AGR Group - Successful launch of AGR Neptune

Posted by Aquila Financial on Wednesday, January 30, 2008

Location
Norway

Full Details

AGR Group’s Neptune was successfully launched at an offshore demonstration outside Bergen this week, with a number of major oil companies in attendance. The ROV system maps pipelines down to a depth of 6,000 meters.

“Neptune opens new markets and slashes the cost of pipeline mapping by two thirds. We were very satisfied with this week’s demonstration. The Neptune system worked perfectly and was well received by customers taking part in the demonstration,” says Åge Landro, Executive Vice President of AGR Group’s Field Operations division.

AGR Group is the first company in the world to successfully combine an external, state-of-the-art ultrasound scanner that produces hi-def pictures in real time, with a small ROV. This makes it possible to inspect oil pipelines in deep seas. Until now, that job was done by divers, who require expensive support vessels and have clear depth limitations.

“Neptune can map pipeline corrosion while production is going at full capacity. You no longer have to shut off pipelines for inspection. This used to be a complex process involving the transfer of huge amounts of data from the deep and very costly pipeline shutdowns.

“Transporting analogue signals to the surface also posed challenges. When creating Neptune, we worked intensely on developing a safe way to transfer digital data to the surface in real time. That proved a significant challenge. It is very pleasing to be able to document that this is possible in depths down to 6,000 meters,” says Åge Landro.

AGR Field Operations has experienced growing demand for external inspection of pipelines and wells the past year. Last fall, AGR developed Claycutter X, a new technology which efficiently excavates the sea bottom and which can also be used for removing soil away from old pipelines. AGR is now looking to market the Neptune Subsea Inspection system and Claycutter X as a package solution to potential customers.

For more information:

Paul Cooper, Managing Director AGR Pipe Tech; Mob: + 47 97 11 10 89
Åge Landro, Director AGR Field Operations, Mob: + 47 92 06 11 82

AGR Group
AGR Group ASA is a leading provider of essential services and technologies to the international petroleum industry, with a worldwide reputation for its innovative, safe and environmentally-friendly solutions to key exploration and production challenges. We have established a prime position in a number of our sectors.

Our services range from assisting small exploration companies with their first licence applications, through to constructing and managing ambitious drilling programmes and on to providing expertise for exploration, development, production and maintenance projects, including for some for the world’s largest oil companies.

AGR Group was founded in 1987 and listed on the Oslo stock exchange in July 2006. It has 1800 employees and offices around the world, including Mongstad, Sandnes, Skøyen, Stavanger, Straume, Trondheim in Norway and in Aberdeen, London, Widnes, Houston, Brisbane, Darwin, Melbourne, Perth, Dubai, Kuala Lumpur, Baku and
Almaty.

AGR Group has over 40 Patents in commercial use and prides itself on bring cutting edge oil and gas technologies to market.

It is structured around three business units:

AGR Field Operations
AGR Petroleum Services
AGR Drilling Services

AGR Field Operations performs a variety of key tasks, providing operators with expertise in production technology as well as planned inspection, cleaning and maintenance of installations. AGR Group’s pipeline inspection techniques in particular are among the most advanced in the industry, using state-of-the-art ultrasound technology combined with sophisticated data transmission and storage facilities.

Field Operations has successfully brought to market a range of innovative and competitive products for the maintenance and inspection of oil and gas facilities and infrastructure, supported by a team of highly trained personnel. Its clients are a who’s who of the oil industry.

AGR Petroleum Services supports international petroleum companies across the asset life cycle, from initial reservoir evaluation to field abandonment. The division’s core competences are geology, geophysics, petrophysics, reservoir engineering, well construction, field management, and project management of production facilities including FPSO and subsea services.

The division has been a leader in constructing multi-client, multi-well drilling programmes on behalf of smaller oil companies who might not have the resources, skills or access to the market to fulfil drilling commitments on their own.

For instance, the Byford Dolphin semi-submersible rig spudded the first well in its AGR Group managed seven month, multi-well, multi-client program in the Bay of Biscay in September, the first time drilling has occurred offshore France since 1998.

AGR Drilling Services is the business area for supply of equipment and services for drilling, well operations and underwater trenching and excavation in the global offshore industry.

This division has developed Riserless Mud Recovery (RMR?) technology which is designed to re-circulate and reuse the drilling fluids that are needed when drilling top hole sections of a well. Important benefits include cost savings from reduced operating time – typically three to five working days – and reduced discharges to the environment. More than 50 wells using RMR? have been drilled in the Caspian Sea, offshore Sakhalin Island, Australia, the North Sea, and the Barents Sea. RMR technology is to be used for the first time in Egypt under a contract with the Gulf of Suez Petroleum Company, BP’s joint venture with Egyptian General Petroleum Company, and in Indonesia for Shell Sarawak.

Other technologies developed by AGR Drilling Services have included the Junk Trapper mechanical well cleaning tool and the Dynamic Desander tool, used to separate sand and gravel from fluid flows in wells. The Junk Trapper, which effectively removes debris and any foreign bodies from wellbores, has so far been used successfully in over 1,300 wells worldwide.

Recently the division announced a new contract with Norsk Hydro to deploy AGR Group’s new seabed excavation technology, the Claycutter X, at Ormen Lange, the largest gas field under development on the Norwegian continental shelf.

END

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Company News Release