Oil & Gas Well Servicing and Exploration

OEI is the proud leader in offering unique, customer-centric filtration solutions to well-servicing equipment manufacturers and end users. OEI continuously innovates to provide highly-effective cleanable filtration for systems that can not accommodate conventional filters due to either flow or space restrictions. OEI has proven success protecting high-pressure pumps,compressors and injectors as well as standard systems such as hydraulics, reservoirs, lube oils and fuels.

Featured Case Study

PROVEN RESULT: Break in wear removed, and all systems protected.

CUSTOMER
STEP ENERGY / NATIONAL OILWELL VARCO

LOCATION / DATE
CALGARY AB, CANADA 2018

EQUIPMENT
NEW-BUILD N2 PUMPER

APPLICATION / FLUID
TOTAL-PROTECTION KIT

 CHALLENGE

STEP Energy Services (STEP) and National Oilwell Varco are reliability leaders in the oil and gas downstream industry. STEP and NOV have partnered with OEI on mulitple occasions to design and manufacture well servicing equipment that is outfit with state-of-the-art magnetic filtration solutions with the intent to drive reliability, safety, and cost savings.

STEP Energy Services holds themselves to their own high expectations for exceptional client services; through accountability, technical knowledge, purpose-built equipment, and industry leading proactive maintenance programs. The team at National Oilwell Varco pride themselves on harnessing experience and innovation to minimize risk, increase uptime, and improve performance for drilling operations around the world.

As part of their proactive maintenance program, STEP Energy Services deploys OEI magnetic filtration on all major equipment components to protect fluids, gases, and lube oils against sub-micron wear contamination. To ensure the highest-quality builds, National Oilwell Varco collaborates with OEI to design filters that meet their new-build equipment installations, space restrictions, and fluid application parameters.

TEST
In 2018, NOV, STEP and OEI collaborated to outfit a new-build N2 Pumper with 13 uniquely designed OEI magnetic filters. To showcase the criticality of employing OEI filtration on new-build equipment, a test was run to determine how much break-in wear contamination is produced during initial operation. Without immediate protection, as soon as equipment enters service, break-in wear contamination down to 4 microns and below would damage critical equipment components and reduce operating life.

Run the new-build N2 Pumper for 5 minutes with 13 magnetic filters deployed on the various fluid applications. Evaluate how much break-in wear is produced to determine the criticality of magnetic filtration at the OEM level.

RESULTS
After the first 5 minutes of runtime, every magnetic filter installed pulled significant amounts of wear contamination from the system. Without magnetic filtration, the contamination would continue to circulate through critical systems, wearing on components and causing premature failures. If left in the system, the break-in wear contamination would build throughout the N2 Pumper, damaging close tolerance components such as bearings, injectors, and valves.



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Tractor Engine Coolant 

Liquid Nitrogen 

Hydraulic Case Drain

Main Engine Coolant

Remote Engine Lube Oil

Oil & Gas Well Servicing

RESULTS

Engine Fuel and Lube Oil

Weatherford Colombia Diesel Fuel Dispenser

Weatherford Colombia was finding high levels of ferrous contamination in their diesel fuel. Equipment running on the dirty fuel required sub-micron level filtration; without it, the equipment was experiencing premature wear of fuel system components, reduced burn efficiency and increased emissions.

Tesco Top Drive Diesel Fuel Filtration

Contaminated diesel fuel in Tesco’s Top Drive Rental Unit was causing premature wear of the fuel system components, reducing burn efficiency and increasing emissions. The source of this contamination is the corrosion and erosion of the transmission lines carrying the diesel fuel to the end user.

Pioneer 3512 CAT Engine Oil

The challenge was to clean new engine lube oil on a 3512C CAT engine to a level that exceeds the ISO fluid cleanliness standard 18/16/13, and to extend engine component life so that maintenance intervals could extend to align with quarterly inspections.

Pioneer Resources Turbo Coolant Oil

Two problems exist in this case: oil, even new, contains ferrous contamination down to submicron levels. And secondly, rotating equipment coolant systems are traditionally not filtered. These harmful ferrous particles cause premature wear and failures in equipment seals and pumps. The contamination also degrades the quality of the oil, by reducing its ability to cool and lubricate the turbo charger.

