Kongsberg enters offshore drilling ops alliance with SES

Kongsberg Maritime and Stress Engineering Services have formed a strategic alliance to offer integrated services, systems, and support to operators and rig owners covering all stages of a drilling operation.

Kongsberg Maritime Inc., North American division of Norway’s Kongsberg Maritime, and Houston-based Stress Engineering Services (SES) teamed up to provide engineering services and integrated technical solutions within offshore drilling and floating production systems.

Kongsberg said that the combination of SES’ engineering expertise within all aspects of offshore drilling and the footprint of Kongsberg’s dynamic positioning (DP) and automation systems within the existing mobile offshore drilling units (MODU) fleet can offer services, systems and support to drilling contractors, oil & gas companies, and equipment manufacturers in the upstream sector.

According to the company, the duo will be able to cover all stages of a drilling and workover operation from planning, execution, post operations, and condition-based maintenance.

Kongsberg and SES will work on improving and developing new functionality for Kongsberg’s real-time riser management system (RMS) with a focus on riser and wellhead fatigue in addition to enabling improved efficiency of drilling and workover operations.

The RMS is fully integrated with other Kongsberg-made systems installed on MODUs including K-Pos dynamic positioning, K-Chief marine automation, acoustic systems, and the company’s information management system (K-IMS) for data aggregation, data analytics, and remote access and monitoring.

Stress Engineering Services will provide enabling technology such as their subsea vibration data loggers (SVDL) and real-time fatigue monitoring system (RFMS) to assess riser and wellhead fatigue.

The newly formed alliance will also cooperate in the area of floating production systems. Kongsberg’s experience within the design and analysis of flexible riser and umbilical systems will be combined with SES’ riser expertise within floating production systems for both green and brown field applications.

Jon Holvik, president of Kongsberg Maritime Inc., said: “We believe that together we can better leverage the unique competencies, technologies, and products offered by Kongsberg and Stress Engineering Services to serve our clients with smarter and more cost-effective services and solutions.”

Chuck Miller, vice-president of Stress Engineering Services, added: “By working with Kongsberg, we can together provide drilling system services that empower engineers to more efficiently make informed decisions in the ever-more challenging offshore drilling environments.”