Offshore staff
HOUSTON – Baker Hughes and Aker Solutions offered details about a newly formed Subsea Production Alliance at the Offshore Technology Conference.
The alliance is designed to combine Baker Hughes’ completions and artificial lift technology with Aker Solutions’ subsea boosting, controls, and intervention products. The alliance says the aim of the combination is to boost output, increase recovery rates, and reduce costs in subsea fields.
Subsea production systems have traditionally been designed and installed separately from in-well production and completion systems, even though they share a common interface at the subsea tree and ultimately function as one joint system. The result is significant installation costs and less than optimal production rates. And when production falls off, workover and intervention operations for subsea fields are often too cost prohibitive.
“Subsea recovery lags dry tree, developments are increasingly complex, and projects require seamless in-well and subsea systems,” said Brage Johannessen, Baker Hughes leader in the alliance. “A holistic approach is the solution to cost and recovery.”
Svenn Ivar Fure, Aker Solutions leader in the alliance, said, “Well access and subsea boosting can be combined into one power control, and monitoring system. We can reduce ESP intervention costs. Baker Hughes is improving ESP pump life and a through-tubing ESP installation can use a riserless intervention vessel rather than a drilling rig.
“Baker Hughes completion technology with Aker’s boosting pumps – single-phase or multi-phase – will give greater recoveries at lower costs.”
The alliance will have access to the full product and service offerings from each company as well as research and development capabilities.
Implementation of the alliance is subject to obtaining any required antitrust or other regulatory approvals.
5/2/14
