Latest:
Cormon Wins Again In Corrocean Patent Case - click for latest press release.
Cormon News - Spring 2007
Sand erosion monitoring established in the Gulf
The
supply of subsea sand erosion sensors to BHP's Neptune development and the
successful installation of topside sand erosion monitoring systems on BP
Nakika and Total Matterhorn has firmly established our CEION® sand erosion
management systems in the Gulf of Mexico.
The sales and commissioning process have been managed and co-ordinated by Cormon Inc. in Houston. Rune Gabrielsen, Operations Manager - Americas states: "The projects represent a great first step in the development of our GoM business and point to the introduction of a permanent local service group in Houston."
The successful field applications and the support of the Sand Management
Joint Industry Project at Tulsa University, reflect a growing preference
within the industry for employing CEION® intrusive sensors in sand erosion
management. Cormon continues to be an active member of the Tulsa University
JIP which has provided a greater understanding of the capabilities and independent
verification of the performance and reliability of our systems.
Reliance Subsea RPCM TM contract awarded by Aker Kvaerner
Aker Kvaerner Subsea A/s has awarded Cormon a contract to deliver 10 of its Ring Pair Corrosion Monitoring spools (RPCM™) for the Reliance Industries* deepwater Block KG-D6 gas development located offshore of the east coast of India. The contract represents the largest single order placed so far for RPCM™ spools and confirms the technology as leader in the pipeline corrosion monitoring market.
Cormon
will supply the 10 units as pipeline spools in a range of sizes from 8"
to 24" diameter for connection to the Aker Kvaerner subsea production
control system. The spools will be installed in water depths from 700 to
1700 meters.
The Aker Kvaerner order comes at a time when the RPCM TM™ technology has proven itself to be fully mature, with recent installations offshore Western Australia and on the Statoil Snøvhit pipeline. RPCM TM™ is a sophisticated all-round asset integrity tool and its high resolution metal loss detection capability gives unequalled performance in applications where the management of Corrosion Inhibition is a high priority. Engineering work is underway at Cormon's Lancing HQ with first deliveries scheduled during 2007.
*
Reliance is the first and only private sector
Company from India to feature in the 2004 Fortune Global 500 list of the
World’s Largest Corporations. Cutaway model of the RPCM ordered for Reliance
KG-D6
New Products
New
hand-held unit
We have begun to release the first models of out new multi-function hand held meter the HHU-M. This will replace the current HHU device and the hand held ER and LPR 2000 series instruments. The menu driven instrument has an LCD display and permits a wide range of measurement, upload, data review and configuration actions. Certified intrinsically safe to the ATEX standard the units are suitable for service in hazardous areas.
Improved High Temperature Probe
High temperature tubular retractable probes for refinery applications
have been the subject of a recent re-design programme that has resulted
in a number of improvements in performance and reliability. The design was
put through Accelerated Stress Testing at 450°c (842°F) including
tests for resistance to vibration damage and thermal shock All RC series
TH and TT probes will be built to the new design from January 2007. Demand
for high temperature ER probes for the refining industry has grown steadily
with the increased use of opportunity crudes and high temperature processing.
Continuous Improvement
The
Cormon manufacturing operation at Lancing has been pushing ahead with its
Kaizen programme to continuously improve every aspect of the product realisation
process. In December a fact finding tour of near neighbour B&W Speakers
gave the whole team an opportunity to see the comprehensive Lean manufacturing
system that underpins their world-class products. The visit covered everything
from supply chain management to shipping and produced a wealth of new ideas
and initiatives for our Kaizen programme. We are very grateful for the help
of Dave Ford and his colleagues at B&W and, having experienced the demonstration
in their purpose built theater, we have no hesitation recommending their
product.
Quality & Reliability
The
Flow Assurance Group, which manages the realisation of major subsea projects,
has appointed Alf Verrall to the post of Quality & Reliability Engineer.
As the title suggests, this will bring QA/QC and Reliability under one authority
and will cover inspection, testing, validation and verification activities
in design and realisation. The change is part of our Manufacturing Excellence
programme for the subsea product range. Alf, who joined Cormon in 1990 was
previously Senior Design Engineer in the group.
Service Group
Ras Lanuf hot tap programme
A team from Aberdeen are currently preparing to supply hot tapping services to Veba Oil Operations' Ras Lanuf installation. This is part of a contract to upgrade the corrosion monitoring system following a detailed site survey and audit performed by the Cormon Applications Team in 2004.
Cormon are working closely with a local civil engineering contractor to prepare and hot tap large numbers of retractable fittings for conventional ER and CEION® systems. The installation phase will be followed by commissioning to include chemical inhibition and optimisation.
The CEION® systems will provide up to the minute corrosion information on critical flow lines and piping. The information provided will help the plant operators to manage the asset safely and effectively. The contract demonstrates the all round capability of Cormon to design, deliver, install and commission complete system packages.
