By Joanne McIntyre , Editorial Manager Valve World
EDITOR ’ S CHOICE
Intelligent wellhead systems awarded
The Intelligent Wellhead System ’ s inVision ® Digital Valve Control™ ( DVC ) system rigged up on a five-well pad in Denver-Julesberg Basin , Colorado .
Intelligent Wellhead Systems Inc . ( IWS ), a supplier of digital technologies that improve oil and gas well completion operations , has received a Special Meritorious Award for Engineering Innovation ( MEA ) in the Digitalization category from Hart Energy for its inVision ® Digital Valve Control™ technology . The technology was one of only 22 selected this year by Hart Energy for its special significance to the future of the upstream petroleum industry .
Improving wellsite safety
“ I find it very inspiring that our inVision technology has been honoured as one of the industry ’ s game-changing innovations of 2022 ,” said William Standifird , CEO of IWS . “ From the beginning , the IWS team set its sights on optimizing completions performance and wellsite safety by developing technologies that help to achieve these goals . To have our efforts recognized by Hart Energy is certainly a fitting way to demonstrate our commitment to improving HSE performance at the frac site , as well as enhancing efficiencies ,” he added .
Mitigating risk
According to Hart Energy , inVision Digital Valve Control technology helps mitigate the risk and improve the efficiency of hydraulic fracturing , wireline and pressure control operations . The technology integrates a wide variety of sensors , engineered safety controls and best practices to remotely operate accumulator valves using digitally enhanced standard operating procedures . With this approach to remotely operating accumulator valves , it is possible to open or close access multiple wells to increase efficiency while reducing the risk of human error that can cause catastrophic failures that lead to loss of life , injury and equipment damage .
Over 50,000 incident-free stages
The technology platform has helped achieve over 50,000 incident-free stages on 1,000 completions in Canada and the US . The latest innovation to the platform , inVision Digital Valve Control technology , was introduced in February 2022 and implemented by Aethon Energy in its Haynesville wells . The new technology has continued to achieve a zero-incident performance track record with Aethon , experiencing zero cut wirelines , zero well shut-ins , zero pressure control incidents and zero injuries to date . Wellsite personnel no longer need to manually open or close accumulator valves . Frac , wireline , pressure control and Aethon stakeholders can now visualise wellhead valve status and control valve readiness for frac fluids or wireline tools going into - and out of - the well on handheld inVision SIMOPS tablets . Safety situational awareness of operations is improved , and continuous improvements in well swap and pumping times can now be enabled . The technology is helping demonstrate that digital technologies play a vital role in reducing risk in hazardous operations because humans cannot be situationally aware 100 % of the time . www . valve-world . net Valve World November 2022
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