American Oil and Gas Reporter - April 2015 - 92

SpecialReport: Independents' Guide To OTC

Offshore Technology Conference
Spotlights Latest Innovations
In Offshore Technology

By Leyli Beims
Special Correspondent

HOUSTON-Technology is the foundation of every successful offshore oil and gas field development, from satellite-guided positioning systems, to autonomous vehicles and robotic devices, to remote monitoring and diagnostics tools. In keeping, the
Offshore Technology Conference has provided a showcase of the
best-available offshore and subsea solutions for 46 years, and this
year's OTC features 17 of the newest additions to the industry's
ever-expanding tool kit of offshore technologies.
The Spotlight on New Technology Award recognizes OTC exhibiting companies' latest and most advanced technologies. The 2015
awards will be presented at 4 p.m. on Monday, May 4, in the NRG
Center Rotunda Lobby. OTC is May 4-7 at NRG Park in Houston.
All Spotlight Award technologies are less than two years old and
have been proven through full-scale application or prototype testing. They must demonstrate innovation with the potential to revolutionize the offshore industry, and have a potentially significant
impact that extends beyond the benefits of existing technologies,
explains Spotlight Award Committee Chairman Steve Balint, deputy
general manager of the Libra project for Shell Brazil and Petrobras.
"Our Spotlight Award winners embrace OTC's mission to advance the technical knowledge of offshore developments and environmental matters," Balint says, adding that this year's show also
includes a new Spotlight on New Technology Small Business Award
for companies with fewer than 300 employees. "With the creation
of the Small Business Award, we are recognizing that companies
both big and small are developing innovative technologies and creative solutions to meet the world's energy demands."
According to Balint, 2015 Spotlight on New Technology
awards are being presented to:
* Baker Hughes for its MultiNode™ all-electric intelligent
well system;
* Cameron International for its Mark IV™ subsea blowout
preventer control system;
* FMC Technologies for its Annulus Monitoring System™;
* Halliburton Energy Services for the RezConnect™ well testing system;
* Oceaneering International for its new deepwater pile dredge
as well as the Magna™ subsea inspection system;
* OneSubsea for its new multiphase "wet" compressor;
* SBM Offshore for the ARCA™ chain connector;
* Schlumberger for its GeoSphere™ reservoir mapping-whiledrilling service and the Quanta Geo™ photorealistic reservoir geology service;
* Tracerco for its Discovery® subsea pipeline inspection;
* Versabar Inc. for its VersaCutter™ jet cutting system;
* Weatherford for the Red Eye™ subsea water-cut meter and
the total vibration monitoring system with an angular-rate gyroscope (TVM+™) for real-time drilling dynamics optimization; and
92 THE AMERICAN OIL & GAS REPORTER

* Welltec for its Welltec Annular Barrier (WAB®) all-metal expandable barrier.
The recipients of the inaugural Spotlight on New Technology Small Business Awards are:
* Fishbones for its Dreamliner™ multilateral reservoir
stimulation system; and
* WiSub AS for its WiSub Maelstrom™ pinless subsea wet-mate
connector.

Intelligent Well System
According to Baker Hughes, MultiNode is a remote controlled,
all-electric system to monitor and precisely control an extended number of production zones without intervention. It provides maximum
zonal resolution to achieve remote selective flow control, enabling
precise control of production zones to manage water and gas breakthrough, improve ultimate recovery, and reduce operating costs over
the life of a well. Consisting of electrically actuated active flow control device downhole valves connected to a surface control unit by
a single tubing-encased conductor cable, the system adjusts to changing reservoir conditions by choking back high-water and high-gas
producing zones, balancing production along the lateral.
Cameron says its Mark IV high-availability BOP control system features three point-of-distribution (POD) design options for
subsea BOPs, as opposed to conventional two-POD subsea BOP
control systems that provide a single spare if the primary control POD becomes unavailable. The Mark IV's third POD provides additional redundancy, which eliminates the need to pull
the stack if a POD fails. It also can improve the subsea control
system's availability to as much as 98 percent and reduce the likelihood of a POD-related stack pull by up to 73 percent.
The Annulus Monitoring System from FMC Technologies provides independent condition monitoring within the subsea wellhead from the onset of drilling. The communication system delivers actionable information to the operator during critical phases of well installation and commissioning from multiple analog
or digital sensors within annular locations, the company reports.
Halliburton says its RezConnect technology is the first fully
acoustically actuated drill stem test (DST) system. Powered by
the company's DynaLink™ telemetry system, it provides a complete well testing solution for acoustic control of DST tools, with
real-time measurement and analysis of well test data from downhole samplers, valves and gauges. RezConnect's real-time capabilities enable more informed and faster decisions that can result
in DST modifications to decrease rig time and cost while increasing reservoir returns. It also provides real-time surface verification of DST tool operational status and acoustic activation of bottom-hole fluid samplers.
Oceaneering's pile dredge for deepwater applications is an electrically driven system with pumps that provide water jetting and
suction to excavate piles at any depth. The high-powered water
jetting provides a 360-degree pattern to fluidize the soil plug in-
American Oil and Gas Reporter - April 2015

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