Australia: WPC and ATV Join Forces in Subsea Valve Market

Western Process Controls have been one of Western Australia’s premier valve suppliers for the past 27 years, primarily in the Topside and Downstream market segments. With the advancements in subsea technology, making more subsea production processes possible and significant subsea projects in WA has led Western Process Controls to partner with ATV (Advanced Technology Valves) in pursuit of these opportunities.

Although WPC is new to SUB SEA and ATV is relative young company, they both have old heads through their solid historical valve engineering back grounds.

Western Process Controls is a Western Australian wholly owned and operated supplier of Process Control Equipment and Services. WPC represents a number of multinational manufacturers in the region of Western Australia since 1987. As the exclusive Fisher Controls Representative for the state, WPC have been successfully supplying valves to a number of high profile projects in the resources industry the past 20 years.

“Although we are new to the subsea market, WPC has built a solid reputation for delivering valves and services to major resources projects the past 27 years. We are diving into new opportunities, growing the company and invest in Western Australia’s infrastructure” says Vivian Van Rensburg, Director of WPC.

ATV was formed in the early 2006 and the company has evolved from a technical engineering services provider to a manufacturer of all types of valves for upstream and downstream applications. The headquarters is in Colico, 100 km (62 mi) north of Milan, and the company has commercial offices in Paris, Rotterdam, London, Oslo, Houston, Rio de Janeiro, Bogotà, Beijing, Dalian, Kuala Lumpur, Singapore, Perth, Abu Dhabi, Qatar, and Saudi Arabia.

ATV produces a wide range of topside and subsea valves (slab gate, expanding gate, ball valves, check valves, axial flow control valves and check valves, rising stem ball valves, HIPPS valves and others). Products can be manufactured in a wide range of alloys and high-strength, corrosion-resistant steels according to industry standards such as ASTM, Norsok, BS, and DIN. Where possible, ATV prefers to use forged materials for the purposes of intrinsic structural soundness.

The factory in Colico, which included a 7,500-sq m (80,729-sq ft) covered area, provides facilities for lifts of up to 70 metric tons (77 short tons). A wide range of test equipment, including seven test rigs of different sizes, can be used to qualify components such as high pressure, large bore valves and subsea actuators to demanding industry standards such as API6A and API17D. All the test rigs fit into underground pits, surrounded by heavy steel walls for safety purposes. Each is equipped with a data-logging system – clients can log on via the Internet to examine data available to the test operator.

Other test facilities in Colico include three hyperbaric chambers of small-medium-large size which can simulate pressure conditions in water depths of 1,500, 3,000 m and 4,500 m The 4500 m unit is the world’s heaviest such facility (privately owned), and will be made available to any company for testing subsea equipment, either on a rented basis, or with ATV providing operators, ROV tooling, instrumentation and so on.

Another new investment is a facility for assembly and testing of very large valves with fully automated weld overlay equipment and machine tools. The plant expansion should be completed during 1Q 2012.

ATV has also developed an on-the-spot acoustics emissions apparatus for volumetric, non-destructive testing of a valve’s pressure boundary (body-bonnet), and software to analyze data collected from the sensors. As this testing method may soon become an industry requirement, ATV will be prepared to carry on that test on a routine base.

ATV’s first offshore order was for subsea valves for the Gimboa project offshore Angola. Today the company supplies valves to all main subsea production system providers (Aker, Dril-Quip, GE Vetco Gray), and to pipeline contractors such as Heerema, Allseas, Technip, Subsea 7, Acergy, and Saipem.

Among its recent subsea deliveries were a consignment of large top-entry ball valves – ranging from 14-18-in. (36-46 cm) diameter, ANSI 150 class with forged bodies – for the Statoil- GDF operated Gjoa development in the Norwegian North Sea. ATV was responsible for engineering, manufacturing and qualification of the valves and their helical spine retrievable hydraulic actuators, designed to match Statoil’s proprietary interfaces.

ATV’s are also contracted to qualify and supply a subsea swing check valve of 44-in. (1.12-m) diameter and other high-pressure ball valves in sizes from 12-in. to 22-in. (30.5-56 cm) for a major oil company in Australia; and a contract for high-pressure/high-temperature (HP/HT) gate valves of 6 5/8-in. and 5 1/8-in. with a 15,000 psi rating for a project in the Gulf of Mexico.

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Subsea World News Staff , January 27, 2012;  Image: WPC