The Dyce based Service Group provides installation, commissioning and support services to Cormon customers all over the world. Recent investment in additional work space and upgrading of laboratory facilities have increased capacity all round. Major Aberdeen customers include BP, Lloyds Register, Oceaneering, Tallisman and Total. Internationally, service teams have recently been busy in the USA, Qatar, Kuwait as well as Libya.
Company News
RPCM for Affleck project
Cormon has been awarded a contract by Technip UK Ltd to supply a Ring Pair Corrosion Monitor (RPCM™) for installation on the Maersk Affleck project.
The project is a tie-back of the Affleck field to the existing Janice Floating Production Unit. The RPCM TM contract requires Cormon to deliver the 8" diameter corrosion monitor for installation between the manifold and the start of the 28km carbon steel pipeline with a data streamed to the manifold SCM.
The monitor will provide a high resolution measurement of the corrosion rate close to the point of entry of produced fluids into the carbon steel section of the line to assist with the integrity management of the line during its operational life.
Affleck is operated by Maersk Oil North Sea UK Limited (Maersk Oil, 66.67
per cent) with partner Talisman North Sea Limited (33.33 per cent). The
field will come on stream in 2007.
RPCM™ Showcased at BP Conference
A specially built, full size cutaway model of the Cormon RPCM™ was
star of the show at a conference in Washington DC during October 2006. The
US capitol was host to the top Asset Integrity personnel from BP operations
around the globe. The model, together with presentations by staff from BP
Sunbury, was the center of discussions on the future monitoring of pipelines
and flowlines. This marked the completion of the BP supported HP/HT Deepwater
development, qualification and operational testing programme (Cormon
News Spring 06). The cutaway, which is featured on the 2007 Cormon
mouse mat calendar, is especially helpful in demonstrating the features
of the RPCM spool. The star status was particularly appropriate as the outer
housing components, machined from solid Tulip Wood, were built by a specialist
model maker whose main employment is making exotic props for films like
Star Wars.
SIIS Subsea Standardisation - Canbus now available
The aim of the SIIS joint industry project is to move towards an open standard for interfacing subsea control system components similar to the plug-and-play concept for PCs. The ISO 11898-3 Fault Tolerant Canbus CANOPEN protocol has been selected to achieve this and is now available as a communications protocol for Cormon subsea products.
Cormon has been a member of SIIS for two years and is committed to supporting
the aims of the organization by implementing initiatives of this type. More
information on SIIIS can be found on www.siis-jip.com
OHLCD
Dave Pike, our long serving Product Manager for OHLCD, is to retire in March this year after 20 years with Cormon. His successor, Allen Lawrence, has been working on overhead line surveys since mid 2006 and has accumulated a lot of experience in a very short time due to the intense demand for this service. Dave has made himself available for service assignments on an Ad Hoc basis so regular customers will still be seeing him for some time yet.
The OHLCD service, which provides a corrosion condition assessment of ACSR transmission cable, is widely used by National Grid and the various Distribution Network Operators in the UK as well as France, Ireland and Sweden. Cormon recently established a co-operative agreement with EA Technology to look at further development and exploitation of the technology.
New Data Sheet for RPCM™
A new data sheet has been published for the RPCM product. Sheet
GL016 is available in PDF from this website or a hard copy can be requested
from sales@cormon.com
Scandpower MOU brings Flow Assurance Integrity Modelling and Monitoring together
In a highly significant move Cormon has signed a memorandum of understanding with modeling software specialist and industry leader Scandpower.
Combining instruments and
software enables
multiphase flow assurance integrity.
(image courtesy of Scandpower Petroleum Technoloty)
By employing strategically placed monitoring in conjunction with multiphase modeling packages full visualisation of a range of process parameters through out the length a flow-line or pipeline is achieved. The monitoring systems can then be employed to verify and fine tune the modeling with real-time readings. The result is true, real-time, e-Field-wide, lifecycle visualisation through integrated monitoring and modeling for flow assurance integrity.
Cormon has instigated a number of initiatives to combine scaleable and modular monitoring packages with a range of software and modeling tools to provide Continuous Dynamic Visualisation of the process and to provide:
- Real-time Monitoring
- Look-ahead Forecasting
- What-if Planning
- Look-back Re-tuning
Australia & South East Asia
Perth, Western Australia, continues to be a very active regional office for Cormon, in fact so busy that we have had to relocate to new premises. Elizabeth Breakey is in charge of marketing activity throughout South East Asia and husband, David, provides installation and technical support. As well as several high profile subsea projects delivered in the past two years, the conventional corrosion monitoring products have been doing good business.
Cormon is exhibiting at the Australasian Oil & Gas Exhibition, AOG'07, between 21st and 23rd February and will welcome visitors to Stand 438.
The new office is at:
45 Ventnor Ave, West Perth,
Western Australia WA 6005
Tel: 61 8 9429 8845
Fax: +61 8 9429 8800
E-mail: cormon@global.net.au
Please visit Cormon at: Australasian Oil & Gas Exhibition, AOG'07,
between 21st and 23rd February, Stand 438. Subsea Tie Back, between 27 February
and 1st March in Galveston. Booth #1007