Red Spider Successfully Completes Operation Off Equatorial Guinea

Red Spider, the Remote Open Close Technology (ROCT) specialist delivering major savings and reduced risk to the oil and gas industry, has successfully completed an operation worth over £300,000 with a major energy company using its eRED-FB technology off the coast of Equatorial Guinea.

Red Spider invested almost £1,900,000/$3million over two years into the research and development of new technologies including the eRED-FB. This was the product’s first run within the region.

eRED-FB provides a downhole barrier that can be opened and closed by remote command, removing the need to set a plug via conventional intervention methods.

In this application eRED-FB successfully eliminated deep set interventions during the completion placement phase of the subsea horizontal well. Deployed as an integral part of the tubing string, eRED-FB was run in hole in the open position to a depth of 9,100ft at a deviation greater than 80°. During the operation it was remotely operated twice using pre-programmed pressure and time commands, firstly closing the tool to provide a means to set the packer and test the tubing integrity, then opened with maximum flow area maintained for production. This provided time and money saving to the client whilst eliminating all the risks typically associated with the intervention of a highly deviated well.

Red Spider Chief Executive Steve Nicol said: “Everyone at Red Spider is thrilled the eRED-FB operation was such a success. We look forward to further utilising the tool globally and expanding our services within the West Africa region.

“The first product in Red Spider’s ROCT range was eRED, a computer controlled ball valve technology that can be repeatedly opened and closed by remote command, which has completed over 120 runs and is rapidly becoming the valve of choice for intervention type work. The eRED-FB full-bore valve has now proved that the eRED technology can be scaled-up and we are confident that it will emulate the eRED’s success during completion placement operations.”

The eRED-FB is expected to deliver savings of between 32 to 38 hours ($650,000 to $800,000/£430,000 to £530,000) by eliminating the requirement for any wireline runs during a completion placement operation. Eliminating the requirement to deploy traditional wireline equipment speeds up the completion process, bringing wells on stream sooner and reducing the risk of exposure to bad weather. This also removes the need to rig-up and rig-down wireline and PCE equipment, which reduces the risk to personnel, equipment and the operation.

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Press Release, October 02, 2012