Aberdeen-based oil and gas manufacturing company Omega Completion Technology Ltd has announced an order in excess of £1.5m from BP for its Command Activated Sandface Valves. Production of the 4 ½” Sandface Valves, which will be used in the Clair Ridge Project to the West of Shetland, has just commenced for delivery in February 2012. The order is one of a series of new contracts secured by Omega following the firm’s relocation to a £2 million purpose-built facility at Dyce in a bid to increase capacity to meet growing demand for its technology.

Mark Buyers, Managing Director of Omega said: “This is the biggest single order Omega has received for this valve, and shows the continued commitment to Omega from BP for this type of equipment. We are delighted to have secured this order from BP and we feel that it reinforces the value BP places on the success of the Omega valves which it has deployed previously.

“The main reason this valve was chosen was because of the unrivalled 100% track record of a similar Omega completion valve which has been used in the Norwegian sector for the past four years. BP has experienced a vast financial benefit in gaining sequential clean up in the reservoir section, and that has resulted in the firm’s continued commitment to using the Sandface Values in the Clair Ridge project, as well as the Clair Platform.


“Thanks to our recent expansion we are able to cater for larger and more complex orders, like this one for BP, and we aim to increase our production of bespoke oilfield technologies as our workforce continues to grow. We have an extremely healthy order book and are negotiating to enter into a series of new agreements, so the workshop will be kept very busy for the foreseeable future.”

A number of international operators have made the Sandface Valve their first choice because of its track record and results. Over 90 completion valves have been installed at locations worldwide and to date all valves have been operating and functioning to their design. Placing the Sandface Valves in the open hole sections allows the operator to sequentially clean up from the toe of the well to the heel of the well, offering a higher sweep of the reserves by allowing clean up in stages instead of opening up all zones and flowing from the start. No well intervention is required to open the valves as they are programmed on the surface, resulting in lower rig costs due to a reduction in operations time and potential hazardous operations.

Such is the success of the Sandface Valve that Omega has developed a high pressure variant which will allow for high pressure fracturing operations to be conducted after initially cleaning up the well. BP has previously used Omega’s bespoke valves in water producers which are used to clean up the well on initial start-up.

Omega has over 20 years of history in developing products for well intervention and completion, and currently holds 23 patents. All of the firm’s products are designed and produced in-house, including electronics design and manufacture.

(GK)