Clariant upgrades facility in Midland, Texas, strengthening R&D capabilities
Clariant has announced the inauguration of a new laboratory at its facility in Midland, Texas. This capital investment upgraded several key infrastructure elements of the operations center. Most prominent is the laboratory, which is the company’s fourth regional technical laboratory in North America. The laboratory has almost doubled in size and is now equipped with industry-leading research and automation equipment. As such, it will increase sample activity undertaken for regional Permian Basin oil and gas producers by up to 45% over the pre-existing test center.
“The significant investment made at Midland follows on from our major upgrade in Clinton, Oklahoma announced earlier this year,” John Dunne, Global Head of Oil & Mining Services, Clariant, said. “It is further testament to Clariant’s strengthened commitment to grow with our customers located in the Permian and Mid-Con regions, which are both strategically important in the US market.”
The new laboratory is unique within North America in having on-site access to two inductively coupled plasma optical emission spectrometry (ICP-OES) units, solids identification equipment, including X-Ray Diffraction (XRD) and X-Ray Fluorescence (XRF), and many other industry-leading instruments. All of these are designed to allow Clariant’s chemical specialists to process around 7,000 lab samples per month out of this local Permian based lab and meet its customer expectations for turnaround times. Due to the complexity of unconventional shale production in the Permian basin, this equipment gives Clariant the ability to quickly assess risk factors associated with flow assurance, asset integrity, and oil/water quality, in order to rapidly develop solutions that lower overall cost of operations for its customers. Close proximity to the Clariant technical experts onsite and the local operators ensures real-time customer interaction, while providing simultaneous trouble shooting to ensure chemical efficacy, such as scale prevention and paraffin inhibition.
In addition to its showcase laboratory, Clariant will be able to provide increased support to its customers through a newly operational blending plant, ensuring security of supply and the flexibility to produce bespoke products. An upgraded tank farm, 10-bay fleet maintenance facility and enhanced customer sales offices will also augment Clariant’s service offerings to customers in the fastest growing oil basin in the US.
“Clariant’s newly enhanced Midland facility, with its advanced laboratory capabilities and logistics service enhancements are reflective of the importance Clariant attaches to the Permian Basin and North American oil production,” Pete Schoemann, Head of Oil Services North America, said. “Precision in analysis, simplification in logistics, reduction in transportation time and mitigation of bottlenecks – all supplied locally – are fundamental to allow us to grow alongside our customers in the Permian region.”
“The upgraded facility in Midland, Texas is a bright example of Clariant’s ongoing commitment and strategic focus on innovation through R&D,” Deepak Parikh, President, Region North America, said. “We are excited that the company can continue to attract highly skilled, specialized employees with the addition of more labs such as these.”
