Other enterprise/end user profiles
End-user organisations providing support for the project by way of advice, attendance at meetings, test samples, venues for field trials;
Vicinay Cadenas, Spain
Profile: Vicinay is a family owned Spanish company that has been part of the Basque Country iron and steel industry since the 17th century. Its manufacturing plant in Bilbao is now mainly dedicated to the manufacture of mooring systems for marine and offshore applications. Reliability and innovation have made Vicinay a leader in its field. It designs, manufactures and supplies chain and all types of accessories to meet the needs of the oil and gas industry. An ongoing co-operation with the University of the Basque Country and with the Labein Technology Centre has helped guarantee its final products are of the highest quality.
Role in project and reason for participating: Vicinay is an end-user for the ChainTest inspection system. It regards any improvement to the in-service inspection of chains as a benefit. It will promote the use of mooring chains and therefore increasing Vicinay's business. Vicinay's will be able to provide sample chain links for laboratory work.
Petrobras, Brazil
Profile: Petrobras is the Brazilian national oil company. It is vertically integrated involved in exploration, production, refining, transportation, and sale of oil and oil by products. In 2003 it is producing 1,612 million barrels of crude oil and 1,740 million m3 of natural gas per day. Eighty percent of this production comes from offshore assets. It has 93 fixed offshore production platforms in relatively shallow water and deepwater facilities (see below).
Petrobras is the world leader in the exploitation of deepwater assets. For example, in 2002 it was producing 84,000 bpd from its Roncador field in water depths of 1,400 metres, the deepest producing field at the time, and was drilling in 2,800 metres. Because of these deepwater activities it owns 25 floating production storage and offloading facilities (FPSOs).
Role in project and reason for participating: Petrobras is an end-user for the ChainTest inspection system With its enormous investment in FPSOs and other floating platforms, Petrobras views participation in ChainTest as part of its strategy to improve the financial efficiency of its operations and the effectiveness of its inspection programmes. Failure of a FPSO mooring system would be extremely damaging not solely to Petrobras but to the offshore oil industry as a whole. It would lead to environmental pollution and the closure of the facility until the problem had been solved. The lost production cost alone could amount to Euros1,000,000 per day. Currently the mooring chains to Petrobras' FPSOs are inspected by ROV 'swim-by'. These are recognised as being inadequate. If the ChainTest project is successful, Petrobras, through its specialist inspection service companies, would use the system developed to replace these visual inspections.
If the project is successful, then Petrobras would be the first customer outside Europe of the ChainTest system and would look to buy the system from the consortium SMEs.
