ISSUE 19

UKâ€™s No

OIL & GAS INDUSTRY PUBLICATION

TEXO GROUP ANNOUNCES FORMATION OF NEW RESOURCES

BUSINESS UNIT

Connecting What’s Needed with What’s Next™

PERFORM SAFE RADIOGRAPHY NEAR NUCLEONIC CONTROL INSTRUMENTATION

As your trusted partner, Oceaneering does things differently, creatively, and smarter. Our Trip Avoidance X-ray Inspection (TAXI)™ System helps operators avoid costly plant shutdowns and process trips by providing a safe and reliable method for conducting radiography inspections on installations with nucleonics. Our TAXI system is field-proven and provides the optimal non-destructive testing (NDT) solution to detect corrosion, including corrosion under insulation, and loss of integrity as well as early detection of pipe corrosion and wall thickness loss. Connect with what’s next at oceaneering.com/TAXI

CONTENTS ISSUE 19 - FEATURES 04

Poulton Technologies “Connect and Seal”

Oil & Gas UK

Renewables

The absence of the kingdom

Intelligent Plant

The latest in Africa’s Oil & Gas

The evolution of digital twins in subsea operations

Control Valve Solutions enters Its 10th year with flying colours

New low vibration hammers from Chicago Pneumatic reduce risk of long-term injury

The latest oil & gas drilling innovations

TEXO GROUP announces formation of new resources business unit

Veristar AIM 3D – A new generation of asset integrity management

View to the future - Substantial savings with subsea scanning

Push your limit with Weatherford’s Magnus RSS

Future proofing designs at the forefront of technology – The Digital Twin

EVERY MONTH 20

Women in industry

A day in the life

30 32 36 38 40 42 46

World Projects Map Contract Awards On the move - Recruitment Bassoe Analytics - Rig Utilisation OGA Project Tracker - Pathfinder Events Legal & Finance

INNOVATION & TECHNOLOGY 22

32 24

- Eilidh Keachie, Process Engineer, ProSep - Nicky Adams, Managing Director, Aberdeen Corrosion Solutions

26 Editorial Kenny Dooley C-Growth Ltd / Oil & Gas Vision kenny.dooley@ogvenergy.co.uk 07825 885817

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Disclaimer: The views and opinions published within editorials and advertisements in this Oil & Gas Vision Publication are not those of our editor or company. Whilst we have made every effort to ensure the legitimacy of the content, Oil & Gas Vision cannot accept any responsibility for errors and mistakes.

Since the launch of the partnership, businesses as varied as Malmaison, TEAM Recruitment, Gary Walker & Co Wealth Management and Ardene House Vet Practice have thrown their support behind the scheme.

BY OFFICIAL APPOINTMENT PROGRAMME CONTINUES TO GROW Over 50 businesses have now signed-up as By Official Appointment (BOA) Partners of Aberdeen Football Club. The new affinity partnership programme, launched in November, allows businesses to create incentives and special offers which the Club is then able to market to its extensive fan base.

Speaking about the BOA Partnership, AFC Commercial Director Rob Wicks said, “Affinity programmes, such as BOA, are recognised across the business world as a proven and powerful marketing tool to deliver new sales revenues and with Aberdeen being a one club city with a hugely loyal fan base, the response from the business community has been very positive indeed.” In return for an annual subscription fee to secure a Club license, BOA Partners receive a variety of benefits that include branding, networking, use of the Club logo, preferential rates for advertising and complimentary match day tickets depending on membership category. Any businesses that do not have specific consumer offerings are also able to join as ‘BOA Affiliates’ and also enjoy a range of benefits. There are a variety of different membership categories, making BOA accessible for all businesses, regardless of their size. Any local businesses looking to get involved in the BOA Programme should contact Laura Butler on 01224 650 497 or laura.butler@afc.co.uk.

Poulton Technologies achieves astonishing sealing performance with Connect and Seal technology Poulton Technologies’ ‘Connect and Seal’ product was created due to a need for an unbreakable pipeline connector that can be fitted in hostile conditions, in limited space and without a need for welding or other hot work. After its successful launch to market in 2018, the technology has now undergone further testing, resulting in new certification. Their PT1 connector has achieved a certified helium leak rate of 3x10-10 mbar.litres/second (equivalent to 1 cc of helium lost in 105 years), marking another major milestone for the company. Additionally, in support of the type approval testing, the connector reached a hydrostatic test pressure of 1650 bar/24000 psi without failing. The helium test is a standard measure of leakage, using a combined mass spectrometer and vacuum pump to draw a vacuum inside the sealed connector, and to remove as much latent background helium as possible. The connector is then placed within a bag, and a partial vacuum drawn on that to remove majority of the air. The bag is then refilled with helium to a slight over-pressure. The result is that the connector is purged of

Connect and Seal virtually everything and placed within a helium-rich atmosphere in order that any leakage of helium through the connector seals will be detected within the mass spectrometer. The majority of applications in the Oil and Gas industry do not require such a high degree of sealing, and typically, pumped gas contains molecules that are significantly larger than helium. However, by demonstrating this extremely high level of sealing, Poulton Technologies have moved the goalposts in terms of what can be achieved in conventional applications. If the PT1 can achieve this rate with helium, think how it could clean up systems that currently rely on conventional gaskets?

LETTER AND CONTRIBUTIONS

Journalists Tsvetana Paraskova Kirsty Whyte Loren Steffy

Editor’s Letter

Kenny Dooley Managing Director

Design Ben Mckay Fara West Contributors Dan Brown Steve Aitken Alan Whooley Mick Beavers Eilidh Keachie Deborah McFarlane Dawn Robertson Nicky Adams Sean Buchan Laura Petrie Printed by C-Growth

FOR MORE INFORMATION VIEW OUR MEDIA PACK

As we head into April, we welcome spring and celebrate what has been a positive first quarter of the year. Once again, most of the conversations we have had have focused around new innovations and digital transformation in the industry. More companies are exploring their digital capabilities and our friend “digitalisation” continues to pop up in the dialogue. This month we launch “OGV Innovate” our first innovation event at the Village Hotel in Aberdeen. We look forward to welcoming a fantastic line up of speakers, showcasing the latest technology and thought-provoking products for the Oil and Gas sector. In addition to our usual innovation and technology section, we have an interesting article on Oil and Gas drilling innovations. We look at how the industry is combining decades of drilling expertise with the latest digital innovations—AI, machine learning, robotics, automation—to reduce downtime and costs and boost efficiencies in drilling and completions. For this magazine, our cover star is Control Valve Solutions who mark their 10th business anniversary. Control Valve Solutions Limited (CVS) offers tailor made solutions for all control valve and related products for the oil

and gas industry. Their Managing Director, Mick Beavers launched a property project to create new state-of-the-art facilities that have allowed CVS to move into the next level of market leadership. Our women in industry this month comes from ProSep. Eilidh Keachie is a process engineer who started off as a pharmacy student. By changing her path along the way, she has developed a successful career in the Oil and Gas industry. Continuing our tech focus, we have a full line up of products featured in our innovation and technology zone. Bureau Veritas discuss their “Veristar AIM 3D” - the new generation of asset integrity. Meanwhile Weatherford bring us the “Magnus RSS”, a rotatable steering system which promises to sustain drilling, stay on plan, and reduce well-construction cost. EDRMedeso give an insight in to the digital twin and we look at Viewport3’s cost-saving approach to reactive subsea scanning. This issue, we also follow a day in the life of Nicky Adams, Managing Director at Aberdeen Corrosion Solutions. He shares his experience of starting a company during the downturn and how his partnership with Stork has helped him progress the business.

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UK NORTH SEA

UK North Sea Oil & Gas Review By Tsvetana Paraskova

It was another busy month for the UK oil and gas industry between mid-February and the middle of March—several reports highlighted future opportunities and companies continued to plan for drilling and development on the UKCS. Oil and gas production in the UK rose by more than 4 percent in 2018 to average 1.7 million barrels of oil equivalent per day, the Oil and Gas Authority (OGA) said in a report in March. Oil production alone jumped by 8.9 percent annually to 1.09 million bpd last year—the highest UK oil production rate since 2011. Higher activity on the UKCS pushed total operating cost (OPEX) up by 6.4 percent in 2018, while unit operating cost (UOC) rose marginally by 2.2 percent, indicating stable cost efficiency, the OGA said. Capital expenditure (CAPEX) declined for the fourth year in a row, but this downward trend is expected to be reversed as early as this year, with a 4-percent increase in UK oil and gas upstream investment, according to the OGA. The report also estimates that UK oil and gas production over the period 2016–2050 is projected to be 3.9 billion barrels of oil equivalent (boe) higher than projections made four years ago, in March 2015. “The 3.9 billion barrels identified is great news with 2018 being a productive year. New discoveries such as Glendronach and Glengorm highlight the future potential of the basin which could be boosted further with new investment, exploration successes and resource progression,” said Loraine Pace, Head of Performance, Planning and Reporting at the OGA.

Commenting on the OGA report, Oil & Gas UK’s Upstream Policy Director, Mike Tholen said: “This is a significant milestone for an industry emerging from one of the toughest downturns in memory. However, in a competitive global market where the competition for investment is intense, it remains critical to maintain the fiscal and regulatory conditions which have supported this solid production performance delivered by industry.” On March 13, the UK government published the Spring Statement with expected fiscal receipts from the offshore industry and launched a call for evidence to identify what more could be done to further strengthen Scotland and the UK’s position as a global hub for decommissioning.

ing closely, we can together create an enduring benefit to both our world-class supply chain and the nation,” Oil & Gas UK Chief Executive Deirdre Michie said, commenting on the call for evidence. The UK has been driving the decommissioning market in Europe and the world, Rystad Energy said in a report in February. Europe, led by the UK, has been the most active market for offshore decommissioning in recent years, with a global market share of more than 50 percent. “The UK alone is forecasted to spend more than $2 billion annually on decommissioning activities within the next three years,” according to the energy research firm, which expects decommissioning worldwide to hit a record US$36 billion over the next three years.

“We want to understand how a domestic UK decommissioning industry could best serve the UK market, ensuring we have the skills and capability to meet domestic demand while encouraging the industry to export its decommissioning expertise abroad and position the UK as a global leader,” the Minister of State for Energy and Clean Growth, Claire Perry, said in the statement launching the call for evidence, which is open until 8 May 2019.

While the industry prepares for the drilling campaign this year, Rystad Energy has identified a deep-water well west of the Shetland Islands planned to be drilled by Hurricane Energy as one of the 30 most exciting wildcats of 2019. The pre-drill estimate for Hurricane Energy’s well stands at 935 million boe, while the company has indicated a 77-percent chance of success, Rystad said in February.

