Noble names Barry Smith as Senior VP – Operations

Barry Smith has joined Noble Corp as Senior Vice President – Operations. Mr Smith has over 30 years of experience in offshore rig operations and technical services. He was previously employed with Atwood Oceanics beginning in 2006, where he held a number of operational positions until he was appointed Senior Vice President of Technical Services in 2015. Mr Smith served in that capacity until October 2017, when the company was acquired.

Prior to Atwood and for over 20 years, Mr Smith held various operations-related roles with Transocean.

Emerson wins predictive maintenance contract with BP

Emerson has been awarded a five-year contract with BP to provide predictive maintenance and operational support services to the Clair Ridge platform and Glen Lyon floating production, storage and offloading vessel. Emerson was responsible for implementing its integrated control and safety systems on Clair Ridge. BP used Emerson’s Project Certainty methodology and consulting to help eliminate costs, reduce complexity and risk, and accommodate late-stage changes. Following safe startup of Clair Ridge, Emerson will enable remote monitoring and provide real-time data to maximize production for UK offshore assets.

eDrilling to offer software to Gazprom Neft subsidiary 

eDrilling has signed a contract to provide its software to Gazpromneft-Yamal to be deployed in a drilling support center. The facility will support all Gazprom Neft fields in the Tyumen region.

Pacific, oceaneering sign digital services contract

Oceaneering and Pacific Drilling have entered into a five-year digital services package agreement for the provision of emerging services such as remote ROV piloting, surveying and automation.

Diamond to implement Safezone 500 on 3 rigs

Diamond Offshore has contracted Seacroft Marine to implement the SafeZone 500 marine vessel control and management program aboard three of Diamond Offshore’s UK-based rigs: the Ocean Endeavour, Ocean Valiant and Ocean GreatWhite. The SafeZone 500 is a program of procedures, training and audit processes for improving risk management. It sets out a series of procedures and a code of common-standard communication ensuring positive control over vessel movements and operations by the marine responsible person.

GEODynamics hires Berner, Hurst as vice presidents

GEODynamics has added John Berner as VP of Manufacturing and Brian Hurst as VP of Electro-Mechanical. Mr Berner has more than 20 years of multisite management experience. Mr Hurst brings over 35 years of experience in design and repair of wireline logging tools, and is an inventor on seven patents for electro-mechanical downhole.

Cubility teams up with Polyar in Argentina

Cubility has entered a partnership with Polyar to market, sell and support Cubility’s MudCube solution across Argentina. MudCubes eliminates the traditional process of shaking fluid and solids.

Elkhoury to succeed Mckay as KCA Deutag CEO

KCA Deutag has announced the appointment of Joseph Elkhoury as its new CEO, effective 1 July 2019. Mr Elkhoury will take over from Norrie McKay, who has confirmed his intention to retire later this year. Mr Elkhoury brings with him 26 years of experience in a variety of operational and leadership roles in the oilfield services industry.

ABS, Akselos to innovate new digital twin techniques

ABS is partnering with digital twin specialist Akselos to create new digital twin techniques. The numerical method used to create many of the digital twins on the market today has limitations modeling large-scale assets with the fidelity needed to power next-generation digital services. Akselos’ patented technology, Reduced Basis FEA, can model objects of huge scale with unrestricted fidelity and simulate them in real time.

Cudd Energy announces Gene Sweeney as director

Gene Sweeney has joined Cudd Energy Services as Director of Well Intervention and Integrity. Mr Sweeney will take on responsibilities for domestic snubbing, well control and special services disciplines.

Indonesia’s SKKmigas to adopt landmark software

The Special Task Force for Upstream Oil and Gas Business Activities (SKKMigas), an institution established by the Indonesian government, has selected software technology from Landmark, a Halliburton business line, for end-to-end workflow solutions. SKKMigas adopted the DecisionSpace suite of software to improve exploration and production efficiency through data analytics, integration and cross-disciplinary collaboration.

PRODUCTS

Weir Oil & Gas launches new SPM EXL Frac Pump

Weir Oil & Gas has introduced the 2,500-hp SPM EXL Frac Pump, with the highest rod load rating in its class at 238,000 lb. To build the pump, Weir examined the most common failure modes of frac pumps and designed targeted solutions.

The new pump frame is constructed with an integrated skid designed to reduce vibration across the frame and increase stiffness, thus reducing stress on the weld. The frame also reduces the number of internal groove welds to reduce cracking. All welds are located on the outside of the frame, making them more accessible.

Weir also redesigned the gears and pinions to provide greater surface area contact on the bull gears and reduce the risk of stripping them.

Halliburton releases scalable MPD system

Halliburton has released the scalable and mobile Flex managed pressure drilling (MPD) system. The standard offering is a tablet-controlled solution with a single display so the driller can control backpressure or choke position while drilling, tripping and making connections.

When additional control is required, Flex Pro MPD incorporates rig data for a more intelligent automated response to adjust backpressure based on flow rates and bit depth. The system can also run as a full MPD solution.

SES, RPS Group deploy tools in Shell pilot program

Stress Engineering Services (SES) and RPS Group have implemented their products, NeoSight FPS and OceansMap, as a pilot program for Shell. These previously separate tools have been integrated to improve management of floating production facilities.

The program focuses on facility motions, riser and tendon response data and environmental data. Future phases will incorporate other asset information to provide a single pane of glass solution to monitor system performance.

Rig Rider Glove enhances protection, durability

Southern Glove has released the Rig Rider glove, featuring impact protection, enhanced gripping power and durability. They are constructed with a high-visibility green polyester stretch back and orange thermoplastic rubber impact-resistant pads on the back of hand, fingers and thumb.

Fall protection tripod uses new crown, foot design

Pure Safety Group has introduced the Checkmate TR3 Tripod to access workers and provide fall protection in confined space environments. It features an innovative new crown and foot design that makes it stronger yet more lightweight than other tripods. The tripod legs lock in the open position automatically during use and easily disengage for folding, and are adjusted for proper height with captive pins. The tripod’s pivoting spiked feet and rubber soles allow for its use on soft or hard surfaces.

New seals for demanding sealing environments

Trelleborg has launched the new XploR S-Seal and XploR FS-Seal that have been developed for high-pressure sealing environments.

Combining the benefits of integral support components with the flexibility of an elastomer seal, the spring-energized seals offer the maximum extrusion resistance necessary for demanding HPHT sealing environments.

Expro expands subsea intervention capabilities

Expro has introduced two new well access solutions. The Intervention Riser System will safely establish and maintain well access throughout riser to surface operations, replicating the functionality of the BOP. The Riserless Well Intervention system provides a reliable wire through-water integrated solution for carrying out cost-effective intervention and/or abandonment operations on all types of subsea wells.

New LED lights help to illuminate land rigs

Emerson has unveiled the Appleton Rigmaster LED linear luminaire to easily and safely illuminate land-based drilling rigs. It weighs only 10 lb, compared with up to 30 lb for similar fixtures, and can deliver 8,000 lumens of uniform lighting. The wide distribution of light translates into fewer fixtures being needed in the rig’s mud pit, shaker, cellar and derrick. High-efficiency LED drivers consume less than half the energy of standard T8 fluorescent fixtures, further lowering direct cost of operations and minimizing strain on the diesel generators that typically power drilling rigs.