Category: News

Several issues need to be considered to design and configure a subsea development controlled and operated over a significant distance.

Various industries use subsea valves, with the oil and gas sector accounting for the majority, as there is a need to move material from, to, or below the seabed. Subsea valves are used in sub-marine environments, ranging in depth from shallow water (usually down to a depth of 75 meters) to Ultra-deep water (down to 3000 meters).

In today’s offshore oil and gas industry, wells have become deeper than ever, causing a growing demand for subsea ball valves that can withstand extreme pressures and harshest environments.

At Oliver Valvetek, we are a leader in developing ways to provide effective valve solutions under increasing temperature and pressure requirements at greater depths, offering subsea Needle, ball, Gate and Check valves that provide safe and reliable operation at very high external pressures.

What Are SubSea Valves?

Subsea valves are used to isolate or control the flow of material through an undersea Christmas tree, Subsea manifold, SDU, UTA or pipeline (submarine pipeline) or other subsea architecture. They are most commonly used to transport oil and gas or for chemical injection applications to ensure the continuous operation of the subsea installation. They are designed to function in a submarine environment while withstanding the effects of raised external pressure, wellbore temperatures, environmental conditions or debris in the material passing through the valve.

At Oliver Valvetek, our Subsea valves undergo stringent testing to ensure high Safety, Quality and reliability, assuring their Quality Assurance and Quality Control before being used in the industry. External environmental factors need to be explicitly considered for subsea valves. This includes specialist anti marine coating systems, High operating temperatures and pressure, and ensuring the valves are protected by the subsea systems Cathodic Protection (CP).

Subsea control systems

There are two different types of subsea control systems. Firstly, a basic control system, which is used to control normal operations of the subsea production system. Secondly, a safety control system is used to control abnormal incidents and avoid accidents by isolating the energy source.

Our knowledge in the oil and gas industry is combined with highly experienced engineering and modern production facilities allowing us to fulfil almost all requirements for subsea installations. Subsea valves are generally exposed to extremely harsh conditions, whether this is extremely high pressures, low and high temperatures, chemical interactions, or a combination of these. Attention to detail is required and recommended; as a trusted supplier over 125,000 subsea valves, we understand where valves are used as a necessity.

While some valves may be manually operated by divers, the majority are either manually operated by a Remote Operating Vehicle (ROV) or hydraulically operated subsea valves controlled via topside. If this is the case, unique connections are required to ensure that the paddle or drive adapter is compatible with the valve as well as the ROV.

Hazards to Subsea Valves

Internal factors to consider for subsea valves are related to the type of process media (what passes through the valve apparatus). Typically in subsea environments, the process media will either be liquid, gas-based or a mixture of both. Additionally some processes due to the location of the operation, the process can also contain a significant amount of sand and debris. This can present several adverse effects including:

• Erosion of the valve internals
• Damage to stem and seat sealing faces within the valve
• Blocking of valve process flow paths within the valve

For more information about our Subsea valves, why not get in touch with Oliver Valvetek today?

The oil and gas industry continues to reach further into increasingly complex reserves in ever-more challenging environments. The surge in the number of subsea operations is making tougher demands on technology developers, making the importance of intelligent technology paramount. Bringing efficiency to these complex operations is growing every day and at Oliver Valvetek, this is something that we specialise in.

The quest for the optimum solution is always the objective of oil and gas Valve producers, such as ourselves, when evaluating designs for new valve processes or upgrading existing facilities. Although most end-user engineers will express some ‘out of the box ideas, they often fall back on tried and tested solutions as innovation is sometimes seen as a risk.

In harsh subsea environments, it’s critical to have equipment that allows operators to monitor the safety and efficiency of the subsea architecture continuously. The experience our team has at Oliver Valvetek will enable us to provide extensive field-proven subsea valves for oil and gas applications. We are thoroughly familiar with the requirements of the National, Major and Independent Oil and Gas Operators, Contractors and OEM’s throughout the world.