“The UK is leading the way as a decommissioning centre of excellence through both effective cost leadership and technical expertise. Work-

Also in February, Unite the union said that offshore membership had voted overwhelmingly for industrial action on the Elgin-Franklin,

www.NSPS.global

Electrical Engineering Specialists • HV/LV Switchgear • E & I Hazardous Area Consultancy • Multi-Service Rope Access • Condition Monitoring

UK NORTH SEA

In development and plans, Hibiscus Petroleum said in February that it had started to evaluate options to develop the Marigold and Sunflower oil fields in the UK North Sea. “We have commenced the evaluation of options to develop the Marigold and Sunflower discovered oilfields in the UK, which hold potential to drive significant future earnings growth once these fields commence production,” Hibiscus Petroleum’s Managing Director, Dr Kenneth Pereira, said in the company’s latest results release. Spirit Energy said on 20 February that it planned to decommission two normally unmanned platforms used to produce gas offshore northwest England. Alongside the removal and recycling of a combined 22,000 tons of platform infrastructure, Spirit Energy’s proposals for the multimillion-pound decommissioning project also include the plug and abandonment of 12 wells, permanently isolating the facilities from the gas reservoir 1 km below the seabed. Subsea provider N-Sea said it had been awarded two multi-million-pound contracts in the North Sea. The first deal, a three-year contract, has been awarded by an international operator and will be managed and supported by N-Sea’s Aberdeen base. Work will take place across a

“

We have commenced the evaluation of options to develop the Marigold and Sunflower discovered oilfields in the UK, which hold potential to drive significant future earnings growth once these fields commence production Said Hibiscus Petroleum’s Managing

“

Shetland Gas Plant, North Alwyn, and Dunbar platforms to protest against a proposed change in the shift rotation from 2:3 to a 3:3/3:4 rotation, proposed by Aker and Petrofac, operators of those platforms who cover over two hundred workers. Unite the union Scotland has set several dates in March and April for 24-hour stoppages at the platforms.

number of the operator’s UK North Sea assets and the scope includes air diving inspection, repair and maintenance, in addition to light construction requirements from diving support vessels and dive daughter craft. N-Sea will also work on a two-year project for another North Sea operator, comprising inspection, repair and maintenance on two of its North Sea assets. Global drilling and engineering contractor KCA Deutag announced on 25 February that its offshore business unit had been awarded a new drilling contract by Enquest Heather Limited for the Magnus, Thistle, and Heather platforms in the UK North Sea. In a major merger and acquisition (M&A) deal over the past month, independent oil and gas company RockRose Energy signed a share

Director, Dr Kenneth Pereira,

purchase agreement to buy the UK assets and units of U.S. Marathon Oil. Marathon Oil’s assets include 37-40 percent operated interests in fields in the Greater Brae Area, a 28-percent stake in the BP-operated Foinaven Field unit, and a 47-percent interest in Foinaven East. The acquisition also includes interests in the SAGE, Brae-Forties and WASPS infrastructure providing additional tariff income, RockRose said. “This Acquisition marks a major step change in the Group’s reserves and production profile. Given the quality of these assets the Board’s view is this is a good opportunity to make the transition to the role of operator,” RockRose executive chairman Andrew Austin said. continues on p.8

UK NORTH SEA

RockRose Energy tried another—unsuccessful—acquisition bid in March. RockRose said that on 1 March it made a formal approach to the board of directors of Independent Oil and Gas plc (IOG) with a proposal for an all cash takeover offer. The proposal was rejected by IOG’s board of directors, IOG said, noting that the “Board continues to focus its efforts on unlocking value in the Company by securing a farm-out partner for its core project to provide funding optionality in parallel with IOG’s stated capital markets funding plans.” INEOS said on 27 February that it would invest £500 million in overhauling the Forties Pipeline System, prolonging the life of the North Sea’s main oil and gas artery into the 2040s. The Forties Pipeline System is a strategic UK asset that can transport up to 600,000 barrels of North Sea oil onshore for refining every day. The pipeline transports 40 percent of the UK’s oil and gas to the mainland. “North Sea oil and gas producers are telling us that they want to be in the North Sea well into the 2040s so we are making this commitment to be there with them,” said Andrew Gardner, INEOS FPS CEO.

“

North Sea oil and gas producers are telling us that they want to be in the North Sea well into the 2040s so we are making this commitment to be there with them. Said Andrew Gardner, INEOS FPS CEO.

“Investment of this scale in the Forties pipeline system is a vote of confidence in the future potential of the UK North Sea. The rejuvenation of this critical infrastructure, embedded at the heart of industry for nearly 40 years, strengthens our aim to add another generation of productive life to the basin outlined in Vision 2035,” Oil & Gas UK’s Tholen said. On the same day, 27 February, Subsea 7 S.A. announced it had been awarded a substantial contract by BP Exploration for the provision of subsea construction, inspection, repair and maintenance services covering BP’s North Sea region portfolio of assets West of Shetland and Northern North Sea. For Subsea 7, a “substantial” contract means one valued at between US$150 million and US$300 million. Independent oil and gas exploration firm Petro River Oil Corp said at the end of February that it had acquired an additional 5.63-percent

cases, application across multiple assets and licences, and all at an ever lower lifting cost. Through a unique industry collaboration, Common Data Access made quality UK Continental Shelf (UKCS) data accessible to explorers so they can benefit from the industry’s collective stores of well and seismic geological information – while saving the industry over £300m to date through better ways of working.

EXTENDING THE LIFE OF THE UK NORTH SEA THROUGH ADVANCED DATA TECHNOLOGY Dan Brown, Executive Director, Common Data Access (CDA) Technology is key to helping us fulfil the industry’s ambition to add another generation of production – an ambition outlined in Vision 2035 and advances in data management analysis techniques are helping us work towards this objective. Production of the remaining resources – estimated at between 10-20 billion barrels of oil and gas - plus the identification of new accumulations will require innovative solutions, improved deployment of technology and, in many

Recent research by Oil & Gas UK shows that the volumes of hydrocarbons discovered in both 2016 and 2017 were higher than in any year since 2008. This positive trend demonstrates that technological innovations in data analysis and access to open geological data are helping our industry develop a deeper understanding derived from the full wealth of seismic and well data available. We have access to more subsurface data, following two surveys of the North Sea funded by the Oil and Gas Authority (OGA) and the advanced techniques we use to interpret the data are helping explorers pinpoint economically relevant volumes of hydrocarbons with ever greater accuracy. Technology innovations include more efficient seismic modelling and interpretation workflows, support by the latest generation of 3D technology, and advanced assistive computing techniques based on machine learning. These all help increase the chances of exploration success in a shorter timescale, reduce ge-

“

“This news is a further signal of confidence in the industry – new entrants bring fresh ambition for investment, reinvigorating activity in existing fields and pursuing new opportunities,” Mike Tholen, Oil & Gas UK’s Upstream Policy Director, said, commenting on the deal.

interest in the Seaward Production Licenses in the UK North Sea, through Horizon Energy Acquisition, a newly-formed company of which Petro River owns 14.5455 percent. Hibiscus Petroleum said on 4 March that its jointly controlled operating company, Anasuria Operating Company Limited, was on track to execute the Guillemot A GUA P1 side-track well at the Anasuria Cluster concession in the UK North Sea, which is targeted to unlock around 1.7 million barrels of oil from its current net 2P (proven and probable) oil reserves. Premier Oil expects to sanction the development of the Catcher North and Laverda oil accumulations in the UK central North Sea in the first half of 2019, the company said in early March. Premier Oil expects to drill an infill well on the Varadero field immediately before the Catcher North and Laverda drilling programme to target resources beyond the reach of the initial production wells.

ological uncertainty and help exploration and production companies make more informed investment decisions and respond faster to licence rounds and asset transfers. While technological innovation is vital, energy data management as a professional discipline is emerging as strategically important in efforts to support Vision 2035. CDA has pioneered the development of two academic courses to meet the demand for practitioners skilled in managing the geological and geophysical data so vital our sector’s operations. Two cohorts of students have already earned Graduate Certificates in Petroleum Data Management from Robert Gordon University. With the University of Aberdeen, and working with Chevron, Shell, and Total, we also established an MSc Petroleum Data Management programme to provide that next level of energy data management education and skills development. We continue to move with the times and are working closely with the Oil and Gas Authority to make the collection of technical, well and seismic data established by industry under CDA’s guidance available to everybody under open conditions of use. We hope that in doing so, we will provide an invaluable resource to technology innovators looking to apply new machine learning and artificial intelligence techniques to the demanding task of locating oil and gas deposits deep under the seabed.

RENEWABLES

GE just switched on Cypress, its experimental next-gen wind turbine biggest—and most important—wind turbines has just switched on. It is a demonstration of a new type of blade developed by General Electric called Cypress, whose clever design could lead to bigger and more efficient turbines.

The prototype Cypress turbine blades come in two pieces and are assembled on site for larger and more durable turbines. Just north of Amsterdam, one of the world’s

As wind power becomes more commonplace, governments and utilities are increasingly demanding more power, which equates to bigger turbines and turbine blades. The largest blades in operation right now are nearly 300 feet long. The problem for wind turbine manufacturers like GE is that, in their current iteration, that’s about as big as turbines can ever get. That’s because all these turbine blades have to be made in a factory somewhere and then transported to the construction site. For

most of that journey, those turbine blades are sitting on the backs of trucks as they navigate both highways and local roads to reach their destination. A 300-foot blade will understandably create several problems at certain points along those routes, especially when sharp corners are involved. One potential solution is GE’s new Cypress turbine blades. Cypress blades are made in two separate pieces for transport, allowing the company to build blades much larger than they otherwise could. Currently, the prototype turbine in the Netherlands generates a modest 5.3 megawatts of electricity. That’s enough to power around 5,000 homes. But in the future, turbines built with Cypress blades could produce substantially more.

UK government to increase offshore wind power by 2030 Nearly 30% of the UK’s electricity is planned to be generated by wind power by 2030, under a new deal announced by the government. The move will help the UK towards an aim of getting almost all of its power from low-carbon sources. The plan will see the offshore wind industry invest £250 million over the next 11 years. The government says it will create thousands of jobs. Last year, on and offshore wind turbines provided 17% of the UK’s energy needs.

UK renewables production rises in 2018 as coal hits record lows

Norway just scrapped oil & gas The world’s biggest state-owned wealth fund has just signalled that it’s losing interest in oil and gas – and Australia’s mining industry is getting nervous. The local energy sector slumped Monday following news that Norway’s trillion-dollar sovereign wealth fund, Government Pension Fund Global (GPFG), was reducing its stake in oil and gas exploration – a big move considering the fund was essentially built on oil. The company said the move wouldn’t affect some major energy firms that have refineries, such as BHP and ExxonMobil, but a number of Australian companies are likely to be caught up in the move. If the decision goes ahead, it could see the fund dumping more than $800 million worth of Australian shares in companies such as Woodside Petroleum, Beach Energy, Santos, Oil Search and Caltex. ANZ senior commodity strategist Daniel Hynes said the move highlights what will continue to be a growing trend away from oil and gas.

“Investor sentiment towards the sector [is] waning…This is just an extension of that,” Hynes told Trading Day. He said “environmental pressures” and trade war concerns between the US and China have only added to fears weighing the market. “What it means in the long term is we’ll start to see that supply growth diminish in this market.” With Norway’s fund scrapping exploration companies, Hynes said it would take a big toll on both the smaller companies largely responsible for oil discovery and the supply of oil and gas down the line. “It does make it difficult to attract capital by a lot of smaller producers and then that flowing on into additional oil into the market in the coming years.” He added that the hunt for capital has become an increasing concern for industry stakeholders. The slide of oil and gas investment is likely to follow in the way of the coal sector, according to Hynes.

Provisional BEIS statistics show UK production of renewables and oil rose in 2018, as coal, gas, and nuclear output all fell Wind, solar and bioenergy helped push up UK production of renewable energy almost nine per cent last year, as both nuclear and gas output fell and coal generation again plummeted to record lows, provisional...

“There’s been very little capital going into new capacity [in coal]… And as a consequence, prices are rising.” Last year, Japan’s Mitsubishi Corp joined a growing list of companies divesting itself of assets linked to fossil fuel production after it said it would sell its stakes in two Australian thermal coal mines following pressure from environmental activists. Then last month, mining giant Glencore announced that it would not be increasing its coal production capacity beyond current levels – in what was hailed as a landmark moment in the fight against climate change.

