INNOVATIVE technology designed to simplify the commissioning of oil and gas wells has been launched in Aberdeen after well-completion technology developer PTC responded to a plea from the industry.
It was Statoil that apparently first raised the issue with PTC’s founding director, Tom Norland, namely the need to pull and replace dummy valves from new wells during well commissioning, which typically incur 24 hours of rig time and cost up to £1million when a new well is drilled or an existing well recompleted.
What the firm has done is come up with a replacement for the “dumb iron” dummy valve. It is dubbed the “intelligent dummy”.
The intelligent dummy is a derivative of the firm’s high-integrity gas-lift valves, which are said to be industry-leading in terms of their design and reliability.
PTC says that, with an intelligent dummy (ID) in place, a new well can be fully pressure-tested before the ID is opened remotely, allowing kill fluid in the well to be circulated out and replaced with a kick-off fluid before being permanently closed-off remotely.
PTC was first established in Norway in 2002 and today employs 50-plus people in Stavanger, Aberdeen and Houston.