Latest news

02.05.2012  

New facilities in Pearland, Texas   A new office and service facility in Pearland is now up and running. The location is easily accessed from the 288 Freeway southbound from Houston. In addition to providing for maintenance and logistics services, the facilities also houses a down-scaled drilling rig intended for demonstration and trials with Anti Stall Technology prior to field operations.        The Anti-Stall Technology LLC office and service workshop was opened on May 2. The map and address for the location is found here

 25.04.2012  

One million feet done This month of April 2012 the Anti-Stall Technology has accumulated 1 000 000 feet of downhole drilling. The footage has been accumulating at an increasing rate helped by a strong increase in deepwater activity.       Ocean Poseidon drilling offshore Tanzania. The opertor Statoil has used AST throughout the program and when she is heading around the cape for Namibia and Petrobras next, the Anti-stall Technology goes along.

27.02.2012  

More vibration mitigation in the Caspian Sea Downhole anti-stall technology (AST) has been in regular use for challenging wells in the ACG (Azeri, Chirag, Gunashili) development with BP as the technical operator since 2010. The same technology is now also being implemented to reduce risk and provide for safe progress starting with the SDX-07a appraisal well that precedes the second stage of the Shah Deniz development.    The Istiglal semi-submersible is drilling in the frame of the Shah Deniz second stage Full Field Development that includes two new platforms and a new export pipeline

 10.02.2012  

Technical Article in January JPT The January issue of JPT had the "Technology Update" feature this time coveringing the Anti-Stall Technology (AST). The article gave an in-depth description of the AST operational principle with performance history and tool compatibility supported by case examples.  Link: http://www.spe.org/jpt/print/archives/2012/01/9TechUpdate.pdf      Facsimile of front cover January 2012, Journal of Petroleum Technology (JPT)

18.01.2012  

Service and warehouse facilities, Stavanger Tomax Norway celebrated the opening of its new, 14 000 sq.ft warehouse and service facility at Forus Wednesday 18th of January. The facility is already up and running to meet the accelerating demand for downhole tools and parts.   A new R&M facility is also being built in Rosharon, near Houston Texas. This building will also include administration offices totalling 9,000 sq ft. and will be the third R&M facility to be opened by Tomax. The first Tomax service facility was opened in Dyce, Aberdeen in March 2011 and is dedicated to thru-tubing tools.         The AST manufacturing supervisors and operators from Aardal Maskinering were specially invited for the opening. Entertainment was provided by the Tomax sponsored Holten Motorsport team that delivered big screen action from their victorious national championship season.

27.10.2011  

Effective vibration mitigation in deepwater GOM Based on significant drilling challenges through mixed sediments and volcanic rock early in the Logan well, Statoil USA drilling superintendent, Tore Gønås became the first to call out Anti Stall Technology in the Gulf of Mexico.  The tool was run with a 19 x 17 1/2" UR/RSS BHA and the vibrations were immediately replaced by steady parameters and fast progress. Use of AST continued by completing under-reaming the interval above and then for two more sections. All completed in one run.      Discoverer Americas came back from Egypt to drill the Logan well after the drilling ban was lifted. "- less trips and faster drilling makes AST an easy sell in this kind of environment" Grønås commented.

18.07.2011  

ASME recognition for mechanical engineering    The American Society of Mechanical Engineers (ASME) named the AST tool as one of 5 finalists for the 2011 petroleum industry “Best Mechanical Engineering Award”. The Award was presented at OTC 2011 and although not taking the first prize, VP of engineering at Tomax, Jone Mellemstrand was very satisfied; “This association is literally setting the standards for our work and being picked as a finalist for an ASME award is a big honor.“ The ASME jury used the opportunity to visit the Tomax stand at OTC to have a hands on display of the tool.  Presenting the AST are North America manager Clive Banister (closest) and president, Hakon Skjelvik

20.06.2011  

Petrobras extends AST contract period   Based on a number of completed field trails, Petrobras and Smith Services do Brazil have decided to extend the trial period to cover further drilling applications     The Tomax AST fleet in Brazil is maintained by a highly skilled team at the Smith Services centre in Macae

06.05.2011  

4 3/4" XD-AST in arctic frontier discovery   Due to largely unmapped formations and potentially rough seas, operator Statoil and the lead technology contractor Schlumberger decided to run a 4 ¾” XD-AST tool in the final 6 inch hole section on the "Skrugard" prospect. Drilling commenced with steady parameters, fast speed and zero interrupts -other than a stop for logging and coring what showed to be a major discovery.      The arctic class semi-submersible Polar Pioneer drilled the Skrugard discovery well. Picture from the Barents Sea taken from the stand-by boat (Corona) ,

26.04.2011  

BP Norge (Norway) AS signs contract with Tomax     Based on experience from fifteen sections in three different fields, BP Norge has signed a frame agreement with Tomax AS for further supply of Anti-stall Technology. The agreement also covers operations outside the Norwegian continental shelf. “Through this agreement, BP can effectively increase their gain from our technology Håkon Skjelvik, President of Tomax comments.     The hard, cretaceous formations in the Ula field is a key area for use of the Anti-stall Technology within BP Norge (Norway). Photo (C) BP

02.04.2011 

AST adds value to one-trip completions in Canada The latest development in perforation sleeves allows one run completion and time-efficient perforation of up to 24 zones. To optimize productivity further, some of the completions are opened to full ID and brought directly on stream through a coiled tubing milling operation using nitrogen. For this work the TT-Series AST tool is run extensively by system specialist Baker Hughes to minimize stalls and allow for the milling operation to be done in one single, fast run.   The Frac-Point(TM) one trip completion system from Baker Hughes consists of drop-ball operated frac-sleeves separated by expanding packers.

14.03.2011 

Extensive use of Anti-Stall Tools on the Alaska’s North Slope     In the search for optimal drilling efficiency operator Pioneer Resources PLC Alaska decided to run Anti-Stall Technology (AST) for the lower intermediate 8 ½” section and 6 1/8” 6000+’ dual laterals from the Oooguruk island in the Beaufort sea. With the 6 ¾” & 4- ¾” XD-AST tools run in the RSS BHA’s, down-hole vibration and mechanical wear has been minimized, with significant increases in ROP and bit life being realized when compared to off-set data from previous wells. To date more than 17 AST runs have successfully been completed on the island, having drilled a total of 58,364’ in 736 drilling hours with zero downhole failures in difficult drilling conditions. The artificial Oooguruk island forms the bais for Managed Pressure Drilling of long multi-laterals