SUBSEA TECHNOLOGY
producing, and set to continue to operate for decades to come. Control fluids will remain the lifeblood of subsea production, continuously evolving to meet the ever- challenging demands of wells and fields, such as depth, temperature, and hydrate management and field life extension through improved corrosion protection and material performance. An even more fundamental
element of their development lies in ensuring the sustainability and environmental performance of the fluids, bearing in mind our precious marine ecosystems. Environmental standards continue to evolve, and legislative bodies such as OSPAR and OCNS necessitate continued investment in ensuring a compliant product offering. Castrol’s dedicated team works across the value chain with regulators, OEMs and operators to ensure products that are near- and long-term compliant. There is considerable hard work,
research and investment going into developing these high performing global hydraulic fluids. Yet, there is heavy focus on an all-electric future. It is important to note that all-electric has a strong track record in key application areas, such as manifolds and some tree functionality. The technology also offers exciting potential capex and sustainable operations benefits. Yet, we expect that the majority of Christmas trees (XT) forecasted for the next few years will not be all-electric solutions as work continues to be focused on maturing the technology to a point of readily being adopted. When under pressure to offer
potential optimal cash flow in combination with safe and sustainable operations – operators
Castrol subsea control fluids operate in over 260 subsea developments in over 20 countries around the world
will be able to turn to existing proven system solutions and fluids which offer reliability to help maximise uptime and operational availability. They will more likely than not pursue solutions they can trust, and EH-Mux systems could be that compelling offer for the foreseeable future. There are still technological
challenges that could cast doubt on the near-term viability of all- electric. In contrast, high-performing hydraulically actuated valves, with decades of subsea use, are available now and continue to be developed with further optimised material selection, ever-increasing performance and reliability. We can’t stand still with the
technology available today. There is too much to explore and learn regarding efficiency opportunities and environmental benefits. We need to explore and deploy new technology when it’s mature and look both inside and outside our industry to see what technology we can harness that makes a genuine impact and is commercial viable.
The control fluid has to work with equipment such as Christmas trees
TRUSTING PROVEN SOLUTIONS There is a lot of interest around the transition to all-electric technology.
20,000
HYDRAULICALLY OPERATED WELLS CURRENTLY PRODUCING
However, a rapid move to all-electric could be counter-intuitive and time intensive. Undoubtedly, hydraulic subsea control fluids have a crucial role in underpinning reliability throughout field life for an industry looking to rationalise operations and reduce costs, especially on installed assets that will use hydraulic technology throughout the lifecycle. But we cannot stand still with the
technology that is working for now. The industry wants to focus on uptime, reliability of production, and, increasingly, sustainability. To meet these challenges, the sector needs to rely on existing, proven, viable and commercially feasible solutions that have done the job for over 40 years while we continue to invest and develop technology that will unlock the desired efficiencies and meet the challenges of tomorrow.
Alistair Mykura is subsea and energy OEM liaison manager at Castrol.
www.castrol.com
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