Page 57: of Offshore Engineer Magazine (Nov/Dec 2019)

56 58

OpEd Proserv

Brett Robinson, Sales & Strategic Accounts

David Nemetz, Manager – Business

President, Development,

Gilmore Gilmore

Costly stack pulls base for the Well Control Equipment covered under API

The ? nancial penalties of such an outcome are severe for S53 and established by the IOGP and IADC.

operators. Even during a scheduled outage for preventative This has provided hugely valuable commentary directly maintenance, costs can easily run into several million dol- from operators and drillers out in the ? eld about the type lars, but with an unplanned shutdown, requiring investiga- of issues they encounter. We have gained visibility about tion, diagnosis and repair, producers are immediately hit how our products are performing and also how the indus- by the substantial daily rental costs of drilling rigs, offshore try has been utilizing our valves. Previously, once an OEM support vessels and other service providers. That is without acquired a valve, typically a manufacturer would have little factoring in lost production from the well over that period. awareness as to how that part would subsequently be used.

For drilling contractors and original equipment manufac- The information we have garnered from the S53 pro- turers (OEM), operating in increasingly competitive markets gram, along with additional feedback from our customers, where margins are slim, downtime is a signi? cant problem. has shaped how we have designed and engineered our lat-

Contracts are handed out largely based on good uptime ratios est generation of hydraulic ? ow control valves.

and if a critical valve was to fail on a BOP stack, necessitating We scrutinized how the materials used across our port- a pause in drilling rig operations, then this could mean the dif- folio could be further enhanced so that our valves could ference between winning or losing the next potential contract. become even more corrosion resistant when exposed to

Such insights can only come from being close to the seawater and more durable.

market and listening to customers. At Gilmore, we under- Likewise, by accentuating serviceability and developing stand the driving issues and requirements of our end users, modular and standardized designs, it means we gain ef- and so, consequently, our own design and manufacturing ? ciencies on our inventory, reduce our lead times to cus- strategy is governed by prioritizing the serviceability, dura- tomers and improve their own cost savings as maintenance bility and reliability of our products. cycles are so much quicker and less prone to human error.

Drillers fundamentally demand valves that will develop few failure issues and will be easy and quick to maintain Listening and testing when they carry out their regular servicing schedules. Ide- Seeking out the opinions of end users should be a prior- ally, they want to be able to “set it and forget it” and then ity for any valve manufacturer, and these can then guide focus on other aspects of their day-to-day operations. product-testing methodologies. Our goal is to ultimately test as close to real life conditions as possible. We force ? ow

Reliability and durability rates of up to 300 gallons per minute through our products

For example, we cycle test and qualify our products and use highly abrasive ? uids, up to Nox (nitrogen oxide) beyond industry requirements, so as to offer concrete class 10-12, so if any issues arise, then they occur in the evidence of the kind of reliability and durability sought. testing facility and not out on the rig.

Where the present industry API 16D standards necessitate By understanding the needs and challenges of the cus- manufacturers to cycle test one valve 1,000 times, we test tomer, and adapting product designs accordingly, then two components 2,500 times each. engineering valves with greater durability and reliability

Feedback from the market and end users can be crucial becomes far more likely.

to guiding future product development and strategy for What will differentiate the successful sub-component ? ow control component manufacturers. In 2017, Gilmore manufacturer from the rest will be the ability to provide became one of only two manufacturers to tie up with the solutions that offer peace of mind to drillers and OEMs,

Rapid S53 Reliability and Performance Information Data- with a greatly reduced risk of failure and costly downtime.

NOVEMBER/dECEMBER 2019 OFFSHORE ENGINEER 57