In alignment with the pursuit of excellence in customer service and technology, our operations centre for valves and measurement products now located in Aberdeen embarked on a year of significant milestones in 2016.

Focused efforts in the areas of OEM valve engineering and manufacture, operator safety in pressure testing, and quality accreditation to ISO 9001:2008 culminated in the facility becoming a hub for the Schlumberger Europe, Africa, Russia, and Central Asia region.

Vast reduction in lead time

Operators are witnessing the value of engagement with an OEM provider. Offshore, a major operator was having issues with some critical ball valves. These valves were planned to be returned to the workshop in the Badentoy Industrial Estate. Serial numbers were advised before the valves left the offshore installation, expediting bills of materials and valve drawings. All soft goods, bearing kits, and body plugs were preordered. The Aberdeen centre was able to complete quality turnaround of these critical valves in a time frame aligned with client operational requirements to meet shutdown deadline.

All required special tooling is available in this OEM facility. For example, an ORBIT valve was received from an end user; the valve had been stripped by another service provider without having tooling on hand. This resulted in damage to the valve body and seat pocket and required significant rework at extra cost and an extended lead time. Since the Aberdeen facility has a stock holding of some critical spares available for these valves, the valve was fully overhauled including seat pocket remanufacture, replacement of all internal components and returned for installation in a rolling maintenance cycle.

In addition to high-quality valve offerings and repair services, operators are taking advantage of additional services not readily available from valve repair contractors, such as in house OEM engineering support, diagnostic services, nonintrusive leak detection, storage and preservation, and in-situ field machining.

Upgrades in pressure testing

Located on the Badentoy Industrial Estate, Portlethen, the Aberdeen facility features upgraded pressure testing facilities; a 10-ton overhead crane and multiple pedestal cranes are now installed on the site.

 

New pressure testing equipment has been designed and built to ensure that all high-pressure elements are contained within the pressure testing bunkers and only low-pressure pneumatic controls are mounted outside for operator use. Full high-definition camera systems have also been installed on all pressure testing bunkers to allow the operator to view all elements of the equipment under test as well as the equipment being used for testing. The camera systems and full interlock systems for all bunker doors ensure that there can be no entry to areas having a potential for pressure release, reducing risk to personnel and third-party witnesses.

 

Achieving next level quality

Following the successful accreditation to ISO 9001:2008, the center was registered on the First Point Assessment Limited (FPAL) supplier management community, making the information about the division accessible to major operators in the European oil and gas industry.