REGIONAL FOCUS

The Absence of the Kingdom By Loren Steffy

Some of the biggest names in the energy industry gathered in Houston in mid-March for the annual CERAWeek conference. Speeches by BP CEO Bob Dudley and Occidental CEO Vicki Hollub garnered headlines, but what was most striking was who wasn’t there. Typically, the Saudi oil minister has a presence, if not a keynote speech. This year, the Saudis were nowhere to be found. Their absence was a testament to how much the global energy markets have changed in the past year. In the middle of the conference, for example, the International Energy Association dropped a report predicting the U.S. will account for 70 percent of oil production growth and 75 percent of natural gas growth during the next five years. Factor in increases in U.S. exports, and the U.S. is establishing itself as the world’s new fuel pump. The U.S. now surpasses Saudi Arabia in oil production, and it is the world’s largest producer of natural gas as well. Hydraulic fracturing continues to unlock new reserves across North America. The Saudis have reasons for staying away that go beyond energy. The Kingdom’s connection with the murder of journalist Jamal Khashoggi, a U.S. resident and columnist for the Washington Post, remains in the news. But as the most prominent member of OPEC, the Saudis are confronting an uncomfortable reality. While OPEC still has tremendous influence in petro-politics, that influence has waned. As I mentioned in a previous column, the cartel

has mulled the idea of hiring a lobbying firm in Washington to bolster its image, even as members of the Judiciary Committee in the House of Representatives passed the “NOPEC bill” that attempts to curtail the cartel’s control of global oil prices. In addition, President Donald Trump has used his favourite communication tool, Twitter, to lambast OPEC over oil prices. In past administrations — both Republican and Democrat — presidents went to the kingdom and asked the Saudis to pump more oil. Now, the president publicly demands the cartel do more to reduce oil prices. There’s an implicit threat — if you don’t, we will. So far, the Saudis have responded by cutting production, but they have played this game of chicken before, in 2014. It didn’t end well for them. Trump has made his disdain for OPEC clear, calling it a “totally illegal monopoly” and warning members of the UN General Assembly last year that OPEC was “ripping them off.” Meanwhile, in the booming oilfields of West Texas, production just keeps growing. The IEA predicts the current U.S. production of 12 million barrels a day will jump to 14 million

barrels by 2024. Exports of crude and refined products will double during the same period, to 9 million barrels. Perhaps most stunning is the prediction that the U.S., which remains the largest oil consumer and for decades was reliant on foreign imports, will become a net exporter by 2021. By the middle of the next decade, its exports will surpass Russia and match Saudi Arabia. “The second wave of the shale revolution is coming,” said IEA Executive Director Fatih Birol. “It sends a lot of shock waves. This will shake up international oil and gas trade flows with profound implications for the geopolitics of energy.” The theme of the conference, which one local journalist described as “the oil industry’s Davos,” was “the new world of rivalries,” but it seemed almost ironic against the backdrop of America’s surging fossil fuel production. Electric cars may be the future of transportation and renewable energy may continue to grow as a source for generating electricity, but America’s ascendency as a dominant force in global energy seems unfased by such longterm threats.

Working in partnership with software engineering students and lecturers of Aberdeen University, Intelligent Plant are once again sponsoring an annual prize that helps to showcase local IT talent. The Inform Prize is now entering into its fifth year, and invites third year students to create a digital solution to a real problem. Last year’s winners designed an automated marking system for schools and universities, to avoid having to mark programming assessments by hand. Steve Aitken, Consultant Director at Intelligent Plant said “We are delighted to be sponsoring this prize for the fifth year in a row, as supporting local students is very important to us. Each year we look forward to

While some executives, such as Eldar Saetre, chief executive of Norway’s Equinor, warned that the industry needed to recognise the threat posed by environmental concerns such as climate change and do more to reduce emissions, the concerns were drowned out by drum beat of rising fossil fuel production. Even the head of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency seemed unconcerned. Andrew Wheeler said the U.S. produces energy more cleanly than most other countries and dismissed climate change as little more than campaign fundraising fodder for politicians on the left. Meanwhile, in the biggest U.S. shale play, the Permian Basin, investment by major oil companies such as Exxon Mobil, BP, Chevron and Shell have made the region less vulnerable to fluctuations in oil prices. These large companies have big balance sheets that can weather price volatility better than the smaller companies that led the first wave of the shale boom.

ran EOG Resources, one of the biggest U.S. shale oil producers, said companies are hitting technological limits in the fracking process, such as the length of horizontal wells, the volumes of sand and water that can be pumped into a formation. The oil industry, of course, has confronted these sorts of technological limits for decades. Thirty years ago, no one believed oil could be economically extracted from shale at all. Now, after fracked ushered in a new era of energy abundance, we’re talking about ways to make the process more efficient. However, another resource that’s vital to the industry — cheap financing — may be drying up. Smaller shale producers have been losing money for a decade, and investors are looking for other places to put their money. Last year,

Chevron recently reported its largest annual production ever — 2.93 million barrels a day in 2018 — and Exxon’s output hit a two-year high because of the companies’ shale investments. Exxon’s Permian production sky-rocketed by 90 percent in the fourth quarter alone. Both companies have said they plan to triple their shale output in five years. Yet the arrival of large producers could be a signal that the shale boom has peaked. Mark Papa, who

the final group presentations, and the chance to discuss the students’ ideas in more detail, before deciding who goes on to win the prize of £800” Participating groups will be invited to present their ideas in front of a panel of judges on Wednesday 24th April, at Kings College Auditorium, and for the first time ever, the local business community is invited to attend. It is hoped that this new showcase, jointly hosted by Aberdeen University and Intelligent Plant, will become an annual event, linking students, lecturers and local employers to showcase talent and highlight employment opportunities within the area. To attend, or for more information please visit www.intelligentplant.com

issuances of new bond and equity financing hit their lowest point since 2007. The $22 billion that companies raised was less than half that of 2016, and just a third of what was raised in 2012. Shale producers have cut spending and focused on slower growth as Wall Street demands profit over production gains. Those cuts have come even as oil prices have risen 20 percent since December. And some analysts have warned that shale production growth will slow, because the richest prospects have already been tapped. Any concerns that a lack of financing could undermine the boom weren’t being heard in Houston, however. Far from being a dirge for shale, CERAWeek was a coming out party for a newly dominant U.S. industry.

REGIONAL FOCUS

The Latest in Africa’s Oil & Gas By Tsvetana Paraskova

Afr

Africa holds a lot of natural resources, and alongside rare and precious metals, oil and gas resources —both onshore and offshore—have changed the fortunes of many countries in the continent. After a pause in exploration and final investment decisions during the latest oil price crash and subsequent downturn, Africa returns on the global oil and gas stage with several major projects approved or launched in recent months and with renewed exploration drilling by major companies and smaller Africa-focused firms. After the oil industry recovered from the downturn, many major companies are looking to Africa’s offshore for the next ‘elephant’ discovery—one that holds more than a billion barrels of crude oil. Thanks to improved market conditions and lowered costs, oil and gas exploration and production companies plan to boost their exploration drilling all around the world this year, driven mostly by increased investments in South America and Africa, Rystad Energy reckons. The world’s most exciting wildcats this year include the Central Tano-1 well offshore Ghana, classified as a large prospective resource with

an estimated potential of up to 2.3 billion barrels of oil, according to the Norway-based energy research firm.

The Venus prospect off the Namibian coast, where France’s Total aims to drill the deepest well ever drilled in Africa, is also one wildcat to watch, Rystad Energy said. Total has already made a major gas condensate discovery in Africa this year. In early February, the French supermajor said that it had made a significant gas condensate discovery on the Brulpadda prospect off the southern coast of South Africa. “With this discovery, Total has opened a new world-class gas and oil play and is well positioned to test several follow-on prospects on the same block,” said Kevin McLachlan, Senior Vice President Exploration at Total. “Brulpadda was one of Total’s biggest exploration targets this year. The gas-condensate discovery

continues the great start for Total’s 2019 exploration campaign, hard on the heels of the North Sea Glengorm find,” Dr Andrew Latham, vice president, global exploration at Wood Mackenzie, said, commenting on the South African find. “Even though the well isn’t an oil discovery, if Brulpadda proves to be anywhere near as big as the estimates of up to 1 billion barrels of oil equivalent resources, it will still be a game-changer for South Africa,” Latham noted. Even before Total’s major gas find, WoodMac considered South Africa to be one of this year’s exploration hotspots, together with Guyana, Brazil, Mexico, the US Gulf of Mexico, Cyprus, and the Barents Sea in Norway.

Exploration in Africa will continue to recover in 2019, and WoodMac expects the number of exploration wells in Sub-Saharan Africa to almost double to 40 this year, compared to 24 well completed last year. The oil and gas majors will be the leading explorers in African wa-

YEAR

COUNTRY AGO FOCUS

Brent Oil Price 2018 - $64.17 said, referring to the Early Oil Pilot Scheme (EOPS) for exporting Kenyan oil. BP has been very active in many parts of Africa in recent years and is now reaping the results of previous discoveries and investments. In December 2018, BP agreed to acquire from Eni a 25-percent participating interest in the Nour North Sinai concession area offshore Egypt. BP has invested around US$30 billion in Egypt over the past five decades, which makes it one of the largest foreign investors in the country. In the last two years, BP has invested more money in Egypt than in any other country in the world, chief executive Bob Dudley said in February. In the same month, BP announced that it had started gas production from the second stage of Egypt’s West Nile Delta development—the second major upstream project to come on stream for BP in 2019, after the Gulf of Mexico’s Constellation development, in which BP holds a non-operated 66.6-percent stake.

ica

Elsewhere in Africa, BP signed in December 2018 an agreement with Angola’s Sonangol to progress to final investment decision the development of the Platina field in deepwater Block 18 offshore Angola. BP and Sonangol also signed two other memoranda of understanding (MOUs) regarding potential further access and exploration offshore Angola and co-operation in a planned new products and crude terminal and storage facility in Angola. A few days later, BP announced the FID for Phase 1 of the cross-border Greater Tortue Ahmeyim development in Mauritania and Senegal.

ters, with Total in South Africa, Namibia, and Angola. Eni is also expected to drill at least one of up to four exploration wells offshore Angola, while the Italian major will also begin exploration offshore Mozambique. ExxonMobil is also set to drill offshore Mozambique, Wood Mackenzie said. While companies plan more exploration drilling, many of them are proceeding with major oil and gas projects in Africa.

Offshore Nigeria, Total started at the end of December production from the ultra-deepwater Egina oil field, which will produce 200,000 barrels of oil per day, accounting for around 10 percent of Nigeria’s production. Tullow Oil is progressing with its Kenya oil development plan and it “continues to target a Final Investment Decision (FID) in late 2019 and First Oil in 2022,” the company said in its 2018 results release. “A maiden lifting of Kenyan crude oil is expected in mid-2019. Tullow has begun to market Kenya’s low sulphur oil ahead of this first lifting with initial market reactions being very positive,” the company

“It represents the beginning of a multi-phase project that is expected to deliver LNG revenues and gas to Africa and beyond for decades to come. We see this as the start of a new chapter for Africa’s energy story and are honoured to work alongside our partners and the governments of Mauritania and Senegal,” said Bernard Looney, BP’s Upstream chief executive. After the FID, TechnipFMC said in early March that it had been awarded by BP a large contract for the engineering, procurement, construction, installation and commissioning (EPCIC) of the floating production storage and offloading (FPSO) unit to be deployed on the maritime border of Mauritania and Senegal for the Greater Tortue Ahmeyim Development. For TechnipFMC, a “large” contract means a deal whose value is between US$500 million and US$1 billion. Looking forward to major FIDs specifically in sub-Saharan Africa in 2019, WoodMac expects quality to prevail over quantity. Although the consultancy expects fewer FIDs across the region than in 2018, the FIDs this year will be much larger in scope as associated reserves and capex will increase three-fold, with Mozambique expected to lead the pack.

Following the award of a multi-million-dollar contract, Petrofac had been appointed to provide outsourced well operator services throughout the next phase of Tullow Oil’s Thames decommissioning project. The Oil and Gas Authority (OGA) increased its estimate for the amount of recoverable oil and gas by a further 2.8 billion barrels between 2016-2050, following changes in the ways in which the sector operates. Industry Body Oil and Gas UK stated that only 94 wells were drilled the previous year, the first time the figure has fallen below 100 since 1973.

YEARS AGO

Brent Oil Price 2014 - $52.83 Wholly owned subsidiary of Oil and Natural Gas Corporation (ONGC), Videsh (OVL), established a consortium with Oil India (OIL) and signed a production sharing contract for two shallow water blocks in the Bay of Bengal following its victory in the 2012 Bangladesh offshore bidding round. UK Energy company SSE finalised a long-term gas supply contract with Norwegian oil and gas provider Statoil. The six-year deal will provide 500,000 therms of gas per day, approximately 6% of SSE’s average daily gas demand. After two years of delay, Repsol had finally begun its production in the Kinteroni field, Peru, and produced roughly 20,000 barrels of oil per day.

