SUBSEA TECHNOLOGIES LIMITED
Speading its subsea wings POWERED BY INSIDE OIL&GAS
Celebrating 10 years
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WINGS Celebrating its 10th anniversary in 2020 and welcoming a new majority partner on board, Aberdeen’s Subsea Technologies Limited is broadening beyond its engineering subsea capabilities by offering service-related solutions to the global well intervention market. Profile by Andy Probert.
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mooth transitions are all part of the makeup of Subsea Technologies Limited (STL). Renowned for designing and manufacturing class-leading proprietary subsea connectors and hydraulic couplers, the company has also been taking steps to offer more service-related support to clients. The moves follow the arrival of Helix Energy Solutions Group, which took a majority stake in the Aberdeen innovator in 2019. “Helix is the world’s leading well intervention company, so it was a good marry up between Helix, having the vessels operating in the well intervention space, and STL having the IP and equipment to ensure those operations run efficiently for our clients,” commented STL Vice President Shane Jakeman, who was tasked by Helix to oversee the transition.
New service support Mr Jakeman said: “When I joined the company, I realised quickly that STL has great products and engineers who are technically excellent, but equally capable of adapting to any subsea operators’ problems and finding effective solutions. This side of the business is well placed to continue, but I identified other potential reliable income streams that could be supported by the engineering side of the business. “Helix is keen to emphasise that STL remains an independent company, but has the backing of a world-class majority owner. STL is now spreading its wings, and will offer more services than what it has been renowned for in the past.” One of those is expanding into the servicing and maintenance sector of subsea equipment. “There are lots of operators with equipment that needs to be serviced before it goes offshore, but they generally have limited options as to where to go for this type of servicing,” explained Mr Jakeman. “Usually, costs and lead times are prohibitive to their operations. So we’ve taken it on ourselves to talk to owners and operators, and offer these support services through STL.” STL has now launched the ASSET Program (Appraisal, Storage, Service, Engineering & Testing) to anticipate the potential headaches operators and equipment owners may face prior to subsea operations. “We’ve had some excellent interactions around this service already. Our ASSET Program provides flexibility to our clients that we look forward to developing.”
Completing on projects Recently, Total UK turned to STL to service one of its TreeRunning Tools (TRTs) and an Emergency Disconnect Package (EDP). Mr Jakeman said this proved to be a real opportunity for STL to further develop its client offerings around this service arena and ensure clients had as good, an experience – if not better – than with others for this service. “We have also been servicing other smaller connectors, and are due to carry out work that requires various equipment to be de-energised, drained of dangerous chemicals and be fully decommissioned,” added STL’s Vice President. “Our ASSET Program focuses on taking equipment into the workshop, where we have the skills, technicians and tools to strip, maintain and fully test it prior to operations. We also have the engineering capabilities to run comprehensive inspection reports on what may need to be replaced prior to subsea use. “STL has always had that capability, but it has always been known as a manufacturing and engineering solutions provider.” STL recently worked on designing an interface unit to resolve an issue with blocked pressure within a subsea pipe for a client. Mr Jakeman detailed the work involved: “The client had the methodology of entering the pipe and maintaining internal pressure, but not the ability to maintain that integrity whilst entering the pipe with their cleaning tools to clear that blockage.
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“Within six weeks, we turned around an engineering solution that is currently in manufacture which will support them clearing the blockage, maintaining the integrity of the pipe and result in no release back into the subsea environment.” The company has also delivered a solution for another client who had a misalignment on a subsea Xmas tree. “They turned to STL, and we came up with a measuring solution to enable the client to work out what was going wrong,” Mr Jakeman highlighted. “We want to show we have the ability to complete a fast turnaround where there’s a problem on a subsea operation. If anything, we want operators to consider us immediately and STL should be their first thought for solving these types of complex problems.”
Couplers range STL’s founding members Drummond Lawson and Dave McKay remain involved, holding a minority share of the business. The company’s technologies are used in riser and riserless subsea well intervention, well abandonment and well control applications. They include the Xtreme Release™ Connector and the SLIC™ Connector range of products – the latter allowing the user to
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create a riser connector, a wireline pressure control head or a subsea lifting tool through the installation of different cartridges from a growing range. The company’s portfolio of subsea hydraulic couplers is split into retractable and subsea hydraulic stab plate couplers which initially began with 1/4 inch metal to metal sealing 10,000 psi subsea production control system couplers, accompanied by 1/8 inch elastomeric sealing 10,000 psi tubing hanger penetrator couplers. This broadened to both scaling up the metal to metal sealing couplers to 3/8, 1/2 and 1 inch sizes and introducing new lines including elastomeric sealing workover and well intervention stabs for temporarily installed equipment and, later, diver mateable couplers to name just two. Mr Jakeman said: “We have started to secure more projects for manufacturing various subsea couplers for China. Their market is back up and running post-Covid, and we are winning contracts from major operators in that region.” Other wins have allowed STL to add to its product range. These include the first delivery of a 1 inch pressure balanced coupler, which has been tested and qualified, and also 2 inch control couplers to Helix.
STL has also developed the Twin Dog (TD) Connector family which has become popular in recent times as stab connectors can become damaged very easily. The TD Connector range are described as exceptionally easy to connect and tolerating of greater impacts. Within this family, the TDR Connector has been developed so it offers a large target area, more than 50% larger than the stab itself. The female receptacle has reducing internal dimensions, so the male can be progressively guided and aligned to aid connection. Also, the seals are hidden and protected within the tip of the male, designed such that they cannot be damaged. This means the TDR can save hours of rig time because of the ease of engagement, and more up time because of the reliability of the seals. “We are now in discussions with several operators about delivering the TDR Connectors soon to the market,” revealed Mr Jakeman.
Offering worldwide solutions STL is currently tendering to build pressure control equipment for a project in Brazil, and also for a client in Nigeria, where its technicians have been able to utilise the client’s local workshop and maintain their equipment. “The maintenance of equipment all over the world is also part of STL’s longer-term plans for the ASSET Program and we have already proven that we can utilise our experienced technicians all over the world,” confirmed Mr Jakeman. “STL’s message to the global market is that we are not only servicing here in Aberdeen, but we can service anywhere in the world.”
All of STL’s efforts are being actively supported by Helix, which employs around 1,500 people worldwide currently, with seven well intervention vessels, multiple chartered support vessels through its robotics business, and a fleet of ROVs and trenchers. Mr Jakeman said: “For STL, having Helix behind us brings a massive amount of operational knowledge and experience. Applied with our engineering and servicing abilities, we can deliver cutting-edge practical solutions to a global market.” As the renewables industry continues to accelerate, STL has already managed to dip its toe into this sector with various FEED studies already completed to prove that its service, knowledge, experience and products can be transferrable into that niche. Mr Jakeman concluded: “It’s something that we are actively seeking to be involved in, and we’re always open to any potential problem-solving or manufacturing that is required.” “We are innovators with a can-do attitude, and being highly collaborative, bespoke and efficient, makes us stand out in a very challenging environment.” n
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