Read more below about how Oliver Valvetek is Conquering Unique Demands of the Offshore Environment with Custom, Value-Driven Manifold and Piping Solutions.

Process safety and availability

In an environment where safety and environmental protection are as critical as profitability and performance, there is the challenge to find the right mix of technologies to help them achieve safety and profitability. Process and application awareness is the central challenge today because data is the key to overcoming all the most persistent challenges: safety, efficiency, reliability and life of field maintenance.

Improving subsea valve technology is a prime goal to the exploration of production companies to increasingly recognise that the use of intelligent control systems is becoming a competitive advantage and a defining factor of intelligent valve development. There are developments within the industry and of working towards all-electric subsea production control systems to replace industry-standard electro-hydraulic control systems. All with the aim of making them more environmentally sustainable.

The intelligent valve controls to reduce risk and save money

A growing proportion of the oil and gas industry’s investment in new technology is focused on intelligent systems. These systems improve efficiency and make complex subsea reserves viable. Oliver Valvetek has a number of innovative designs and features led by field application developments and TEK Research and Development dedicated department to assess the technology needed years in advance. The industry is looking to incorporate ‘smart’ features into many components in the offshore production infrastructure to improve efficiency and enhance remote control capability as well as improved reliability and mean time to failure reduction.

Oliver Valvetek has developed a series of valve designs specifically designed for life at sea. In addition to the most reliable hardware and innovative intelligent subsea valve, controls give operators unparalleled awareness and control of their processes.

Valve solutions will no doubt be custom built to meet the specific needs of offshore applications, improve the integration of valve control with data flows, and make their response more accurate and more precisely adjustable. Get in touch with Oliver Valvetek today for more information about the processes when Conquering the Unique Demands of the Offshore Environment.

Subsea Distribution Units (SDU) and Umbilical Termination Units (UTA) are part of the critical Subsea architecture, for the safe and reliable handling of wellbore produced fluids. Selecting the right valve for these applications is vital to the overall efficiency and long-term reliability of the subsea field.

Underwater pipelines run at the bottom of the sea and allow a constant transport of oil and gas-produced fluids from the subsea well or manifold, which travels to the top side installation which could be an FPSO, platform or directly to an onshore processing installation. The ambient temperature, the process temperature and internal and hyperbaric pressure conditions at the seafloor in water depths of up to 3000m make the valve selection even more important.

Ensuring the safety of the entire subsea system requires high-quality valves for these specific oil, gas and control applications. Subsea Ball Valves provide the user with a soft seating quarter-turn isolation solution in either two-way, three-way, or four-way for many different applications. At Oliver Valvetek, we specialise in ball valves for subsea applications, commonly used in the subsea control systems, which are used to isolate, divert or test hydraulic and chemical lines associated with subsea oil and gas production systems.

Ball valve selection

Ball valves are one of the most commonly used valve types and can be found in use in a wide variety of industries. They have either a simple 90º or 180º operation and the possibility to allow uninterrupted flow to pass through the assembly makes this valve a popular choice for flow control applications.

Ball Valve Qualification

ALL Oliver Valvetek Ball valve products are rigorously qualified as a minimum to the latest API6A PR2F and API17D 2^nd Ed. Ball Valves are also subject to customer-specific testing which exceeds those standards.

At the heart of every Ball Valve

The key to the Oliver Valvetek Ball Valve is its market-leading design, design innovation and superior quality of components. Oliver only manufactures the heart of the ball valve itself – the ball. This is to ensure the strict quality requirements of ball sphericalness are achieved for long-term reliability.

Floating ball valves

If a low-pressure application is required, the simplest form of ball valve is the Floating type because of a design that utilises fewer mechanical parts. The basic principle behind a floating ball valve is a design that has a ball that will be pushed by fluid under pressure into the downstream seat when turned to the closed position. The seat, typically made of PEEK is designed to create a positive sealing surface when mated with the ball. Floating valves are typically used in applications that call for smaller bore sizes and lower pressures.