YEARS AGO

Brent Oil Price 2009 – $52.83 ExonnMobil made its largest acquisition in over a decade in a $31 billion all stock purchase of the independent oil and gas producer: XTO Energy. As part of the transaction, Exonn assumed $10 billion in debt. With XTO having firmly established itself as a key figure in the unconventional natural gas sector prior to its procurement, the acquisition was a successful means of diversification for Exonn with Shale Oil production rising from 540,000 bpd to over 5 million between 2008 and 20018. The source now accounts for more than half of U.S. crude oil production. Subsea 7 reported a 23% rise in net profit, bringing the figure to $264 million for the year 2008 compared to the previous year.

COMPANY FOCUS

The evolution of digital twins in subsea operations By Alan Whooley, Subsea Manager, Wood

As such, discussions around digital twinning tend to reflect the siloed thinking and operations that can still characterise some of the sector. Speak to a structural engineering company, and it is a structural engineering model. Discuss digital twinning with a data management company, however, and youâ€™re talking about a data management system. This is ironic, given that breaking down these silos is one of the many advantages that digital twins can offer.

What is a digital twin? To understand digital twins, it helps to take a step back and view it in a broader context. Rather than thinking of it as a specific function or a portfolio of technologies, digital twinning can be considered more as an approach that can take a number of specific forms.

Alan Whooley

As digitalisation grasps hold of the oil and gas industry, digital twinning is becoming a widely discussed topic. But for a technology that is the subject of so many conversations, there is still some confusion about what it actually is. Indeed, the definition of a digital twin often depends on who you are talking to.

One of the most widely deployed definitions is that digital twinning is a multi-faceted engineering model that enables design collaboration across all disciplines. Certainly, this is the accepted definition within the construction sector, where 3D building information models have evolved to become 4D and even 5D models that incorporate time and cost dimensions respectively. This has enabled construction firms to develop central project models that, in effect, are digital representations of all of the systems, processes and information that form each project. With the central model in

place, structural, electrical, and mechanical engineers can collaborate far more effectively when designing and constructing a building. Rather than a workflow that relies on completed documents and reports being exchanged, the digital twin transmits data to where it needs to be. Since the construction and hydrocarbons sectors interact most frequently in the building of onshore facilities, the application of these principles has already crossed over. From there it has journeyed to the offshore sector in the past 18-24 months. In practice, at a basic level, a digital twin is a computer simulation that represents a physical or statistical model of a given asset, system or facility. This virtual replica allows companies to manage the operation or integrity of the modelled asset from inception to decommissioning. Nonetheless, the definition gives room to incorporate a number of different approaches that are still grounded in the familiar. For example, smaller independent firms without robust data management systems could deploy a cloud-hosted geographic information system and a document management system that would allow all users â€“ from engineers to procurement teams â€“ to access and use live information to make joined up, effective decisions.

COMPANY FOCUS

Digital twins and subsea operations We have already seen digital twinning transition from onshore to offshore, so subsea is an obvious next step for its application. As elsewhere, subsea is experiencing a drive to commoditise and automate engineering processes, and digital twins fit perfectly into this agenda. More specifically, there are two main use cases for digital twins in subsea operations: • Simulation: digital twins can be used to plan, investigate, and train individuals using ‘what if’ scenarios. For example, the integrated processes of an entire subsea, pipeline and facility can be simulated to train operators or to understand the system response to a planned change in operating conditions. • Asset performance and integrity monitoring: digital twins can be used in real time (or nearreal time) to determine an asset’s physical response to current operating conditions and the output of decision-ready monitoring and advisory information. For example, a digital twin of a subsea spool that is subject to vibration caused by unstable flow can calculate the rate of fatigue based on real-time production data. Eventually, a very large and sophisticated digital twin could combine all these and more, with the aim of allowing operators to manage every facet of their system through a remote digital replica. As these use cases indicate, subsea’s unique challenges, particularly in deepwater, lend themselves to a digital twin solution. When even an infield flow line can have 30 miles of pipeline tied back to a facility, linear assets are spread over vast distances, and control systems represent an under

water version of spaghetti junction, even the slightest improvements to inspection regimes can deliver significant safety, efficiency and cost benefits. With an established, robust, and proven digital twin of the asset in place, the traditional method of inspections can be transformed. Rather than sending an inspector offshore to operate an ROV, tag information on videos, communicate with the operations team on the asset or on the beach, an inspector can pilot the ROV from the safety and security of an onshore office building, using a digital model of the field. Not only does this reduce the cost of sending an inspector offshore, the ROV pilot can be more efficient because flight paths can be included in the twin that make it easier to inspect the asset. Early estimates show that a digital twin can be used to improve inspector efficiency by up to 30 per cent.

Next steps for digital twins Looking further ahead, digital twins could enable autonomous inspection. Autonomous vehicles are already being trialled in offshore settings as part of the industry-wide drive to reduce costs. But with a digital twin, we will soon be at the point where an autonomous vehicle that is either resident at the facility or deployed from a vessel will be able to navigate a pre-defined inspection path. Deep-machine learning techniques and artificial intelligence will take us to the point where the vehicle will be able to identify structural changes and detect leaks or anomalies automatically. Eliminating wastage associated with video review and manual anomaly annotation. There’s also the issue of life extension of assets that are either approaching or technically past their expected decommissioning date.

Whereas levels of fatigue, corrosion and erosion may have been accurately anticipated during the planned life-cycle, many assets, notably those in the North Sea, are now far less predictable. The time dimension in a robust digital twin, combined with the advanced analytics that are a critical component of any digital model, give operators a more accurate predictive capability. Operators can therefore look at leading indicators and accurately predict where a riser, pipeline or jumper may become overstressed or a flow might become choked– and put remedial measures in place proactively.

Digital twins as a totex solution As these few examples indicate the digital twin concept fits into two broad trends: one technological, the other operational. Looking at the operational first, firms around the world are looking at ways to overcome the historical disconnect between opex and capex and the transition from the design and construction phase to operations. Totex, the total project expenditure, may sound like the latest buzzword of the month, but it reflects the broader reality, in which operational staff are involved much earlier in projects. Digital twins provide technological support to this process, and can reduce the traditional headache that accompanies the handover of a capital project to operations. In the traditional IT estate, systems used to design a field or facility are typically entirely separate from those used to manage integrity, maintenance or operations. In the world of digital twins, these systems can be joined together across the whole lifecycle – with obvious financial advantages and operational benefits. With regards to technology, digital twins bring together all of the major IT trends of the past few years: data and advanced analytics; sensors and connectivity; the industrial internet of things; robotics, AI and deep machine learning; cloud and utility computing. Even augmented and virtual reality have a role to play. To date, the major specialist software houses have not focused on subsea operations: there has been more to gain from general application that can be replicated across an onshore refinery, a process plant, or a process production facility. But as we have seen, digital twins are not an obscure branch of technology with limited business potential. As new models of digital twin become established, with a combination of replicable and bespoke components, we should see some of the most entrenched challenges in safe subsea operations being broken down.

CONTROL VALVE SOLUTIONS ENTERS ITS 10TH YEAR WITH FLYING COLOURS

In September 2018, Control Valve Solutions (CVS) embarked on an ambitious property project. With Managing Director, Mick Beavers, as Project Manager, the company acquired Unit 7, Minto Place in Altens, Aberdeen. The aim of the project was to create state-of-the-art facilities that allows CVS to move into the next level of market leadership. The property would be the new home for CVS, a company which will be 10 years old this March.

With a bold budget and nearly £1M to be raised, the senior management team at CVS accessed retained profits, Scottish Enterprise funding and a business loan from Clydesdale Bank. The property project involved 32 contractors, employed to complete various parts of the project. The project led to three new services at CVS: • An extensive machine shop with various machines that enable us to conduct in-house machining of valves and associated products, specifically valve machining for sizes up to 36 inches. • A fabrication shop that allows the business to react quickly to mounting kits and other ad-hoc welding requirements. • A fully certified de-contamination facility, located in the large 2,400 sq./m yard and having various stages of separation, the interceptor is also linked to the test facility. The 1,700 sq./m workshop has a high specification floor system, five dedicated assembly bays serviced by a 16ton overhead crane, 3 disassembly areas, segregated from the clean areas of the Operations Team. A coatings facility contains two blast bays, a large PLC controlled drying room and a state-of-the-art paint booth. Furthermore, the Stores/Logistics team have a new toy: A 32 shelf, 8.2M tall Kardex machine with an 8ton capacity for holding stock holding and a floor footprint of 2Mx4M. The test facilities have been upgraded to three high-pressure test modules with each able to test up to 22,500psi hydrostatic and 15,000psi pneumatic, submersible tanks to ensure we carry out safety and accurate tests. For PSVs, there are two bays fitted with high accuracy test equipment and all the specialist tools required for PSV service, repair and testing. There is a large R&D laboratory that enables CVS staff and clients to develop innovative solutions in this enhanced collaborative setting. The new office space has low energy LED lighting. All the floorings have been replaced and each wall received a new coat of paint. Our reception area welcomes all visitors with the CVS ‘F1 Dream’ feature wall, showcasing the company’s culture of teamwork and drive to be best-in-class.

Over six months later, CVS staff are moving into Unit 7 at Minto Place. It’s been a long but incredible journey to get to this point in the project. been an incredible project for CVS. MD, Mick Beavers notes, “Myself and the other directors made a huge investment at a time when the Oil & Gas industry just started to recover. “ Mick says that he never looked back once he decided to go ahead with this significant investment. He explains, “You have to invest and show your continued support to an industry that is looking for ways to reduce costs and become more efficient at bringing new technologies to the industry. At CVS, we believe that we have raised the bar as market leaders in our industry.”

Happy 10th Anniversary to the CVS family!

COMPANY FOCUS

CP7160

CP7165

New low vibration hammers from Chicago Pneumatic reduce risk of long-term injury Chicago Pneumatic has introduced a new low vibration hammer that is ideal for everyday general mechanic, body shop and MRO (maintenance, repair and operations) applications. There are two versions – CP7160 and CP7165 – that are comfortable to use and powerful, so operators can get their jobs done quickly and efficiently and reduce the risk of long-term injury. Repetitive and prolonged use of traditional pneumatic hammers can lead to injuries such as hand-arm vibration syndrome, which is an entirely preventable, yet debilitating condition for the operator. “At Chicago Pneumatic we take safety seriously, so wanted to design a new hammer that provides less vibration, and therefore less risk of injury to the operator, while at the same time ensuring they can work effectively,” says Antoine Tourneux, Global Product Marketing Manager, Vehicle Service Air Tools, at Chicago Pneumatic. “We are pleased to have achieved that with our CP7160 and CP7165, which complete our range of pneumatic hammers that is renowned for high quality and performance.” The hammer is designed with an air cushion which reduces vibrations to just 4.37 m/

s2 for the CP7160 and 3.26 m/s2 for the CP7165. Pneumatic hammers work by way of a piston repeatedly hitting a chisel. This action creates vibration which results in shock that passed through the tool on to the hands and arms of the operator. The hammer’s vibration is low thanks to the inclusion of a vibration damped valve which creates the air cushion and thus minimises shock.

adjustment is positioned at the bottom of the handle and the operator can simply select from four settings. They can choose from between 36% and 100% power for the CP7160 hammer and between 73% and 100% for the CP7165 version.

The new hammer provides great handling and is well balanced since the handle is not positioned right at the back of the tool, and it easily rests on an operator’s hand. As a result, it is more comfortable to use than other tools in its class, so the worker experiences less fatigue and can use the hammer more easily for a highly productive day. The entire back of the tool is covered by a rubber grip to prevent the hammer from slipping when it is in an operator’s hands, even if they are dirty or oily. Furthermore, the user can easily place their free hand on the back of the hammer to guide the tool more precisely. The powerful tool delivers 8 Joules for the CP7610 and 11 Joules for the CP7165, and the user can easily choose the required power for the application thanks to an easy-to-use adjuster. The power

Remote Inspection Solutions www.aisus.co.uk 17

DRILLING

The Latest

Oil & Gas Drilling Innovations

As technology advanced, exploration and production started to extend into offshore areas. Deepwater drilling and production is an essential part of global oil and gas supply these days. In the United States, the major drilling innovation of the past decades—horizontal drilling and hydraulic fracturing—has advanced the production of oil and natural gas from shale formations. Fracking technology has boosted shale production so much that the United States has recently surpassed Russia and Saudi Arabia to become the world’s largest oil producer. At the same time, the latest oil industry downturn which began with the price crash of 2014 has prompted all companies in the supply chain— from equipment providers to oilfield services providers to the oil and gas supermajors—to look for ways to innovate their onshore and offshore drilling and design processes so as to make their operations feasible and profitable in a world that may never see oil prices at $100 a barrel again.

