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Insight Prysmian Magazine

A Journey to the Centre of the Earth with Prysmian Oil & Gas

 

For more than thirty years, Prysmian has pioneered the development of groundbreaking downhole technology solutions. The search for evermore innovative new products and services has always been at the heart of the Prysmian culture.

Balancing the design requirements for reliability, long-life and cost-effectiveness has been a stimulating and demanding task. This reference is not casual. In Jules Verne’s masterpiece, Journey to the Centre of the Earth, written over 150 years ago, Otto Lidenbrock explains to Axel, his nephew and narrator of the novel, how scientific research works: science is eminently perfectible, my lad, and each theory has constantly to give way to a fresh one”.

Prysmian follows these principles by experimenting and evolving designs that deliver the highest standards of quality and dependability demanded by customers.

Prysmian Downhole Technologies (PDT) meets the challenges of the full span of downhole applications by supplying advanced solutions.

From simple, single duty land-based installations through the most complex multi-parameter systems for deep water developments, operators all around the world rely on Prysmian Downhole Technology.

Our solutions are used to connect the surface with equipment and sensors located in oil wells hundreds of metres below the surface of the Earth. Reliability, long-life and cost-effectiveness are then crucial for monitoring the conditions of a well and managing the production of oil and gas.

 

Prysmian’s experience and expertise is the product of the acquisitions by Prysmian, of Draka and Gulf Coast Downhole Technologies (GCDT) which were completed in April 2017. The integration of these businesses allows us to address the needs of a wide range of applications from the opening and closing of valves, to downhole flow measurements and flow assurance. These demands also include technology that can be used in high temperature, extreme pressure and aggressive / corrosive wells.

This aligns with the Prysmian Group’s commitment to respond quickly and promptly to our customers’ demands. As our CEO, Valerio Battista, said soon after the acquisition of GCDT, “customer proximity is one of our primary goals. Making leverage of our global presence, we will bring Gulf Coast Downhole Technologies expertise and innovative abilities to a bigger customer audience, granting us the opportunity to develop a versatile and advanced supply chain”.

 
 

"Our success is a product of the dedication and hard work of our people. Our people’s experience, knowledge and skills have created a world beating portfolio that is relied on by customers all around the world to produce vital information about their oil and gas production."

Giovanni Calimani

PDT Vice President

PDT manufactures both copper and fibre optic Tube Encapsulated Cables (TECs), welded tubes and related accessories. TECs are longitudinally welded cables that are inserted into a well during the “completion phase” to connect the surface with downhole sensors so an operator can monitor the temperature, pressure and other critical parameters in an oil well. The tubes can also be deployed together with the TEC to carry production fluids deep underground.

The welding, assembly, flushing and filling processes are so specialised that PDT has had to invest in a machine shop and employ specialists in advanced manufacturing techniques to build and continuously improve the equipment to manufacture and assemble our products.

This gives Prysmian Downhole Technology a major advantage over the rest of the industry. Rather than needing to compromise a solution to match a standard range of products, PDT designs and then manufactures a solution that exactly matches a customer’s needs. And being a specialist who produces thousands of metres of TEC a year, we do this at a very competitive price.

In addition to their industrial expertise, Prysmian Downhole Technology is a great example of internationalism and integration: “Our team is possibly the most diverse within the Group,” continued Giovanni. “We have people of more than twenty nationalities working at our three plants. Although we are now integrated into the Prysmian Group, we still retain the entrepreneurial spirit of the smaller businesses that make up PDT”.

“Our collective domain knowledge and diverse, global experience lets us design solutions that exactly match the technical and commercial needs of our customers and then manufacture and ship them to whichever oil and gas production region of the world that they are working”.

Pioneering new, innovative products and services is at the heart of the Prysmian Downhole Technology culture. Every day we have teams developing the next generation of solutions to make sure we anticipate the next challenge and are ready with solutions to support our industry’s push into ever more demanding explorations and production situations.