Oilfield Engineering with Polymers

This fifth international MERL conference, organised jointly with Rapra Technology, provided a unique two-day forum to discuss the latest developments in the selection, qualification and performance of polymeric materials. It brought together operators, contractors, equipment and component suppliers, materials suppliers and research organisations involved with polymers and their use in oil & gas sector applications.

Table of Contents:
SESSION 1. TRENDS IN OILFIELD ENGINEERING WITH POLYMERS Paper 1 Meeting the increased demands of offshore developments Steve Groves, BP Exploration, UK SESSION 2. POLYMER PERFORMANCE: CHEMICAL RESISTANCE OF ELASTOMERS AND THERMOPLASTICS Paper 2 Evaluating the retention of viscoelastic properties for extreme and long term service Danny Hertz III & H. Bussem, Seals Eastern, Inc., USA Paper 3 Compatibility between elastomers and oilfield chemicals on the Kristin subsea wellhead structure Hakon Nygard, Steinar Mollan, & Dr Bjorn Melve, Statoil ASA, Norway Paper 4 Oilfield polymers and hydrogen sulphide Dr Barry Thomson, MERL Ltd., UK Paper 5 Seal selection for acid gas injection using an accelerated testing program Dr Philip Abrams, Randall E Harris, & Tim G Martin, ExxonMobil, USA, & Dr Barry Thomson, MERL Ltd., UK Paper 6 Linear PPS for use in high temperature oil and gas sour/acid fluid handling Hansel Ramathal & Tom Baus, Ticona Polymers, Inc., USA, & Dirk Raudies, Ticona GmbH, Germany SESSION 3. POLYMER PERMEABILITY AND RESISTANCE TO RAPID GAS DECOMPRESSION EVENTS Paper 7 Transport properties of gas mixtures in polymers: Measurement method, experimental data obtained on thermoplastics Bruno Flaconneche & Dr Marie-Helene Klopffer, Institut Francais du Petrole, & Dr Carol Taravel-Condat, TECHNIP-Flexifrance, France Paper 8 Novel gas detection method for permeability measurement Zoltan Filus1, Tibor Ajtai1, Dr Zoltan Bozoki2, Gabor Pap3, Prof Gabor Szabo1, Imre Domonkos4, Dr Tibor Nagy4, Dr Tamas Katona4, 1University of Szeged, 2Hungarian Academy of Sciences, 3HILASE Ltd., 4Phoenix Rubber Ltd., Hungary Paper 9 Specification of elastomeric materials for rapid gas decompression applications Kevin Monaghan, Dr Chris Newlands, & Dr Emily Ho, BHR Group Ltd., UK Paper 10 Development of a test and failure analysis methodology for elastomeric seals exposed to explosive decompression Dr Zoltan Major1,2, Klaus Lederer1, Manfred Moitzi3, Mario Mitterhuber3, Dr Thomas Schwarz3 and Prof Reinhold Lang1,2, 1Polymer Competence Center Leoben GmbH, 2University of Leoben, 3ECONOMOS Austria GmbH, Austria SESSION 4. INSULATION FOR DEEP WATER APPLICATIONS Paper 11 Multilayer insulation systems: Study of thermomechanical behaviour of industrial prototypes for deep sea application Nadege Bouchonneau1,2,3, Dominique Choqueuse1, Dr Valerie Sauvant-Moynot 2, Francois Grosjean2, Prof Dominique Perreux3, Dr Emmanuel Poncet3, 1IFREMER, 2Institut Francais du Petrole, 3Universite de Franche-Comte, France Paper 12 X-ray microtomography for a better understanding of syntactic foam performance and limits in ultra deep water Dr Valerie Sauvant-Moynot & Nelly Gimenez, Institut Francais du Petrole, & Jerome Adrien & Eric Maire, Groupe d'Etude de Metallurgie Physique et de Physique des Materiaux, INSA Lyon, France SESSION 5. ADVANCES IN POLYMER TECHOLOGY: NEW MATERIALS AND APPLICATIONS Paper 13 Innovative material solutions for the oil and gas industry Bilal Ghalaini, DuPont Int. SA, Switzerland Paper 14 Next generation HNBR grades - new materials for oilfield application Dirk Achten, Lanxess Deutschland GmbH, Germany Paper 15 The role of base resistant FKM technology in oilfield seals Steven Jagels, Solvay Solexis Inc., USA, & Stefano Arrigoni, Solvay Solexis SpA, Italy Paper 16 Perfluoroether elastomer for oilfield engineering Hidenori Koshikawa, Yasuo Tarumi, & Mikio Shiono, Shin-Etsu Chemical Company Ltd., Japan Paper 17 Fluoroelastomers made with advanced polymer architecture for oil and gas applications Robert Fuller, DuPont Performance Elastomers, USA Paper 18 Flow improvements within oil pipelines Matthew McDonnell, Copon Pipelinings Ltd., UK SESSION 6. ADVANCES IN COMPONENT DESIGN AND ANALYSIS: SEALS, HOSE AND UMBILICALS Paper 19 Use of analytic and finite element methods to evaluate umbilical designs Mark Coates & Dr Alan Friday, ERA Technology Ltd., UK Paper 20 Selection and design of resilient seals for oil and gas applications Francis Lebeau & Geert Danau, Saint-Gobain Performance Plastics, Belgium Paper 21 The challenges of designing high pressure hoses for the oil and gas market Graham Ford, Parker Hannifin GmbH, Germany Paper 22 Fatigue-life prediction in offshore marine hoses Dr Kambiez Zandiyeh, Dunlop Oil & Marine Ltd., UK SESSION 7. MOORINGS Paper 23 Socketing of polyester fibre ropes with epoxy resins Prof Maria Madalena de Camargo Forte & Tiago de Medeiros Schmidt, Universidade Federal do Rio Grande do Sul, & Alexandro Voronoff, PETROBRAS/CENPES, Brazil SESSION 8. REGULATORY CASE STUDIES Paper 24 HSE guidelines and case studies for use of elastomers offshore Dr Bob Campion, MERL Ltd., UK & Raman Patel, Health & Safety Executive, UK