Most recently, the oil and gas industry has been combining decades of drilling expertise with the latest digital innovations—AI, machine learning, robotics, automation—to reduce downtime and costs and boost efficiencies in drilling and completions. At the latest major oil and gas industry conferences and exhibitions, many companies—both large and small-sized—were awarded for their innovations in drilling. The Offshore Technology Conference (OTC)—the annual gathering in Houston typically held in early May each year— awarded a number of companies in its 2018 edition for innovative technology and solutions in drilling.

The Spotlight on New Technology® Award was handed out to 16 companies, while two others were honoured with the Spotlight Small Business Awards. The awarded companies included Aegion Coating Services, producer of ACS™ HT200 ultra-high temperature subsea wet insulation system for pipelines, risers, field joints, and subsea equipment with operating temperatures up to 204 °C (400 °F), and Ampelmann, producer of N-type, the only motion-compensated gangway system of its kind in operation. Baker Hughes, a GE company (BHGE), won two awards—for the TerrAdapt™ adaptive drill bit, which autonomously adjusts DOC to mitigate stick/slip and expand the smooth drilling window with no surface interaction, and for the DEEPFRAC™ deepwater multi-stage fracturing service, which uses tools and techniques perfected in unconventional plays to improve the efficiency and economics of offshore completions.

MARCH RIG STATISTICS

Since people started drilling for commercial quantities of oil in the 19th century, the exploration and production oil and gas industry has been constantly coming up with innovative and bolder ways to tap hydrocarbon resources around the world.

Delmar Systems was awarded for its RARPLUS™ technology, which allows drilling rigs to completely release from their moorings within minutes to evade ice floes, cyclonic storms, well emergencies, or to simply increase rig move efficiency. Dril-Quip grabbed an award for HFRe™ - Hands Free Marine Drilling Riser System, Expro won the award for its Next Generation Landing Strings (NGLS) subsea well intervention. Halliburton won awards for its GeoBalance® Automated Managed Pressure Drilling (MPD) System and for the Azimuthal Lithodensity (ALD™) logging-while-drilling (LWD) service. LORD Corporation was distinguished for its 10K Completion Workover Riser Flexible Joint, while NOV won two awards, for the industry’s only reflexive drilling system NOVOS™ and for the Seabox™ concept which makes it possible to treat seawater at the seabed, providing high quality water for reservoir pressure support. Oceaneering International was awarded for its self-contained, battery-powered remotely operated vehicle system E-ROV, which is capable of operating for extended periods of time without being recovered to surface. Oliden Technology won an award for its GeoFusion 475 Laterolog Resistivity and Imaging LWD tool, and Teledyne Marine was distinguished for its FlameGuard™ P5-200 fire-resistant electrical penetrator which reduces risk to personnel and assets. The two Small Business Awards went to CoreAll, producer of Intelligent Coring System, the first core drilling technology to provide real time transmission of formation evaluation data to surface, and to Luoyang Wire Rope Inspection Technology Co., Ltd., for its TCK.W Automatic Real-time Online Wire Rope Inspection System. At the end of August in Stavanger, ONS 2018— one of the largest networking events in the energy industry held every other year since

1974—handed out the Innovation Awards to Interwell P&A and to Typhonix. Interwell P&A won the Innovation Award for “Thermite P&A Barrier”, an innovative and rig-less approach to well abandonment, while Typhonix won the SME Innovation Award for “Typhoon Valve System”, an innovative low shear valve technology. Apart from innovative drilling technology and services, the oil and gas industry is increasingly using the power of Big Data, cloud computing, smart drilling, digital twins, and digital oilfields to improve drilling and enhance oil recovery. In one of the latest such ventures, one of the world’s largest oil and gas companies, ExxonMobil, teamed up with tech giant Microsoft to use cloud computing platforms and data analytics to boost production and profitability at its operations in the Permian Basin in the US, the fastest-growing shale producing region in the world. Exxon will use mobile field data apps to optimise well performance, as well as AI algorithms to analyse drilling and completions data to improve performance. In the UK, the Oil and Gas Technology Centre (OGTC), supports predictive digital company Akselos to advance research and development in digital twin technology for the oil and gas industry. Akselos will generate Digital Twins of pressure vessels within the OGTC robotics program, in order to produce more accurate predictions for maintenance and inspection. Data and outcomes will be made available when the project finishes in June. Akselos VP John Bell said: “The OGTC is of crucial importance to the future of the UKCS. This partnership will consolidate our efforts to bring value to the UK oil and gas industry with world-class emerging digital technology. We look forward to collaborating with the asset integrity team at the OGTC to address these significant challenges for operators.”

Source: Infield Rigs 18/03/2019 The data above focuses on the marketed rig fleet and excludes assets that are under construction, retired,

destroyed, deemed non-competitive or cold stacked.

m o W WOMEN IN INDUSTRY

Women

in industry

Eilidh Keachie

Process Engineer, ProSep

What was your first job in the industry?

After completing my BEng (Hons) Chemical Engineering at Heriot Watt University in 2010 my first role was a graduate process engineer at National Oilwell Varco (NOV).

How did you get into the oil and gas industry and was this always the industry for you?

I started university as a pharmacy student at RGU in Aberdeen. After completing my first

year, I felt I was on the wrong career path as I wanted to do a course with more focus on maths, chemistry and physics. After speaking with my brother (who graduated that year as a chemical engineer) I applied for Chemical Engineering at Heriot Watt University in Edinburgh where I entered directly in to second year. I completed my BEng (hons) in 2010. Due to the nature of a chemical engineering degree the opportunities were very varied. I initially looked into a career in pharmaceuticals before deciding that the oil and gas industry would suit my interests better. As soon as I started at NOV, I knew I had made the right choice, and the oil and gas industry was where I wanted to continue my career as a process engineer and have done for the past 8 years.

What has been the high point of your career so far?

I have been fortunate enough to have been directly involved with many proprietary technologies during my current role at ProSep. This has improved my knowledge of typically conventional technologies which many clients are beginning to recognise as a technically sound alternative. From this, the installation of the ECLIPSE mixer for gas dehydration on Equinorâ€™s Troll B platform in the North Sea has been by far my greatest achievement; I was directly involved from the initial discussions, design and testing of the mixer before final installation.

n e m u d n i Have you had to face any challenges?

I think, as with anyone in recent years, the biggest challenge has been the downtown in the industry. I was worried about my position in the industry as I only had 3-4 years’ experience but fortunately, due to the nature of ProSep’s portfolio I and the company were in a good position within the market place. As our core products offer cost saving and process optimisations many operators realised that in the drive to minimise costs our products could offer considerable benefits. ProSep were afforded opportunities to present and share knowledge of ways they couldn’t before.

mentorship from day one has shaped me as an engineer and my eagerness to want to share knowledge and learn from my peers ensures I continue to grow and develop.

Is there anything you would like to see change in the industry?

I have always had an interest and passion for maths and science. I have always had a appetite for understanding how things work and operate; the process life cycle of how things can be made.

With being involved in designing equipment that is not only a technically advanced solution but one that offers additional benefits in terms of environmental and safety aspects, such as reduction in usage of harmful chemicals, I would like to see a stronger focus/push from operators to commit and invest to reduce and optimise the use of harmful chemicals. A common obstacle is overcoming existing methods that are “well known” and cheap rather than benefiting from new and improved systems that can reduce OPEX by improving the process therefore reducing chemical usage, transport and storage needs; ultimately improving the process from an HSE point of view too.

What personal attributes have helped you progress in your career?

What would be your advice for other women looking to get into the industry?

I believe I am open minded and willing to learn. I feel that an important attribute to grow as an engineer is to ask questions and fully understand what is going on as failing to do so can result in inefficient and unsafe design – cliched as it is, there really is no such thing as a silly question. When I began my career, I was fortunate enough to have a mentor who took the time to ensure I was exposed to different areas of the industry – mechanical, operations, design, control and instrumentation, not just process. I believe this

From my experience, it is not a “male” industry like it may have been perceived as in the past. I travel often to Norway for meetings and most of the attendees’ present are female. Even as an undergraduate the class was almost split 50/50 male and female and as I graduated the classes became more female dominated. So, I would encourage any female thinking of stepping into the industry to grasp the opportunities that come your way and seek to find a mentor who will help guide you as you progress.

What sparked your interest in engineering?

Deborah McFarlane, MD, TEXO

TEXO GROUP ANNOUNCES FORMATION OF NEW RESOURCES BUSINESS UNIT

Texo Group, the technology and engineering specialist has formed a new business unit, Texo Resources.

The new business unit will offer clients a comprehensive suite of people, resourcing and HR services, designed to help them operate more effectively and successfully. The company will resource across the spectrum of job roles and will roll-out a best-in-class solution to meet the needs of clients.

Texo Resources has been created to provide integrated people solutions, principally for the offshore energy sector. Texo Resources will be led by Deborah McFarlane, who takes up the position of Managing Director and has been instrumental in the creation and strategy development of the new business unit.

Deborah has over 20 years recruitment and people resourcing experience. She was a founding director of PI Recruitment in 2005, which was part of the Performance Improvement Group. Deborah was instrumental in the rapid growth of the company and ultimately led a sale of the business in 2009 to global engineering services firm AMEC. Robert Dalziel, Managing Director, Texo Group said: “This is an exciting development in the evolution of Texo’s strategy. We have assembled a highly experienced team that benefit from an intricate understanding of the needs of clients in all matters relating to people management and resourcing.” Deborah McFarlane, Managing Director, Texo Resources said: “We have listened to the market and clients have been looking for a solutions provider that not only understand their operational and business needs, but one which offers an end-to-end solution delivered in a responsive manner.” Deborah continued: “Being able to integrate our people resourcing capabilities with dedicated HR services provides clients with a truly integrated outsourced solution for all their people and employment needs.”

Texo Resources will work closely with the Group’s HSEQ Compliance and skills development business unit, Texo Compliance, to deliver a combined solution for clients.

Texo Group provide a unique suite of technology, engineering and consultancy services and solutions for clients operating in multiple sectors, including: Oil & Gas, Clean Energy & Renewables, Marine, Nuclear, Telecommunications, Utilities and critical civil/Infrastructure.

For more information about Texo Group

please visit www.texo.co.uk

INNOVATION & TECHNOLOGY ZONE SPONSORED BY LEYTON

VERISTAR AIM 3D – A NEW GENERATION OF ASSET INTEGRITY MANAGEMENT

I N N O V A T I O N

T E C H N O L O G Y

Z O N E

By Dawn Robertson, Offshore Service Line Director, Bureau Veritas Solutions Marine & Offshore

Any marine or offshore asset owner –whether fixed installations, FPSOs, drilling rigs or vessels– faces multiple challenges throughout the asset’s lifecycle, from the knowledge and confidence that day to day operations are happening as planned on an asset, to the ongoing issue of balancing integrity and performance. These are not new challenges, but in the post-downturn environment, the impact of not managing and achieving integrity and performance optimum balance has never been more important. Today’s technology and the options for how to use it are endless – the imperative is not using technology for technology’s sake, more, what results does it actually deliver? What efficiency, benefit or outcome do we get that improves our business? This should always be the fundamental challenge when considering any business change, whether digitally led or not.

Veristar AIM 3D interfaces directly with calculation tools, as well as ERP, CMMS and DMS software. One-shot workpack documents are rendered obsolete, as the solution enables the detailed preparation of scope of work for each physical intervention on the unit, directly transmitting it to the team. Findings and meas-

urements can be introduced directly at the item/ component level, eliminating the need to draft an inspection report and updating the digital twin as the findings are reported. Automatic anomaly tracking, including corrective action management, is one of the defining features of the solution.

Beyond the software functionalities, Veristar AIM 3D will serve as a business digital transformation catalyst. It allows comprehensive condition monitoring of each individual element, with its current or foreseeable degradation, enabling better and faster maintenance and repair decisions, optimising efficiency and cost.

