New innovation wins Tracerco £1m contract
A BILLINGHAM firm has won a £1m contract on the back of a breakthrough development in subsea technology.
Tracerco, part of the much larger Johnson Matthey group, specialises in designing bespoke measurement systems for bulk fluids and process systems. It will see the new kit - described as the first of its kind in the world - used by engineers at Aker Solutions in the StatoilHydro-owned Ormen Lange gas field in Norwegian waters of the North Sea.
Tracerco MD, Andy Hurst, said the system is critical in achieving safe levels of operation on the seabed where technology is expected to perform at depths of 1,000m.
“It functions extremely reliably, which is important because it’s difficult to get down to repair it,” he said.
“It’s the first time we have designed this configuration of measurement gauges for subsea level measurement and control - it’s a completely new innovation developed right here at Billingham.”
The system, which will be deployed first at Ormen Lange, where there are critically important gas reserves destined for the UK, provides for high or low level conditions to be detected, which, if they did occur, “could create serious problems for the compression and cause considerable damage and downtime”, said Mr Hurst.
He said he fully expected the system to be adopted elsewhere as the search for oil and gas took developers to ever greater levels.
It is not the first time that Tracerco has led the way in developing bespoke solutions for the industry’s most complex measurement and diagnosis problems. But for Tracerco, a £50m turnover company, employing 130 staff locally and 24 in international offices, it is significant.
“We are a relatively small company aside Johnson Matthew, but we are fast growing,” said Mr Hurst.
“This £1m contract is a great testimony for us, which will ultimately be used by other operators and engineering companies as a reference for other deep sea developments. The subsea furniture in oil and gas industries is such a hot topic we expect it to be the first of many.”
Tracerco was founded 50 years ago by ICI as its commercial enterprise arm and first entered the oil and gas sector in the 1980s, initially in the North Sea.
It now supplies fields all over the world, including Russia, where recent political developments made Mr Hurst “a little bit nervous”.
“Russia is a challenge,” he said. “But it is very important for the future.”
In South America, where the firm is active in subsea exploration, it has also helped in the national crusade against the Brazilian mafia, helping the government clamp down on adulterated petrol, which was costing the country $750m a year in lost revenue.
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