STEP Energy Services Fleet Outfitting

Contaminated oil, glycol, fuel and hydraulic fluid causes premature component wear resulting in downtime and premature failure if not properly filtered. Traditional depth media filtration is unable to filter contamination efficiently under 5 microns in size. Tolerances on hydraulic components and bearings are below three microns to sub-micron in size. Contamination left in the system will cause premature wear of the components and reduce the oil or fluid life. Another advantage magnetic filtration offers is on cold start ups traditional filtration are in bypass thereby your system has no protection. OEI magnetic filtration has minimal flow restriction and will filter the fluid or oil to sub-micron levels on cold start up thereby protecting the equipment integrity.

Tesco Engine Oil Filtration

Tesco wanted to extend the life of their equipment by improving filtration capabilities from that of the traditional 10 micron OEM filter elements. High levels of contamination are being missed by these traditional filters which can cause premature wear of the engine components.

Gearboxes and Pumps

New-Build N2 Pumper Nitrogen Filtration

The challenge was to protect the seals and nitrogen pump from the break-in and inherent wear contamination. High levels of ferrous contamination in the nitrogen cause damage to the cold ends and wear the seals of the nitrogen pump on start up. Traditionally, these systems do not have any filtration allowing for wear particles to move freely throughout the system, damaging components.

Canyon Technical Quintuplex Pump Protection

On cold start up, the traditional filter goes into bypass allowing the inherent contamination to flow through the system causing premature pump, bearing and conrod failure. This results in costly hose and cooler clean up. The most damaging contamination is below 4 microns because it wears on close-tolerance components such as bearings.

Kinecor Detroit Diesel Engine Oil

Improve the cleanliness of the lube oil to protect close tolerance components and extend oil change intervals.

Precision Drilling Mud Pump

Traditional filtration is unable to remove the inherent contamination under 10 microns during start-up. This contamination is from the new oil, break- in wear and the manufacturing process and if left in the system this results in premature wear to the bearings, shafts, and seals affecting equipment function.

STEP Energy Quintuplex Pump

Premature wear of the pump drive ends is the result of high levels of contamination under 10 microns in size. Left in the oil this contamination builds in volume, reduces the lubrication capability and accelerates the wear cycle. Traditional filtration is unable to remove contamination under 10 microns from lube oil.

Canyon Technical Quintuplex Pump Gear Oil

After major failure of several drive ends of the Quintuplex pumps on Canyon Technical’s N2 Pumpers, it was determined that metal filings in the lube oil had caused the failures. The lube oil systems were still contaminated from the previous drive end failure, even after the pump was cleaned and re-built.

Canyon Timken Roller Bearings

Bearing tolerances are under 3 microns and contamination under 3 microns was causing damage to Timken Roller Bearings as traditional 10 micron filters are unable to remove the most damaging contamination (iron and steel) below 10 microns to sub-micron in size.

Esso Gear Box Case Study

Esso Canada upstream field services wanted to increase the efficiency of their oil field equipment and extend the length of their service and maintenance intervals. Part of the initiative included extending the life of their LeGrand 160 pump jacks.

Hydra Rig N2 Pumper

20 year old, N2-Pumper, 600 hp output, with closed loop vain system pumps and 400 gallons total flow being refitted by Hydra Rig.

Hydraulics

Trencher Hydraulic Fluid Reservoir Kidney Loop Filtration

Wajax was hired as the hydraulic design and service team for a new-build trencher. The initial hydraulic filter and flushing methods were not effective in removing break-in wear contamination. After initial operation, the ferrous particles left in the system caused catastrophic hydraulic pump and seal failure. Wajax was tasked with replacing the pumps and cleaning the system before the next start up.

Ocean Edge Services Subsea HPU Hydraulic Fluid

Inadequate filtration was allowing wear contamination under 4 microns to degrade the water-based-glycol hydraulic fluid that is used to operate Ocean Edge’s subsea HPU. This contamination damages the DC valves which have tolerances below 1 micron. In these systems, if any contamination is present, the effects can cost millions of dollars to resurface the HPU for repairs.

A cleanliness level of 6 NAS is the standard for subsea control systems. When conducting fluid treatment, traditional filtration takes 10 to 12 hours to achieve a NAS 6 and that still leaves the system vulnerable to valve failure.

