A client sent us a leaking gate valve with a through-wall crack that had developed after years in service.

The investigation showed the valve had failed by fatigue. The crack had been growing for some time before finally penetrating through the valve wall and creating a leak.

Quality Assurance, Failure Analysis Work, Well Delivery Processes, Well Design

Unconventional Plays, Quality Assurance, Rig Operations, Mill Surveillance

Unconventional Plays, Quality Assurance, Rig Operations, Mill Surveillance

Unconventional Plays, Horizontal Wells, Failure Analysis Work, Quality Assurance Work, Rig Operations

Unconventional Plays, Horizontal Wells, Failure Analysis Work, Quality Assurance Work, Rig Operations

Material Selection for acid gas injection wells in west Texas. Materials Selection included production tubing, production casing, packer, production liner, Xtree and wellhead equipment.

CRA materials selection for production Liner for packer-less well designs in  West Texas CO2 floods

Materials Selection for new well completion to include casing, and tubing. Corrosion Models were developed for these type wells using state-of-art software and modeling techniques

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!”

BP Pipeline oversees the operation of 9 total oil and gas export systems from more than 20 different platforms in the GoM. The pipeline systems transport almost half-million barrels of oil and hundreds of MMSCF of gas daily from the producing platforms to onshore processing facilities.

The FAMP has been developed for BP Pipeline assets to ensure proper working of the high volume systems by organizing and delegating between operators, facilities, laboratories and onshore offices. By facilitating the review of system performance and operation, this information provides the basis of a continuous improvement approach.

As part of the scope of work, GATE was commissioned to develop two comprehensive, user-friendly screening tools to guide subsea flowline materials selection decisions for wet gas and waterflood during concept selection and design using field specific data.

GATE undertook an investigation into recovered, decommissioned equipment to determine both the cause of failure and investigate integrity of components that may not have failed. This information has proven invaluable to operators who can base the performance of other equipment of a similar type and construction in a similar environment. This was significant as the recovered materials ranged from the mud-line, to sea surface and topsides.

GATE provides Shell with cathodic protection design support for all their subsea projects. This includes coating selection (anti-corrosion and flow assurance) and qualification, which also involves interfacing with the coating yard. An important aspect of this operation is carrying out comprehensive quality audits of anode foundries and coating plants around the world.

GATE determined the risks and mitigation of risk associated with wet parking and flooding of a gas export pipeline with unfiltered seawater. The key concerns are corrosion due to microbes, oxygen corrosion, and drying to prevent hydrate formation when the pipe goes into service.

GATE undertook erosion and corrosion modeling in the flowline to develop sand production allowance and an erosion corrosion risk assessment. From this, a maximum rate of gas production that will allow the asset to maintain it design life was determined. This enabled the operator to safely increase production by 25% to without additional risk to the asset thereby increasing the Net Present Value of the asset.

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.