Schlumberger combines sand screen units

Offshore staffHOUSTON – Schlumberger has organized its sand screen and inflow control device products under a single banner. At the same time, Axel Destremau, vice president of Sand Management Services, said the company plans to open a new facility in Saudi Arabia this October and has plans to double the size of its Houston manufacturing plant. An introduction to the complete line of downhole flow control hardware and a tour of the Houston plant was hosted by John Zarnowiecki, Schlumberger’s screens product line manager, on Wednesday, Aug. 19th. Schlumberger says it sees three distinct environments where screens are being run, with a unique set of drivers for each environment. These are: 1. Heavy oil/extreme conditions -- These screens needs to sustain extremely high temperature, must have high mechanical characteristics, while meeting the economics of historical slotted liner completions. 2. Brownfields -- These screens need to be versatile and highly productive to perform their function in heterogeneous or poorly characterized sands.  3. Deepwater -- Because of the critical conditions, and expense of operations, this environment requires robust and reliable equipment. A growing application for inflow control devices is long horizontal wells. This technology cuts across most of the different operating arenas.