Floating LNG import terminal in Bangladesh, the first of its kind in the country. Similarly, MISC’s offshore integrity management teams is using Veristar AIM 3D on three different units to plan interventions, provide onboard contractors with detailed work instructions and continuously evaluate the asset’s condition.

Customers who have contracted Veristar AIM 3D software as a solution system include Excelerate Energy’s Floating Storage and Regasification Unit (FSRU) Excellence. The system is being delivered to Excelerate in the cloud mode, without the need for IT integration, to provide asset integrity services while it is deployed on the Moheshkhali

Veristar AIM 3D covers the asset’s entire lifecycle – from design through to operations and decommissioning – and has been designed, not because we can, but because it will provide true benefits to the marine and offshore industries, with measurable savings through improved integrity and operations.

At Bureau Veritas, this is central to everything we do and led to the development of our new generation of asset life management solution, Veristar AIM 3D. The tool provides holistic asset management capability, enabling integrity and performance assurance through visualisation and collaborative interactions with existing management systems. It was important to us that, with the fast paced, global nature of today’s market, that Veristar AIM 3D provide insight to customers, anywhere, at any time, on any device, in either “connected or disconnected” modes. As a result, it was developed to be a full lifecycle solution that moves beyond software and looks at full workflows. It then uses digital tools, including a unique and powerful combination of 3D digital twin with smart data processing, through a collaborative platform to enable data collection, updates, visualisation, and data processing to provide clear visibility through configurable dashboards that are available on any device. Bureau Veritas leverages the Veristar AIM 3D platform to ensure that safety, integrity, compliance and overall performance are maintained and improved. At the heart of this solution lies a 3D twin of the asset, with multi-dimensional (1D to 4D) visualisation and data analytics at any level (from unitary items up to the entire asset made available to all stakeholders).

INNOVATION & TECHNOLOGY ZONE

Whilst innovation plays a fundamental role in every economy, many UK firms remain unaware of the full range of Government incentives available to them in support of their product or service developments.

Simplicity is key to Viewport3’s success, as the simple capture process enables them to begin scanning as soon as they enter the water. This ability to integrate their photogrammetry process into the existing work flow further minimises project disruption and risk. As a result, the company can offer market-leading turnaround times. Removing the need to co-ordinate additional hardware or diving campaigns saves their clients vast amounts of operational time and expenditure. The way they present the scanning data is equally straightforward. Understanding that mis-

communication is costly, Viewport3 provides a bespoke service producing anything from a dimensional report, simple 2D CAD or a full pointcloud output. After scanning, they can produce highly accurate surface reconstructions, based on the data processed and interpreted by the intelligent software workflows. Richard Drennan, Director of Viewport3 said: “Quite often we use the cameras that you’ll already have on your ROV, although occasionally we’ll augment them with something with a better resolution. We then take home sub-millimetric data that people can rely on - that’s what matters. Giving someone a 3d shape is one thing but giving them a shape that they have full confidence in, is something quite different.” 3d scanning provides opportunities for the industry to create additional value across a range of engineering tasks. Whether it’s capturing a subsea anomaly, reverse engineering or importing into a CAD platform, the ability to create an exact 3d copy of what lies subsea is proving popular with north sea operators, and Viewport3’s success is testimony to that.

“Leyton’s specialism is not only in their tax knowledge around R&D legislation, but in their technical knowledge. Their technical team have done our job, therefore they are readily able to identify areas of R&D that we previously thought were routine. The ease of the process really helps our staff get on with their work, and gives us peace of mind that such a niche area is being looked after. Would highly recommend them to businesses even if they already claiming, their record speaks for itself.” MD, Oil & Gas Engineering. With the changes in the industry, now is the ideal time to understand what help is available to your business from government incentives or to review your existing process in claiming relief.

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Viewport3 apply their expertise in underwater photography to capture 3d geometric data for operators or marine contractors. Using underwater digital cameras mounted on ROVs or divers, the team are capable of retrieving technical-grade point cloud data with proven accuracies of under 1mm. This data can then be measured, compared, reported on and exported to CAD, allowing their clients to make accurate, informed, high value decisions.

In the UK, in addition to our tax expertise, Leyton’s specialism sits with our Technical Consultants. Coming from a broad range of industries and sectors, they understand our clients’ processes and the challenges they face in day to day projects. As a result they can easily relate to the advancements being sought to proactively highlight your R&D activity.

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Technology start-up Viewport3 are making waves in the industry with their reactive subsea scanning services. The company’s innovative, high-accuracy photogrammetry process has helped their customers to make significant cost savings over the past year.

VIEWPORT3 – SUBSEA SCANNING THAT DELIVERS SUBSTANTIAL SAVINGS

Leyton are proud to have returned over £35million in R&D Tax Relief, R&D Allowances, Patent Box Relief and Grant Funding to our Oil & Gas and supply chain clients. In many instances, our clients were already claiming under these schemes, often with the support of accountants or other specialist firms. In these situations we have been able to enhance their existing claims processes, resulting in a typical claim uplift of 40% for R&D tax relief alone.

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Leyton, with 20 offices, are Europe’s largest R&D Tax Consultancy, having assisted over 8,000 UK clients and returned over £500million in reliefs and incentives. The challenges and opportunities faced within Oil & Gas mean that now more than ever, firms are thinking differently about how they do things and are continually developing and improving their products and services.

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INNOVATION & TECHNOLOGY ZONE

PUSH YOUR LIMIT WITH WEATHERFORD’S MAGNUS RSS Over the years, the rotary steerable system (RSS) market has grown and changed. Multinational, Oil and Gas company Weatherford has adapted to these changes and developed the solution for reliable, accurate, and fast drilling performance. Today’s well geometries and economics demand advanced directional drilling technology that can help you to lower overall costs and drill more hole per day. Weatherford’s Magnus rotary steerable system (RSS) uses a “push-the-bit” design to satisfy the need for speed without sacrificing directional control. With rugged design elements, the RSS fits nearly any scenario—from the everyday to extreme—and excels in high performance drilling applications. Unique features including fully independent pad control and a true inclination hold, which help to sustain drilling, stay on plan, and reduce well-construction costs. Combining the RSS with their comprehensive Wave™ family of logging-while-drilling (LWD) tools, market-leading HyperLine™ downhole motors, and cutting-edge RipTide® borehole enlargement tools provides industry leading capabilities. A rugged design for lasting reliability allows you to reach your target without setbacks. The robust, modular construction of the Magnus™ RSS helps to drill reliably and maintain trajectory easily.

Reach total depth with a trio of valves A unique valve design helps you to achieve total depth. As the three valves operate independently from each other, they offer built-in redundancy and enhanced reliability.

Maintain operations with local service A modular design and local support keep you running. The Magnus RSS is easy to deploy and maintain, even in remote locations.

Minimise stuck pipe issues A streamlined design reduces sticking issues. Features such as a fully rotating bias unit, minimal BHA stabilisation, and an optimised junk slot area reduce the risk of expensive stuck pipe events.

Make reliable decisions using real-time diagnostics To stay on top of what happens downhole, the Magnus RSS uses real-time diagnostics. The resulting instantaneous information from the BHA enables you to confirm proper operation, take action ahead of issues, and drill ahead with confidence.

INNOVATION & TECHNOLOGY ZONE

Resist harsh environments with robust piston seals For performance under pressure, the Magnus RSS incorporates non-elastomeric piston seals in the mud-actuated pads. The result is enhanced mechanical integrity in harsh drilling environments and greater overall system reliability. Whether you’re drilling verticals, curves, or laterals, the Magnus™ RSS provides precise, proportional adjustments for continuous control.

Control direction with three independent pads Unique independent pad control helps you to optimise the well trajectory. The three pads actively manage your direction through the entire wellbore and achieve a true-inclination hold in the lateral.

Maintain direction while drilling with autopilot Self-regulated adjustments instil confidence in the course. Using an innovative electronic system and autopilot functionality, the Magnus RSS provides closed loop control for course corrections during drilling. Tide® borehole-enlargement tools can run with the Magnus RSS to underream while drilling, which further prepares your wellbore for casing and completion running.

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Take command of downhole communication The DownLink Commander® bidirectional communication system works without interrupting drilling. This proven system sends control signals to the Magnus RSS and then quickly verifies the information so that steering adjustments immediately take effect. The Magnus™ RSS can also achieve increased speed and savings. Drilling efficiencies can deliver a quality wellbore ahead of time and add value that cascades to casing and completion running.

Speed up with selective pad activation

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A proportional control system in the Magnus RSS picks up the pace. The equivalent drilling adjustments minimise tortuosity for a smooth, high-quality wellbore that can increase the efficiency and reduce the costs of future well construction operations.

Build up with a higher dogleg A high-dogleg capability makes a deep kick off a matter of course. With a consistent dogleg severity capability of 10° per 100 ft, the RSS enables you to build the curve section, eliminate correction runs, and contact the pay zone sooner.

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Verify position with high-speed sampling An electronic control system confirms the tool face orientation again and again. The system samples data at rapid rates to give you the ability to have full control and optimal performance at high rpms.

Streamline inventory using a standard bit For maximum convenience, the Magnus RSS works with standard drill bit designs. This compatibility enables using off-the-shelf equipment to avoid lengthy lead times and reduce the need for additional inventory. The Magnus RSS also offers seamless integration with Weatherford’s other best-in-class drilling tools. Together, they shift drilling capabilities from high gear to overdrive.

Putting more power into your drilling performance Adding a motor can meet your need for bit speed. The Magnus RSS can run with any HyperLine™ performance drilling motor, which enables you to make the optimal choice for greater ROP, lower torque, and reduced stick-slip.

Obtain real-time formation-evaluation data The Magnus RSS works with our industry-leading Wave™ family of LWD sensors. This compatibility enables accurate reservoir data while drilling from spud to TD, which helps you to characterise the formation, stay on the planned course, and maximise sweet-spot exposure.

Double up on your drilling capabilities Optionally equipped with radio-frequency identification (RFID) technology, our Rip

INNOVATION & TECHNOLOGY ZONE SPONSORED BY LEYTON

INNOVATION & TECHNOLOGY ZONE

FUTUREPROOFING DESIGNS AT THE FOREFRONT OF TECHNOLOGY – THE DIGITAL TWIN

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T E C H N O L O G Y

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Simulation has long been an integral part of the product development process; traditionally used for new product design and virtual testing, it greatly improves product performance, reduces development costs and gets the product to market much more quickly.

The ‘Internet of Things’ (IoT) now makes it possible to go a step further. By integrating simulation with products as they exist and operate in the real world, issues with accessibility and operating conditions are negated. The challenge that most companies face when contemplating a Digital Twin project, is bringing together a complex ‘mass’ of technology to deliver practical end products that makes good business sense. EDRMedeso has been working with a broad range of companies exploring and delivering Digital Twins for over 4 years. Its customers have gone beyond the concept stage and are actively using this technology in everyday operations. This was recognised in 2018, when the company was placed in the Top 25 European IoT Solution Provider rankings, an award conferred on those organisations that hold expertise in helping businesses implement IoT technologies. Working with clients to break down the requirements and parameters essential to a successful physics-based twin, EDRMedeso helps its customers take complex, high fidelity CFD/FEA models and convert them to real-time, cloud-based predictive tools with a web-based interface. The Digital Twin simulation of a real component can then be explored based on the real-world data, streaming from the physical twin. This allows engineers to fast forward actual usage patterns to predict service and maintenance requirements on individual assets.

executed with off-the-shelf sensors and tools. With careful selection they can be made to work together to provide the foundation of enabling a Digital Twin. However, it’s what is done with that data that provides true business value. EDRMedeso calls this the ‘Application’ and for customers that usually means a real-time predictive analytics and reporting tool. The output of the Application depends on the business case but might typically be setting usage-based maintenance intervals or underpinning guaranteed service availability.