Nabors Drilling HPU Hyrdaulic Fluid

The tolerances of hydraulic systems are 4 micron to sub-micron, and traditional filtration is unable to remove this contamination to these levels.
Once a month, a large filter truck is hired to filter the hydraulic fluid from the HPU for a 16 hour interval. This filtration is costly and unable to remove wear particles under 4 microns that cause hydraulic valve failures.

Basic Energy Coil Tubing Unit’s Bi-directional Hydraulic Line

The cartridge valves on the bi-directional hydraulic line of a coil tubing unit have very tight tolerances; the conventional filters were not removing contamination that was causing valve failure every 6-12 hours. After 5 weeks of failures, BASIC Energy decided to test OEI’s magnetic filtration capability. The objective was to sufficiently clean the hydraulic fluid and extend the life of the valves to the standard 8-12 months.

Orion HPU Kidney Loop Filtration

The challenge was to capture wear contamination down to sub-micron levels to prevent another cylinder failure caused by wear contamination in the hydraulic fluid.

Precision Drilling Top Drive Closed Loop Hydraulics

As this is a closed loop system flowing 300 gpm from their pump to the motor and vice versa, Precision Drilling needed a filter that was capable of filtering bidirectionally. The conventional filters in place between the pump and motor was unable to protect against particulate under 10 microns. The tolerances of the pump and motor components are < 4 microns. Further, they required filtration for the fluid before the pump to protect against contamination produced by the motor.

Surefire Well Cementer Schlumberger Hydraulics

Sure Fire was tasked to refit a Schlumberger Cementer with a new hydraulic system. The senior design engineer, Oleg Tsvik, experienced with OEI filters installed a Magnetic Filter Rod into the new reservoir. The photos display a significant amount of ferrous metal contamination the regular filters missed after just 2 hours of operation.

W-industries Subsea Hydraulics

Finite contamination that occurs during break in of new systems which cannot be captured by traditional filtration. These systems are manufactured in 316 Stainless Steel.

Calfrac Coil Tube Unit

Rob McQuinn of Wajax, a distributor for OEI, suggested the installation of an OEI 3000 series magnetic filter rod in the hydraulic reservoir. The removal of this contamination down to submicron level will extend hydraulic fluid and component life and increase system reliability.

Precision Slant Drill Rig

Contaminated oil causing premature hydraulic component failure. The traditional filtration depth media is unable to filter contamination to submicron levels required as tolerances on hydraulic components are below one micron.

Surefire Industries Trican N2 Pumper Hydraulics

OEI filters Installed on the hydraulic reservoir on an N-2 Pumper for Trican Well Service Ltd of Red Deer. After 3 months of operation, the photo clearly displays a significant amount of ferrous metal contamination. The unit’s traditional filtration failed to remove the contamination that would have caused serious premature wear to the pumps and seals of the hydraulic system.

STEP Energy Services Coil Tubing Unit Coolant

An older coil tubing unit had a dirty coolant circulation system running 75 gpm at 150 psi, that required remediation. Over the course of 7 years, this coil tubing unit’s glycol pump failed
three times. The challenge was to increase filtration capability and guarantee pump protection

Reliability Kits

New-Build N2 Pumper Break-in Wear Test

In 2018, NOV, STEP and OEI collaborated to outfit a new-build N2 Pumper with 13 uniquely designed OEI magnetic filters. To showcase the criticality of employing OEI filtration on new-build equipment, a test was run to determine how much break-in wear contamination is produced during initial operation.

Pioneer Natural Resources Frac Truck Bumper to Bumper Filtration

The critical system components on Pioneer Natural Resources’ new build frac pumper have tolerances under 4 microns. Traditional depth-media filtration is unable to effectively filter contamination under 10 microns in size. To prevent unsccheduled downtime and maintenance, Dan Stoye, Maintenance Manager for PNR, decided to outfit the frac pumper with OEI magnetic filtration.

OEI magnetic filters are designed for 95+% efficiency: they are optimized for fluid viscosity, flow volume, flow rate, temperature, mobility, and mounting requirements.

Use of the OEI Data Form will provide the necessary specifications for OEI to determine which product is right for you

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