DST Toolstring Deployed in Gulf of Mexico
International oilfield services company, Expro, has deployed its new design ExACT (Expro Annulus-Operated Circulating and Test Tool) in its first live offshore well. The successful operation, a tubing conveyed perforating âshoot and pullâ, took place on the Vermillion field offshore in the Gulf of Mexico following trial work onshore in Brazil last year. The tool, one of the most advanced of its kind, combines downhole shut-in and circulating functionality. Rated at 15,000 psi and temperatures of up to 400ËFâŚ
GNSS Spoofing Test Bed to be Developed
Spirent Communications, has teamed up with Qascom to develop a test tool that reproduces spoofing attacks in a controlled laboratory environment. They say that their collaborative solution will be launched commercially later in 2013. The test bed will concurrently simulate legitimate GNSS constellations and spoofed or hoax signals. It will enable positioning systems manufacturers to improve their productsâ resilience to hoax signals. As GNSS becomes increasingly embedded in modern infrastructure for application timing and device positioning, the impact of spoofing attacks becomes greater. From mobile telephony to internet banking, GNSS timing signals are used in many key systemsâŚ
STATS Completes North Sea Platform Platform
Pipeline engineering experts, STATS Group, has completed an isolation project on behalf of AMEC to allow maintenance and replacement works on the North Everest platform in the central North Sea. The workscope covered three maintenance valves and one ESD valve on a 20-inch gas import line onboard the BG-operated platform. After a detailed site survey and piggability study, STATS decided the best solution was to use a tethered Tecno Plug pushed by stem bar to location from a temporary launcher.