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ENDURA® seals working harder for Red Spider Clear performance advantage to meet ISO 14310 standard, Validation Grade 1 Red Spider Technology, one of Aberdeen's most innovative oil and gas technology companies, is using Endura® seals for its Hydraulic RED (Remote Equalisation Device). The Endura® seals allow Red Spider to meet the demanding ISO 14310 standard, Validation Grade 1, giving the company a clear performance advantage in this highly competitive market. As a leading designer, manufacturer and supplier of innovative downhole solutions to the global oil and gas industry, Red Spider Technology's product range is engineered to address a wide range of issues and problems experienced in the upstream production of oil and gas including completion, intervention and drilling equipment. “Until recently meeting the ISO14310 - V1 standard has been more of an aspiration than a reality for many companies. Our range met the V3 and even V2 standard, however the need to meet V1 has become essential as oil and gas operators continue to drive up health and safety standards,” said Gary Smith, marketing manager, Red Spider Technology. It was Aberdeen O-rings and Seals Ltd who recommended Red Spider Technology evaluate Endura® V95X FKM seals. Two years in development by Precision Polymer Engineering, the Endura® range brings sealing technology for oil and gas exploration up-to-date. The physical performance and chemical and temperature resistance of the materials reflect the difficult conditions in which exploration is now being conducted. The FKM, HNBR and TFE/P materials offer the widest operating temperature range currently available, from -45°C to +225°C. Endura® elastomers have better chemical resistance than conventional explosive decompression grades, greater low temperature capabilities and are compliant with many international explosive decompression standards. The Endura® materials are designed for applications as diverse as sub surface valves and pumps, through to compressors, and down-hole equipment including drill heads where they are able to deal with the temperature extremes, increasing higher pressures and levels of hydrogen sulphide and other chemicals encountered during oil and gas exploration and processing. “Endura® is an important development for the oil and gas industry that will offer significant improvement in seal performance where it matters most – in the harshest working environments in the world,” says David Holt, international sales director, PPE. “It heads up a growing range of PPE sealing solutions engineered to extend the operational life of seals so ensuring machinery and drilling equipment can operate for longer.” According to NORSOK Standard D-010 a mechanical tubular plug shall, if used as a well barrier element in production or injection applications, comply with ISO 14310 by meeting Grade V1 for design validation. The V1 Test is particularly difficult for seals to pass. The seal is pressurised and then heated up and cooled down four times. Red Spider went further and subjected it to seven days of continuous testing. To pass the test the seal must not show any signs of leaking. The 3.250" Hydraulic RED was tested to 7,500 psi differential pressure and within a temperature interval of 75°C and 4°C. “Endura® V95X was the first material we had come across to be truly V1 compliant,” noted Gary Smith. The Red Spider Hydraulic RED (Remote Equalisation Device) replaces conventional equalisation devices run as part of a wireline lock or retrievable bridge plug assembly, such as a simple bull nose, shear out sub, prong and sub or cycle plug. In effect it is an 'intelligent' equalisation device which allows the operator the ability to perform any number of pressure tests up to its maximum rating, above or below the plugging assembly. Hydraulic RED relies on an Annular Tubing Control Valve which is controlled remotely from the surface. The valve is designed to control the gas injection in an oil well. It allows gas to be injected into either both upper and lower zones of a reservoir or just one zone, for example, to control injection preferentially into the top zone over the lower zone. The valve relies on V1 accredited Endura® V95X seals to prevent gas leaking and going up to the hydraulic head on the surface where it would pose a fire risk. The Hydraulic RED uses 20 Endura® V95X o-ring seals which are replaced after each job. Endura® has been both a technical and commercial success for Red Spider Technology according to Gary Smith. “Since achieving V1 accreditation with Endura® seals, there has been a noticeable upturn in the number of Hydraulic RED operations in the Norwegian section and the device is fast becoming the tool of choice for workover and tubing change-out operations. So far it has been used on 12 jobs - mainly shallow set isolations where the well is being plugged for workover applications,” he said. |
