An independent oil operator experienced four back-to-back casing failures in his Oklahoma shale program. These current failures and setbacks were eating into his budget and eroding stakeholder faith in the ability to complete wells.

His initial comment was, “I’m not getting any sleep – I need some help. You’ve got to help me stop the leaks!”

A winter-peaking natural gas storage plant undergoes a production expansion which includes infill well drilling and a gas compression system expansion.

Developed an integrate-able tool for operator to proactively monitor well operations real-time to identify potential cause of suboptimal production and possible well integrity issues.

Developed a standalone tool for the operator to perform tubing/tree material screening based on the field specific reservoir fluids, well configuration and operating conditions.

Developed an integrate-able tool to accurately calculate the leak rate of SCSSV which considers the existence of liquid and gas in the wellbore, wellbore cooldown and USV leak during the routine SCSSV test.

Developed and supported the integration of the flowline virtual metering system utilizing the GATE Prho™ engine.

After an in-line inspection of a pipeline in West Africa, a client discovered significant wall loss in the first three miles of the line. The tool also returned significant wax deposits, casting doubt on the current wax management efforts in place.

The wells producing to the pipeline historically produced H2S; however, the worst offenders were shut-in quickly after it was discovered that they were producing extremely high concentrations of the sour gas.

As part of a recent asset acquisition due diligence, GATE was asked to deliver a third party review of the condition of the asset and remaining production life of a floating production system and a fixed jacket.

GATE developed a standardized work process to evaluate the current condition, potential production bottlenecks and future operating expenditure (OPEX) associated with the brown-field producing asset.

The review of the remaining cathodic protection (CP) life of a Gulf of Mexico tension-leg platform (TLP) was undertaken to evaluate the ability of the current systems to support a 20-year life extension. At the same time, the opportunity to include non-destructive riser testing into the life extension program was also identified.

During the fabrication of the subsea boarding valve skid for a major offshore platform in the Gulf of Mexico, the fabricator purchased several large forgings. These large forgings, from 8” to 12” in diameter, were to be machined into block valve bodies rated to 15,000 psig. As part of the agreed-upon Inspection and Test Plan, the mill certificates for the forgings were reviewed by the fabricator and by the company inspector.

A steam generating plant supporting an associated thermal recovery project in the Middle East was experiencing through-wall corrosion of carbon steel lines. In some locations this was aggressive enough to corrode through replacement piping in as little as two months.

Developed standalone tool for operator to proactively monitor flow assurance risks based on the field specific reservoir fluids, subsea infrastructure and current operating conditions.

A client operating domestically and internationally needed expert technical support for materials and corrosion control. Their senior management came to Viking for a proposal to provide a variety of consultancy services to cover the following essential needs: materials selection, failure analysis, corrosion monitoring, technical assurance for procurement, and risk assessment.

We partnered with a major operator to develop and implement customized strategies to ensure well facility integrity by mitigating unforseen failures to maximize safety and uptime while minimizing cost.

GATE was consulted to identify the source of unexpected levels of H2S that had been detected in the central processing facility. Ultimately, GATE was able to determine that multiple operational issues needed to be addressed to mitigate the high levels of H2S in the processing facility, rather than the H2S naturally occurring in the reservoir.

A large and complex offshore field in the Middle East was suffering from multiple leaks due to corrosion in the presence of high levels of CO2 and H2S in the production, seawater injection, aquifer water injection and produced water injection systems. This was resulting in excessive chemical injection expenditures and was impacting field revenues and uptime. The large, shallow water field consisted of several hundred wells and a complex hub and spoke infrastructure.

A South American operator developed plans to return a sulfur recovery unit to service after an initial ten years of service and a further ten years of mothballing due to changes in field production requirements.

The corrosive nature of molten sulfur, carbon dioxide and hydrogen sulfide in the unit, coupled with the expectation of a less than optimum preservation strategy in a littoral offshore environment, generated a large set of integrity risks that needed to be evaluated to determine the feasibility of repairing and reinstating the system for a further ten years of service.

Provided complete hydrate blockage remediation support from initial onshore Engineering Assessment to execution planning and eventual successful field execution using nitrogen.

A Gulf of Mexico (GoM) operator in the process of decommissioning one of its fields requested the engineering assessment of a blockage existing in their flowline-riser. The reservoir fluid characteristics and the field’s operational history were extensively reviewed. The review indicated hydrates to be the likely cause of the blockage.

A West Africa field operator witnessed an abnormal increase in pressure topsides when the flowline circulation pump was used to pump dead oil into the production line. No increase in subsea pressure was observed. Operational history prior to blockage hinted at the possibility of the presence of one or both wax and hydrate blockages in the production line. Depressurization options were limited by the blocked gas lift line.