ABERDEEN acoustic technologies specialist, Nautronix is believed to have secured order worth around $4million from a well known US blow-out preventer manufacturer.
It will pay for NASeBOP (Nautronix emergency BOP acoustic control system) equipment for use on three new ultra-deepwater drillships on order to American accounts.
The order comes close on the heels of an earlier order, to supply the same drillships with the Nautronix NASDrill RS925 hydro-acoustic positioning system from a Norwegian dynamic positioning system supplier.
While he could not confirm the name of the client, chief executive, Mark Patterson, said that there had been considerable interest in NASeBOP system from drilling contractors, and added he was hopeful that the company would win significant orders, as drilling contractors upgraded emergency procedures and systems on existing deepwater units and re-examined requirements for new units on order.
The catalyst was last year’s Macondo disaster, which resulted in the loss of the rig Deepwater Horizon and the worst pollution incident in US history.
It is forcing a major rethink on how to prevent such disasters from ever happening again, and the most fundamental aspect is how to assure BOP integrity and fail-safe shut-down in the event of a loss of hydrocarbons containment in a wellbore.
“We invested over $1.6million in research and development last year, with a significant amount in the area of our NASCOM product family supporting acoustic switches for BOPs,” said Mr Patterson.
“There has been a significant uptake from the drilling industry to improve in this area.
“Since the tragic Macondo incident, Nautronix has reviewed its existing acoustic BOP switch product line and developed NASeBOP.
“This product builds on our existing EBOP product, which already provided high integrity control and monitoring of BOP-critical functions, both as primary or secondary control in conjunction with the standard BOP umbilical.”
In terms of using the system, Mr Patterson said that it offers unprecedented redundancy in the form of two portable EBOP control systems which are strategically located onboard a rig, typically at the lifeboats.
Additionally, a portable Emergency Response Unit (ERS) “Red Box” is supplied with the NASeBOP system; this is typically kept at an onshore facility where it can be easily transported to the rig or vessel if the need arises.
It has full command and control functionality and in addition can execute an EDS (emergency disconnect sequence) or interrogate the BOP to find out essential information.
In the same way as the US Navy and Royal Navy routinely use helicopter-dipping sonars to detect submarines, so the Nautronix system could be deployed by helicopter in an emergency.