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Red Spider Launches New Products to International Markets

Red Spider, the remote open close technology specialist delivering multi-million savings to the international oil & gas industry, is launching two game-changing products to new international markets for the company at key industry events.

The UK-headquartered company recently expanded into the North American market, opening a base in Houston, and is exhibiting at the SPE/ICoTA Tubing & Well Intervention Conference & Exhibition in Woodlands, Texas, from April 5-6. The company has invested nearly £1.6million in the last quarter in increasing its fleet of products to ensure it can respond to growing customer demand.

Members of the Red Spider team are taking part in the Next Generation NGO&G Summit in South Africa on April 5-7. A paper detailing a project that used eRED, Red Spider’s first tool, resulting in significant rig time savings, will be delivered at the summit.

eRED, Red Spider’s first tool to use its patented remote open close technology for pressure testing applications, has been used in 12 fields. The technology is on its way to becoming the industry standard solution for various downhole applications.

The valve has allowed North Sea operators to save up to £600,000 during a single subsea completion operation, typically reducing slickline runs from 8 to 1. In subsea workover operations savings of up to 41 hours and £500,000 have also been recorded in a single job.

It quickly became apparent from the eRED’s continuing success that there were other potential applications for Remote Open Close Technology in the completion of wells. Further customer requests led to around £1.9million of investment and over two years of extensive research and development work which has resulted in the two new products - PowerBall® and the eRED-FB (a completion placement valve).

Red Spider CEO Steve Nicol, who is attending the South African event, said: “There is enormous potential for our products in the US, South America and Africa - a high level of interest has been expressed in all of these regions. Both conferences are excellent forums for us to show our new completions technology to highly-relevant audiences.’’

Red Spider worked with ITF, the oil and gas Industry Technology Facilitator, on product development and commercialisation of eRED-FB, a completion placement valve that can save around 32 hours rig-time by eliminating the need for any interventions during the operation. It is essentially a tubing mounted eRED, permanently deployed as part of the tubing string which, when open, provides a full through-bore for well fluids. The eRED-FB is particularly suited to completion placement operations and development work with ITF ensured alignment of the new product with client requirements.

PowerBall® is a pioneering reservoir isolation barrier that prevents fluid loss during the upper completion phase of well construction. Its increased reliability will differentiate it from its competitors, and could potentially save operators nearly £500,000 per operation by delivering major time reductions in subsea operations and significantly enhancing safety.

Red Spider worked with ITF again on development and commercialisation of PowerBall®. Well-documented challenges exist within the industry during well completion activities as the technologies utilised are often exposed to large amounts of debris, leading to operational failure and costly shutdown time.