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Smith Bits,
Houston, a Schlumberger Ltd. company, introduced its Kaldera advanced roller cone bits with an engineered sealing and lubrication system for drilling geothermal and high-temperature (HT) wells. "High-temperature downhole environments, particularly those occurring in geothermal wells, pose a unique set of challenges for the roller cone drillbit," said Guy Arrington, president of Bits & Advanced Technologies, Schlumberger. "A new range of advanced materials were developed, combined with an engineered design solution, to deliver improved bit performance in these applications. The Kaldera bits substantially increase on-bottom hours, thereby reducing drilling costs in geothermal and HT wells."
The seals are made from fabric reinforced fluoroelastomer composites providing thermal stability and wear resistance. An innovative grease compound was developed from synthetic-base oils and functional additives to increase load capacity at elevated temperatures to ensure adequate lubricity of the bearing sealing system.
Field trials of the Kaldera bits demonstrated improvements in reliability over conventional roller cone drillbits. In a recent geothermal well in Italy, where temperatures can exceed 277° Centigrade, bits with the new sealing system set a new field record, drilling 77 hr in a single run, marking a 37% increase of on-bottom drilling hours when compared with offset runs. At the end of the run, all seals and bearings were graded as still effective.
Neste Jacobs Oy,
Finland, has developed a ready-to-use device, the Ecoarm, for unloading viscous oil from railroad cars at terminals in cold regions. The Ecoarm system heats the oil from the top manhole of a tank car and from the inside out via a pump nozzle equipped with a heating coil with two extendable hot-oil spray nozzles on each side. The heated pump nozzle is inserted in the oil. As the oil begins to thin, it is pumped to a heat exchanger on the outside, from which hot oil is redirected back into the spray nozzles. As the heated oil thins in the midsection of the tank, the nozzles move sideways and gradually rise to the top of the tank, efficiently warming the oil for easier unloading. The system can be configured by combining top-unloading, bottom-unloading, or top-warming technologies to meet clients' needs. The key benefit, said company officials, is unloading can be done with high volume flows in cold weather. The equipment is hydraulically operated and steered remotely, which makes it safe to operate.
GASFRAC Energy Services Inc.,
Calgary, appointed senior oil field services executive Zeke Zeringue as president and chief executive officer, effective immediately. He succeeds founding CEO Dwight Loree, who is retiring but will remain on the GASFRAC board of directors.
Zeringue had a 28-year career with Halliburton, including serving as president of Halliburton Energy Services Group. Since leaving Halliburton in 1997, he has headed, founded, and expanded smaller oil field service companies, including Shamrock Abandonment Services, Phoenix Offshore Solutions, eNersection.com Inc. and its successor Wellogix Inc., Orbis Oil and Gas, and Input/Output, Inc. (now ION Geophysical). He has worked consistently with technology-driven companies, developing and implementing the growth strategies to commercialize and expand innovative processes across the energy industry. He also is active in industry and community organizations.
Coincident with Zeringue's appointment, GASFRAC President and Chief Operating Officer Reid MacDonald is leaving the company. Gerry Roe, chairman of the board of directors, said, "We are grateful to our founder, Dwight Loree, for everything he has done to build the company to this level. We are pleased that Dwight has agreed to remain on the board of directors to assist with the executive transition. We also thank Reid MacDonald for his contributions, which included leading GASFRAC through our initial public offering and establishing us as a public company."
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