Trunnion Ball Valves

The most common Ball Valve for subsea applications is a Trunnion ball valve, offered in either two-way, three-way, or four-way configurations. These valves are used for high-pressure applications, typically up to 15,000 psi.

A trunnion Ball Valve is assembled in a three-piece design; the three sections consist of a middle section, which houses the trunnion ball, seat and stem assembly. The end closures are either screwed or bolted to the body with metal to metal gaskets.

Seat materials again are typically PEEK and can be supplied with various elastomeric or polymeric seals depending on the required application. Please contact our sales team for more advice.

Subsea applications

Subsea Ball valves can be operated by a variety of methods. Human divers can operate the valves in shallow water conditions. In deeper water environments, ROV-friendly actuators are utilised. Oliver Valvetek has a large variety of different industry or customer paddle and ROV intervention tool designs.

For more information about Subsea Ball valves and their use within Subsea applications, why not get in touch with Oliver Valvetek today?

In critical subsea systems, nothing is more essential than structural integrity to assure performance, safety and reliability. For subsea equipment where any failure or malfunction within a unit poses not only a primary safety concern but can also result in a severe commercial setback, reliability becomes a central concern. Deploying equipment deep underwater is costly and often challenging; therefore, it is vital to verify a product or component’s reliability under extreme pressure before it is deployed. This will increase efficiency and reduce the risk of unnecessary costs.

At Oliver Valvetek, our team is experienced in providing extensive field-proven flexible subsea valves for oil and gas applications from extraction through to processing. With robust systems for production, testing, Quality Assurance or Control and Valve Qualification to the latest industry standards of API6A PR2F and API17D 2^nd Ed, we deliver the best subsea valve solutions you require with complete product traceability.

Subsea Valves

Subsea valves can be installed into Subsea Systems with a working pressure of up to 20,000psi and sit in depths of up to 3,000m of water, and replacement of components at this depth requires remotely operated vehicles or full retrieval of the subsea architecture. For this reason, the replacement of even a single valve can become a multi-million-pound operation. At Oliver Valvetek, we take the performance and compliance testing of our Subsea valves seriously. It is the only way for clients and manufacturers to be entirely certain that a valve will perform reliably throughout its entire lifespan.

This is where subsea testing comes into play; the valves are put through their paces under simulated conditions. Most commonly used to transport oil and gas or controlling the operation of the subsea system, subsea valves are designed to function in a submarine environment, withstanding the effects of raised external hyperbaric pressure, salt-water corrosion, highly corrosive process media, or debris in the process carried thought the valve.

Oliver Valvetek subsea valves meet performance, safety and reliability expectations in the deepest water and harshest environments in the offshore oil and gas industry.

Dynamically testing the valve

Dynamic testing to either API6A PSL3, PSL3+G or PSL 4 means opening and closing our valves under specifically defined operating conditions. This is the only way to ensure that any possible leak paths are identified and that the valve will operate to its designed parameters. Any operational issues could cause the valve to fail subsea, resulting in a complete loss of function. As the demand has grown, we have been committed to testing, developing new and innovative ways to control the increasing temperature and pressure requirements at these greater depths.

Safety at the core of subsea valve development

As global energy companies continue to extract oil and gas from reserves deeper under the sea, the demand for pipeline technology increases, and valve manufacturers continuously develop and improve their products’ reliability.

Oliver Valvetek uses subsea testing, which takes the probability of any individual component in the system failing along with the level of risk presented by that failure, to improve the reliability of a valve design.

With the broader industry, Safety, Quality and Reliability are Oliver Valvetek’s primary concern and we work hard to ensure everything possible is done to minimise risk.

For more information on Oliver Valvetek’s innovative testing process to ensure extreme levels of reliability, why not get in touch today?