absolute recognized the importance of perseverance and resiliency in order to succeed. to be accepted,” asserts Jay. “It’s a high capital industry and the risk tolerance is low. It’s not until horizontal wells are on production for a few years and start to show significant problems that people begin to look for new solutions.”

Years ago, Absolute recognized the importance of perseverance and resiliency in order to succeed. “For a company like ours that’s trying to bring new technology to the marketplace, you need staying power, perseverance and resiliency. You have to be in the game for a while before you can start to change the game,” adds Thane.

Looking Forward The Absolute team is looking optimistically to the future.

They have new ideas and an unwavering commitment to provide optimal solutions. “One of the key reasons that we are excited about sand control and flow control is because it’s a

Manufactured in Alberta Absolute started 2012 by moving into a brand-new 36,000 sq. ft. manufacturing facility in Edmonton. Given market demand, they hadn’t even fully moved in when they realized they needed greater production capacity, so they added another 14,000 sq. ft. expansion. The facility is purpose-built, filled with custom equipment that provides large-scale machining capabilities; in fact they have 10 of the biggest milling machines anywhere in Alberta.

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FacsRite™

M A C H I N E CNC & MANUAL MACHINING

L T D

EJECTOR & DEEP HOLE DRILLING

The FacsRite™ filtration technology is comprised of multiple layers of woven metal screen bonded together to create a dense mesh. The screen elements can be woven in practically any pattern and each weave has a different solids retention capability.

The metal screens are layered to create a pseudo-3D structure then fused together to create an incredibly strong construction, while maintaining all the desired filtration properties. “The industrial process engineering world has been using similar structures for years, but it is a relatively new concept in the oil and gas industry,” says Woiceshyn.

“When we mounted these screen structures inside the wall of the pipe, we found we could create something that was geometrically advantageous with a larger open flow area and large well bore radius – properties that tend to improve well production,” he adds. “That geometry also makes it very easy to deploy in long horizontals, it’s extremely strong and it creates a very efficient well bore.The filtration system has a higher plugging resistance and is made from high-end metals like stainless steel, so it won’t corrode.”

The FacsRite patent was issued in 2010 and since that time, Absolute has commercialized the technology and built the manufacturing process from scratch. Since launching FacsRite, Absolute has increased production ten-fold to support unabated demand.

“All of our technologies were targeted specifically for heavy oil applications and specifically the Canadian market, but we have people interested from all sectors of industry and that’s because FacsRite™ delivers excellent filtration and better strength at a reasonable cost,” Woiceshyn comments.

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FluxRite™

FluxRiteTM Injection and Inflow Control System

Fluxrite™ is a flow control system that marries MeshRite and/or FacsRite with flow control devices to manage both sand control and flow control in a well. It can be used in either injection and production applications. Absolute’s technology allows the well operators to manage the pressure profile along the well bore, thereby optimizing the productive potential of the well.

“When you change a well from vertical to horizontal, you change the flow dynamics in the well. It’s a totally different engineering problem and you have to think of it more like a pipeline than a well,” says Woiceshyn.

“We started to see some interest in flow control around 2005 and we had the technology approved for use in Saudi Arabia, Africa and Southeast Asia. Now we are introducing the technology to Canada,” he adds. “When you look at Saudi Arabia, they won’t drill any wells without this technology.”

As Woiceshyn indicates, Absolute has engineered and supplied all the flow control completions to date in Kuwait. “There are parts of the world where flow control is big news and companies have been running the technology for years, but there are other parts of the world where they have never tried it so it’s a great opportunity for us.”

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Absolute Completion Technologies

10th Anniversary Profile tremendous platform around which to build better wells. Our platform of sand control technologies is just the starting point for Absolute,” says Thane. “Our success to date has allowed us to hire some excellent people, and they are making a terrific contribution to the company and to industry. We are very proud of the team we have assembled here at Absolute.”

“As the trend continues toward the application of horizontal well construction, new problems with new complexities are emerging. The drilling industry is moving in a direction that dovetails well with the technology areas we are developing.

Drillers are very creative in delivering innovative well bore geometries. However, now industry has to figure out how to complete these wells, produce them and intervene in them when something goes wrong. What do you do with a failing horizontal well that’s 15 years old? You need a whole new set of tools because what you used in a vertical well can no longer be applied. Everything changes,” he observes.

“We are trying to establish a culture around technology adoption that includes education and a higher level of technical

understanding than what we have today. We need to help producers to stop relying on what was done in the past and instead find the technical and economic solutions required for better producing long-life wells. You can only achieve that through experience, investigation, research and development of new technology,” he adds. “We are grateful to work in a province that puts so much emphasis on new technology, and has made world class research resources such as C-FER and Alberta Innovates available to growth companies such as Absolute.”

What’s Next During October, Absolute will be holding an open house where they plan to unveil additional new technologies in three product categories.

For more information, please contact: Jose Francisco Albornoz Technical Advisor Manager - Canada, US & Mexico.

403-266-5027 | www.absolutect.com

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