Wood has announced the next phase of a collaborative industry effort to develop a better understanding of the reliability of subsea equipment for use offshore Australia...

Preferred Proppants has announced that construction is underway on an in-basin frac sand mine and facility in Oakwood, Okla. The mine is expected to come online in Q3 2018 and the company is currently looking to fill approximately 100 positions including electricians, maintenance technicians, heavy equipment operators, loaders, utility hands, plant operators, loadout operators and more...

Transocean announced that, through a joint venture with funds managed and/or advised by Hayfin Capital Management, it has purchased a 33.3% interest in the West Rigel, a newbuild harsh environment semisubmersible. The total purchase price for the rig, built by Sembcorp Marine Jurong Shipyard, is $500 million...

Gardner Denver has developed a next-generation version of its SGWS fluid-end technology used in hydraulic fracturing, designed for extended service life. In this video from the 2018 OTC, Greg Hash, Director of Engineering for Gardner Denver, explains some of the design changes that were made that enable the new fluid end to reduce operating stress. He also discusses the company’s Falcon technology, which is built into the fluid end and helps reduce maintenance time...

With so many parties involved in the well planning process, if one party makes changes to the plan, it can take some time before every party is aware of changes for the plan to be updated. Last year, Schlumberger launched the DrillPlan application on its Delfi cognitive E&P platform to streamline the well planning process. In this video from the 2018 OTC on 2 May, Billy-Dean Gibson, Director of Digital Drilling at Schlumberger, explains how the application integrates the various workflows involved in well planning to condense the planning process from weeks to days. He also discusses some of the efficiency gains that DrillPlan, which has been used on more than 200 wells, has enabled...

Weatherford has commercially launched a new rotary steerable system (RSS) that features independent pad control, a rotating bias unit with minimal bottomhole assembly (BHA) stabilization, real-time BHA diagnostics...

Advanced digital technologies – in the form of algorithms, digital twins, high-quality imaging and remote inspections, to name a few – have enabled BP to improve its reservoir understanding, take people out of harm’s way and work more efficiently...

University of Houston researchers have successfully tested a physics-based model that estimates in real time the control fluid leak rate within the BOP hydraulic control circuit...

Drilling contractors often must install separate winch systems for lifting equipment and lifting people. This can lead to loss of valuable real estate on the rig floor, which is particularly challenging on land rigs. Ingersoll Rand has developed a dual-purpose winch for land rigs that combines man- and equipment-lifting capabilities into a single winch. In this video from 1 May at the 2018 OTC in Houston, Gus Calvera, Product Manager and Marketing Lead for Materials Systems at Ingersoll Rand, explains how the winch can be switched between personnel and equipment lifting modes. He also discusses the associated safety benefits...

Fairings have long been considered the best technical solution for addressing drag and vortex-induced vibration (VIV) on offshore drilling risers. But the use of fairings increases running and retrieval time and creates handling issues, especially in harsh weather. Trelleborg Offshore’s new solution, helically grooved buoyancy, seeks to address the challenges that VIV migration poses for offshore drilling by integrating VIV suppression and drag reduction with drill riser buoyancy, boosting rig efficiency without compromising on safety or structural integrity. Antony Croston, Business Group Director for Trelleborg Offshore, spoke with DC on 30 April at the 2018 OTC about this new approach to VIV migration, as well as the company’s collaboration with Diamond Offshore on this new technology...