Oil States introduces new completions technology, offshore drilling innovations

Oil States, a global provider of offshore systems, downhole perforating and completions technologies and wellsite rental equipment and services, has announced a new portfolio of technologies for the Saudi Arabian market at the International Petroleum Technology Conference.

This includes the new Stage Frac Tool for wellhead isolation, the award-winning Active Seat Gate Valve, the new ActiveHub digital platform for remote wellsite monitoring and control and an industry-first MPD-Ready System for jackups. These innovations help operators increase the efficiency, performance and safety of their wellsite operations while allowing more complex wells to be drilled and more stages to be completed.

The Stage Frac Tool enables operators to run wireline tools, perforating guns, plugs and other downhole operations without removing isolation equipment when switching between frac and wireline operations. This addresses a key challenge in the Saudi Arabian market, as companies must currently rig down and remove isolation equipment in between stages which increases non-productive time (NPT) and costs. With this tool, operators can save three hours per stage of rig up/rig down time of the equipment, which equates to a full 24 hours of time-savings over eight stages.

The availability of the Active Seat Gate Valve for Saudi Arabian operations offers important efficiency, safety and cost advantages. The Active Seat Gate Valve includes a patented sealing mechanism that is technologically advanced compared to traditional gate valves in the market due to its ability to exclude debris from the valve cavity while reducing the grease required or lost during valve operations. This reduces valve grease contamination and can cut costly valve repairs by hundreds of thousands of dollars per project while extending valve life. Over six months of standard operation, it’s estimated that less than one pound of grease is lost per valve, which not only eliminates typical greasing requirements during operations but also reduces maintenance downtime. It also prevents unwanted grease downhole that could inhibit oil production.

To further improve stage completion efficiency, Oil States has also launched the new ActiveHub digital platform. This technology allows operators to remotely monitor and control assets on the wellsite for increased productivity and safety while removing personnel from the red zone.

Oil States will also showcase its MPD-Ready System for jackups at the conference. This solution can be combined with Oil States’ Merlin 15K High-Pressure Riser Systems, meeting oil and gas operators’ growing needs to safely drill high-pressure shallow water wells to unlock previously inaccessible reservoirs. It offers built-in automation capabilities with hands-free flowline connection makeup, a controls package and umbilical and topside equipment to increase safety and deployment speed.