ROLLS ROYCE

As the trend for the provision of products as a service evolves, the risk and expense - but also opportunity - is increasingly with the supplier. Digital Twins not only minimise the risk but open up new business models in support of more traditional sales processes. World-Class Innovation, Delivered Locally As an ANSYS Elite Channel Partner founded in 1986, EDRMedeso provides products and services for a comprehensive suite of engineering simulation tools. With offices across Northern Europe and working with over 1000 organisations, our experience spans nearly every field of engineering and design. The group’s UK presence sees offices in Sheffield and Edinburgh providing support, training and services to the

region. Seminars and briefings are run regularly, providing updates on product development, novel utilisation and peripheral services such as Cloud computing. For case study material and benchmarks www.edrmedeso.com offers further information. Alternatively, to discuss your needs in more depth, visit us at Stand 6 at the OGV Innovate event on the 11th April, email info@edrmedeso.com or call 0114 2564 1234.

At the core of this approach is the capture and reuse of the existing high-fidelity simulation models used to design and optimise the product in the first place. Much of the infrastructure in a Digital Twin implementation is, in fact, already a commodity. The collection of data, secure transmission to the Cloud and subsequent data analytics processing can all be

INNOVATION & TECHNOLOGY ZONE SPONSORED BY LEYTON

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A Day in the life NICKY ADAMS Managing Director, Aberdeen Corrosion Solutions

ABERDEEN CORROSION SOLUTIONS COVERS EVERY ASPECT OF INDUSTRIAL COATINGS, FROM TRAINING & COMPETENCE ASSESSMENTS, TECHNICAL ADVICE, SURVEYS, SUPPLY/HIRE OF EQUIPMENT & INSPECTION. We operate from a purpose built in-house facility based at Stork in Dyce, which has recently been developed to allow us to take larger items such as offshore containers and casings. Additionally, we also have previous experience with “general” items such as alloy wheels, red London phone boxes and garden gates; all of which keeps us busy.

The company was initially formed as a Ltd company by a friend, Craig Hobin. At the time Craig was operating on his own and focusing on paint inspection and training. Due to Craig being offered a permanent role elsewhere, I took over from him and became owner, closing my own company NJA coatings Management Ltd. Doing all of this during a slump in the industry was very nerve wrecking, but I was up for the challenge and had belief in my venture being a great success. The biggest challenge has most certainly been developing our business model with Stork to where it is today. Our development concept originated on what is now referred to as “the magic whiteboard”, a small board in my office that I used to draw a sketch of how the expansion would look and “selling” that to Stork management - it’s almost nostalgic and will always be a reminder of where it all started. I’m delighted that these challenges were overcome through persistence and forging strong collaborations based upon quality, cost, flexibility and exceeding expectations.

All Aberdeen Corrosion Solutions staff are highly trained and occupationally competent, and the company delivers a broad range of accredited training courses to meet industry standards and specific client requirements.

In collaboration with Stork, our client base ranges from local small companies to some of the biggest service providers within the industrial coatings sector, something we are looking to build on in the future.

We are looking to expand on this and operate an apprentice type of system; introducing younger people to the specialised coatings trade is something we are very keen on doing and are excited about, along with having our own accreditation standard.

Our initial drive was to focus on the Offshore and Marine industry, however since the positive recognition of Aberdeen Corrosion Solutions we have now moved into other sectors such as renewable energy wind farms, nuclear plants and sub stations, we have even grown into the market of alloy wheels. My focus has always been to try and have all things surrounding protective coatings under one roof, why go anywhere else when you can do it with us. We have specialist working for us in each department so you will receive the highest industry standard no matter what your requirements are.

Within the short time of myself as Director, March 2018, we have rapidly grown from 1 to a current team of 4 employees, along with a live CV database with over 50 names fulfilling various positions within the industry, something we pride ourselves on maintaining and building. The data base is used so as we can meet the needs of our clients as fast as possible whilst still providing the highest possible standard. All employees assigned to any job will have the appropriate training, skill set and conduct a pre job brief to ensure a job specific assessment is conducted.

I have been involved in Protective Coatings since May 2008. I was on the pilot course of the OPITO Level 1 Blaster sprayer trainee course which I later went on to instructing. I also then went on to carry out the competence assessments,

A DAY IN THE LIFE

become NACE qualified and held various job roles offshore such as Charge Hand & Supervisor. Having this experience has allowed me to introduce the positive aspects of each role and to implement an improve plan where needed. This allows us to be open minded with each job and not afraid to do things differently, whilst still complying with standards. Our main “partner” in progressing the business has been Stork, and in particular their excellent Training & Competency Assurance team. Training has always been something I have been passionate about and it is where all of this started. Had the management at Stork training not helped me realise my passion and ability, and recognised the opportunities that presented, then who knows where I would be right now. Looking ahead, we already have a number of potential new clients in the pipeline that will enable us to expand our capabilities and we are passionate about becoming a recognised industry service provider ourselves. However we are going to have to walk before we can run and that is something we are very aware of, with a fast paced industry that is constantly improving and developing we need to stay current without getting too far ahead of ourselves. With the current team we have, the support behind us and our improvement plan I think we will do well. I also recently had a son, Reid Adams, so every step I take and company decision made is with him at the forefront of my mind, I don’t want to be the father who tells his son about a company he once had, I want to be the father who says “here son, take the reins”, as cliché as that sounds.

www.aberdeencorrosionsolutions.co.uk

WORLD PROJECTS MAP

WORLD

PROJECTS MAP

MARCH 2019 1 3 2

EGYPT - Eni makes gas discovery in Nour prospect offshore Egypt Italian oil and gas company Eni has announced a new gas discovery under evaluation in the Nour exploration prospect offshore Egypt.

The prospect is located in the Nour North Sinai Concession in the Eastern Egyptian Mediterranean, 50km north of the Sinai Peninsula. The concession covers a total area of 739km2, with water depths ranging from 50-400m. This latest discovery was made at the Nour1 New Field Wildcat (NFW) exploratory well, which was drilled by the Scarabeo 9 semi-submersible unit in a water depth of 295m, reaching a total depth of 5,914m. The well has not yet been tested, but Eni said it had carried out an “intense and accurate” data acquisition. The NFW well found 33m of gross sandstone pay in the Tineh formation of Oligocene age with “good petrophysical properties” according to Eni, as well as an estimated gas column of 90m. Eni is the operator of the Nour North Sinai Concession in participation with Egyptian Natural Gas Holding (EGAS), which has a 40% stake. Partners in the concession are BP (25%), Mubadala Petroleum (20%) and Tharwa Petroleum (15%). Eni operates in Egypt through its subsidiary the Italian Egyptian Oil Company (IEOC). Eni divested a 20% interest in the Nour North Sinai Concession to Mubadala Petroleum in November 2018, with an additional 25% being sold to BP in December 2018. The company plan to start feasibility studies after finalising the discovery evaluation, to “accelerate the exploitation of these new resources leveraging the synergies with existing facilities and infrastructures.” Eni said in a press release: “The company is [Egypt’s] leading producer with equity above 340,000 barrels of oil equivalent per day that will further growth in 2019 with the ramp-up of the Zohr Project to production plateau.”

ARGENTINA - Argentina Looks To Boost Gas Output Argentina aims to build new natural gas pipelines and to attract more investment in oil and gas production in the Vaca Muerta shale play in order to increase production and secure transportation and sales for its gas, Energy Minister Gustavo Lopetegui said in Houston. Domestic gas consumption in Argentina is highly seasonal, with peak demand in the Argentinian winter and significantly lower consumption during the summer months in the southern hemisphere. This seasonality in natural gas demand compares with constantly rising gas production from Argentina’s Vaca Muerta shale play – dubbed the ‘Argentinian Permian’, although its geologic properties have been compared to the Eagle Ford - which is one of the few bright spots in shale gas production outside the United States. Vaca Muerta will need investments of between US$5 billion and US$10 billion annually to boost production, Reuters quoted Lopetegui as saying in Houston. Current annual investments in Vaca Muerta are around US$4.3 billion. Argentina also aims to award by the end of September construction contracts for natural gas pipelines from Vaca Muerta to the capital Buenos Aires, the minister said, noting that these construction contracts would be valued at up to US$1.8 billion. “Vaca Muerta must grow harmonically so it is possible to produce, transport and sell without problems,” Lopetegui said, as carried by Reuters. While Vaca Muerta holds large shale reserves, it has high production costs which have so far hampered a U.S.style shale revolution in Argentina.

MOZAMBIQUE - Final investment decision for Mozambique gas block seen by March-April Qatar Petroleum entered into an agreement with Eni to acquire a 25.5% participating interest in block A5A, located in the Angoche basin, offshore the Republic of Mozambique. The agreement is subject to customary regulatory approvals by the government of Mozambique. Following such approvals, the partners holding participating interest in the block will be affiliates of each of Eni (Operator) with a 34% participating interest, Empresa Nacional de Hidrocarbonetos (ENH) with a 15% participating interest, Sasol with a 25.5% participating interest, and Qatar Petroleum with a 25.5% participating interest. Commenting on this occasion, H.E. Mr. Saad Sherida Al-Kaabi, the Minister of State for Energy Affairs, and President & CEO of Qatar Petroleum, said: “We are pleased to sign this agreement, with our valuable partner Eni, to participate in exploring this frontier offshore basin and strengthen our presence in Mozambique. I would like to take this opportunity to thank the Mozambican authorities and our partners in this block for their cooperation and support”. H.E. Al-Kaabi added: “By entering into this new agreement, we aim at expanding our exploration portfolio to ensure diversification of geographies as well as geologies and basins. Having a large and diversified exploration portfolio is a key long-term objective for Qatar Petroleum and essential for success.” Block A5A lies in the Angoche basin and is located adjacent to block A5B for which an affiliate of Qatar Petroleum entered into an agreement in December 2018 with an ExxonMobil affiliate to acquire a 10% participating interest. Block A5A covers a total area of around 5133 km2 in water depths ranging from about 300 to 1800 m.

WORLD PROJECTS MAP

RUSSIA - Russian oil firms ready to cut production At an energy ministry meeting earlier this month, Russia’s oil majors confirmed that they would be sticking to the production cuts that Russia had pledged in the OPEC+ deal, Vagit Alekperov, president and CEO of Russian oil producer Lukoil, said on Tuesday. At the meeting on March 1, Russian oil firms unanimously agreed that they would fulfill their commitments and will cut production as agreed, Russia’s TASS news agency quoted Alekperov as saying on the sidelines of the CERAWeek in Houston today. There was some “special opinion” among the Russian oil companies previously, Alekperov said, reminding reporters of the letter of Rosneft’s chief executive Igor Sechin to Vladimir Putin in which the Rosneft boss criticised the OPEC+ deal. The firms have not discussed production plans for the second half of the year and have decided that they would do so after April, Lukoil’s boss said. The current OPEC+ deal expires in June. Alexander Dyukov, CEO at Gazpromneft, told TASS that it was too early to draw any conclusions about how the deal would proceed after June. The fate of the agreement should be reviewed after all countries will have achieved their respective reductions, Dyukov said, noting that some countries—including Russia—have not yet reached their quota under the deal. Russia will speed up its oil production cuts this month and plans to reach its share of the OPEC/ non-OPEC output reduction by end-March or early April, Russian Energy Minister Alexander Novak said last week.

UAE - ADNOC signs $176mn onshore exploration concession agreement with Japan’s Inpex

USA - Environmentalists Sue to Block Sale of Gulf Oil Leases

The Abu Dhabi National Oil Company (ADNOC) signed an agreement awarding the exploration rights for Abu Dhabi Onshore Block 4 to Japan’s Inpex Corporation. A wholly-owned Inpex subsidiary, JODCO Exploration Limited, will hold and manage the interest in the concession on behalf of Inpex.

Three environmental groups sued the Trump administration on Wednesday over its decision to sell leases of millions of acres of land along the Gulf of Mexico for offshore drilling. By 2022, the Department of the Interior and the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management plans to sell off more than 78 million acres around the gulf coast.

Inpex will hold a 100% stake in the exploration phase, investing up to $176mn, including a participation fee, to explore for and appraise oil and gas opportunities in the block that covers an onshore area of 6,116 sqkm from Abu Dhabi city to the boundary with the Emirate of Dubai.

Healthy Gulf, the Sierra Club, and the Center for Biological Diversity claim in a lawsuit filed Wednesday in Washington, D.C., federal court that the government has not fully analysed the risks oil operations pose to people, wildlife and the environment.

