Product category:
Oil, Gas, Petrochemical Industry News
News Release from: GE Oil and Gas
Edited by the Processingtalk Editorial
Team on 30 April 2008
VetcoGray to expand deepwater test
capabilities
VetcoGray, a GE Oil and Gas business, has announced plans to build a new, multi-million dollar hyperbaric test centre at their Nailsea site near Bristol, for testing down to depths of 4000m
Located next to the existing assembly and test facilities, the new world-class test centre will utilise hyperbaric (high-pressure oxygen) technology to simulate operational conditions on the seabed VetcoGray subsea control modules will be rigorously tested to identify any dormant fault conditions that otherwise would be detected only after the pod was installed on the sea floor
This article was originally published on Processingtalk on 6 Sep 2007 at 8.00am (UK)
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Dave Tucker, Chief Operating Officer of VetcoGray, noted: "Over the next five years, most of our projects will involve testing of equipment at depths of 3,000 meters.
But the trend in the industry is toward applications in deeper water.
Our new facility will have a test capability of 4,000 meters, enabling us to address the future needs of our customers".
A full-time project manager has been appointed to oversee the planning permission phase leading up to the first production test at the new centre, which is scheduled for April 2009.
The new centre will incorporate a hyperbaric test chamber including a control system, a test hydraulic power unit, an electronic test unit and data loggers.
The facility also will provide space for enhanced system integration test (SIT) activities.
Plans for the new facility were unveiled during a two-day celebration in Nailsea attended by customers from around the world.
The event marked the 25th anniversary of the first subsea control system delivered from the then-GEC Marconi group in Nailsea producing first oil on the BP Magnus project.
Since then, the VetcoGray Controls business based in Nailsea has undergone a series of name and ownership changes, and in February of 2007, the business became part of GE Oil and Gas.
VetcoGray is now a GE Oil and Gas business, and specialises in upstream drilling and production technology for the onshore, offshore and subsea oil and gas industry.
The company employs 5,500 professionals as part of the GE Oil and Gas team that has provided advanced technology products and services for production, LNG, pipelines, storage, refinery and petrochemicals for more than 100 years.
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