Following exploration activities and appraisal of the existing discoveries, Inpex will have the opportunity to develop and produce any commercial discoveries. ADNOC has the option to hold a 60% stake in the production phase of the concession. The agreement, with a term of 35 years, was signed by Dr. Sultan Ahmed Al Jaber, UAE Minister of State and ADNOC group CEO, and Takayuki Ueda, president and CEO of Inpex Corporation. Dr. Al Jaber said: “This award to Inpex is a further demonstration of how ADNOC is utilising value-adding partnerships and new technologies to accelerate the exploration and development of Abu Dhabi’s substantial untapped hydrocarbon resources. It is an important part of our 2030 smart growth strategy, helping to ensure we stay ahead of the long-term increase in demand for energy and oil and gas products, further strengthening Abu Dhabi’s position as an essential energy provider to the world.”

“In 2017, Interior began to offer for sale essentially all unleased acres in the Western and Central Gulf of Mexico in each of ten lease sales,” the complaint states. “Around the same time, Interior also began engaging in a series of efforts to unravel critical drilling safety protections and to boost oil and gas development in shallow waters in the Gulf.” According to the environmental groups, the Interior Department “turned a blind eye to the policies it had adopted” and began repealing significant drilling safety regulations and reducing royalty rates to spur development of marginal, shallow-water oil fields – actions they claim will increase the risks of oil and gas production. “The Trump administration is barreling ahead with expanded oil and gas drilling in our oceans while simultaneously erasing critical protections that protect Gulf coasts and giving oil and gas companies a pass from complying with existing safety requirements,” Brettny Hardy of Earthjustice, an Earthjustice attorney representing the groups, said in a statement Wednesday. “The Gulf is home to thousands of species of fish, sea turtles, whales, dolphins, and sea birds, many of which are already threatened or endangered with extinction,” the lawsuit states. “Millions of people who live in the states along the Gulf Coast depend on this productive marine environment to support coastal fisheries, tourism, and recreation, the backbones of the Gulf States’ economies.”

AUSTRALIA - Jadestone details drilling schedule for Stag oil fields Jadestone Energy intends to start an infill drilling campaign on the company’s recently acquired Stag oil field. The Stag 49-H well will be followed later in the year by another infill well on the offshore Montara oil field, and plans are in progress for a three-well light intervention program at Montara. Activity is due to start in 2Q. All should be finalised during 3Q along with financing arrangements, with field development sanction and a final investment decision anticipated later in 2019.

The environmentalists claim that more than 2,100 oil and chemical spills occur each year in the area, some of which are catastrophic, like the 2010 BP Deepwater Horizon disaster, and that vessel strikes, noise pollution, bottom habitat destruction and water pollution already wreak havoc on the environment. “Trump needs to stop treating the Gulf of Mexico like a sacrifice zone for oil industry pollution,” Kristen Monsell, an attorney with the Center for Biological Diversity, said in a statement Wednesday. “Expanding offshore drilling while glossing over its environmental harms is reckless and illegal. A proper study would reveal that marine life, our climate and coastal communities are being harmed by oil spills and other pollution from offshore drilling. We need to transition away from this dirty, dangerous practice for good.”

CONTRACT AWARDS

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CONTRACT AWARDS

Jumbo Wins Offshore Subsea Decommissioning Project in North Sea Jumbo has been awarded an offshore decommissioning project in the North Sea by TAQA Energy BV, involving the removal, transportation and disposal of three subsea protection domes and piles. The removal operation will take place in the offshore series of fields located in the P15 block 35km North West of Hoek van Holland, Dutch North Sea, at a water depth of 26-28 metres. Project Details This project is part of the emergent North Sea decommissioning programme, where much of the offshore oil and gas infrastructure is reaching the end of its productive life and must be safely removed and disposed. Jumboâ€™s MV Fairplayer is the vessel chosen to execute this project in 2019/2020. The team will recover and transport three subsea protection domes, each with a dry weight of 150t, as well as removing 9 piles. Furthermore, the pipelines and umbilicals at each dome will be buried with mattresses. By removing and transporting the structures to shore on one heavy-lift crane vessel, Jumbo can provide the ideal cost-efficient, reliable and safe decommissioning solution.

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CONTRACT AWARDS

Petrofac secures USD1 billion project development contract in Algeria Groupment Isarene is the joint operating company set up by Algerian government-owned exploration company Sonatrach, oil & gas firm Petroceltic and Italian energy company Enel.

Petrofac Ltd on Wednesday said it has been awarded a contract, worth USD1 billion, with Groupment Isarene for the Ain Tsila development project in Algeria.

The oilfield services company said the Ain Tsila field is expected to produce gas and condensate for the local Algerian market and for export. Under the terms of the 42-month contract, the lump-sum engineering, procurement and construction project scope of work includes

commissioning, start-up and performance testing. “This award builds on Petrofac’s significant track record in Algeria where we have been operating successfully for more than 20 years, with a strong record for project execution and the development of local capability,” said Petrofac Managing Director Sathyanarayanan. “We are focused on delivering an effective, safe solution that meets our high standards and continues our commitment to the local energy sector,” added Sathyanarayanan.

Oceaneering secures integrity services contract extension from Equinor Oceaneering International, Inc. has secured a contract renewal from Equinor which covers the provision of maintenance, reliability and integrity management.

effective maintenance engineering and management across its facilities, helping to deliver measurable improvements to optimise facility performance and mitigate risk.”

The contract, which was originally awarded to Oceaneering’s integrity business in 2005 and competitively tendered again in December 2013, is extended until December 2020. Under the agreement, Oceaneering will provide support to Equinor’s onshore and offshore facilities in Norway, covering a wide spectrum of maintenance, risk and reliability services.

Oceaneering will develop maintenance programs and procedures, including full maintenance build, advisory and analysis capability as well as digitalisation and visualisation support. This specific contract will be managed from Norway. Under separate agreements Oceaneering’s asset integrity business also provides maintenance engineering to Equinor from Aberdeen, Houston and Rio De Janeiro.

Thomas Aas Sæthre, Director of Integrity at Oceaneering said: “We’re delighted to extend our long-standing relationship with Equinor. We look forward to supporting our customer to achieve

In addition to asset integrity, Oceaneering’s services to Equinor include ROVs, integrated subsea tooling, engineering and new technology solutions.

Oceaneering’s asset integrity business delivers integrity, analytics, maintenance and risk management, conventional and advanced non-destructive testing (NDT) and specialist inspection solutions. The team includes 2,100 technically focused people, servicing customers from 24 global locations.

Woodside awards three engineering contracts to Subsea 7 Australian exploration and production company Woodside has awarded UK-based engineering, construction and services company Subsea 7 three contracts for engineering studies. They include an option for Woodside to proceed with engineering, procurement, construction and installation (EPCI) contracts. The engineering studies are required to finalise the technical definition of Woodside’s proposed developments before the company and its partners make final investment decisions (FIDs) on three projects. Woodside expects the FIDs to be made between mid-2019 and early 2020. The three projects are phase 1 of the SNE Field Development offshore Senegal, and the Scar-

borough project and phase 2 of the Julimar Development, both offshore Australia. The SNE deepwater oil field is located 100km south of Dakar, Senegal. Woodside plans to drill up to 23 wells with more than 90km of rigid pipelines. Woodside awarded a front-end engineering design (FEED) contract to Modec International to develop a floating production storage and offloading (FPSO) facility for the SNE field In February. Subsea 7 Africa vice president Gilles Lafaye said: “The award of the SNE FEED contract by Woodside to Subsea Integration Alliance reflects our expertise in integrated projects and we look forward to strengthening our relationship with Woodside. “Senegal is an exciting new market for Subsea 7

and we are pleased to support the local oil and gas industry. We look forward to building a long-term and mutually beneficial partnership with Woodside on this project and in future developments.” The Scarborough field is located approximately 380km offshore northwest Australia. The full scope of work for the field includes EPCI contracts for subsea rigid pipelines, umbilicals, flexible risers and associated infrastructures. The Julimar field is located approximately 200km offshore northwest Australia. The full scope of work for the Julimar project includes EPCI contracts for an umbilical system and a 22km 18-inch Corrosion Resistant Alloy (CRA) gas transmission flowline. Subsea 7 Australia and New Zealand vice president Andy Woolgar said: “These awards build on our relationship with Woodside and our successful track record of projects executed offshore Australia. They highlight the engineering expertise and strength of our business and our local workforce to perform integrated projects from pre-FEED to execution as well as standalone projects.” Offshore campaigns for all three projects are scheduled between 2021 and 2023.

CONTRACT AWARDS

Aker Solutions wins FEED contract for subsea compression system Aker Solutions has been awarded a master contract to support the delivery of a subsea compression system for the Chevron Australia-operated Jansz-Io field offshore Australia. The first service order under the master contract will be for front-end engineering and design of a subsea compression station that will boost the recovery of gas from the field. The FEED scope will also cover an unmanned power and control floater, as well as overall field system engineering services. The field control station will distribute onshore power to the subsea compression station. The gas compression system will boost recovery of gas more cost-effectively and with a smaller environmental footprint than a conventional semi-submersible compressor solution. Aker Solutions in 2015 delivered the world’s first subsea compression system for Equinor’s Åsgard field offshore Norway. “Aker Solutions has worked closely with its partners MAN Energy Solutions and ABB to reduce the size and cost of the compression system,” said Luis Araujo, chief executive officer at Aker Solutions. “We are excited to work with Chevron Australia on our com-

pressor-technology to boost recovery at the Jansz-Io field.” Compression will help maintain plateau gas production rates as reservoir pressure drops over time. While such compressors have typically been installed on platforms over sea level, placing them on the seabed and near the wellheads improves recovery rates and reduces capital and operating costs. The Jansz-Io field is located around 200 kilometres offshore the north-west coast of

Western Australia at approximately 1,350 meters below the surface. The Jansz-Io field is a part of the Chevron Australia-operated Gorgon Project, one of the world’s largest natural gas developments. “Australia will be the first place outside of Norway to use the subsea compression technology. Aker Solutions has been present in Western Australia for more than 20 years and we look forward to working collaboratively with the local industry on this development,” said Araujo.

Borr Drilling Ltd – Contract Award for two premium jack-up rigs in Mexico Borr Drilling Limited (“Borr” and the “Company”) is pleased to announce that one of its subsidiaries, in partnership with OPEX Perforadora S.A. de C.V., has received an official award from Petroleos Mexicanos (“PEMEX”) for the delivery of offshore wells in Mexico. Under this award, Borr will deliver a total of 9 offshore development wells to our customer under an integrated services model. The scope of services will include the deployment

of two of the Company’s premium new build jack-ups, the “Grid” and “Gersemi”, both of PPL 400 design which are built to meet the requirements of PEMEX, for period estimated to be around 18 months and expected commencement in mid-2019. Further, under this project, Borr will leverage on its strategic collaboration with our partner and main shareholder, Schlumberger, to provide comprehensive oilfield services and deliver an end-to-end well solution to our customer.

RDS awarded design engineering contract for drilling facility RDS, KCA Deutag’s global provider of engineering and design solutions to the energy and infrastructure sectors, has announced the award of a new contract for the detailed design of a drilling facility for an offshore platform. The contract has a duration of twelve months with future follow on support executed from RDS’s central London offices. This is RDS’s first detail design award for a new Greenfield platform since the oil price decline in 2014. Commenting on the announcement Albert Allan, RDS SVP said: “RDS is delighted to have won this new contract. It is great to see confidence about the outlook returning to the industry, which is starting to give operators the confidence to sanction large projects once more. We are looking forward to building on a very successful FEED for our client and partners and to continuing to deliver on budget, within schedule and in line with our company vision for safe, effective, trouble-free operations.”

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MOVE “International Women’s Day 2019 marked a celebration of the progress that has been made in terms of promoting gender diversity in the industry, but when considering that energy is still one of the

OGV Energy - Issue 19 - March 2019

OGV Energy, UK's Leading Energy Sector Publication.

OGV Energy - Issue 19 - March 2019

Published on Mar 1, 2019

OGV Energy, UK's Leading Energy Sector Publication.

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