GE Oil & Gas has improved its Hydril blowout preventer (BOP) and remote monitoring and diagnostics (RM&D) capabilities. The new ‘Drilling iBox’ (DiB) system, a hardware/software combo, leverages real time data, currently somewhat under utilized, turning it into useable products like reports and status updates. DiB feeds monitoring data into GE’s ‘Proficy’ suite for reporting and diagnostics. GE has also announced subsea drilling data recorder (DDR) a.k.a. a ‘black box’ for BOP data logging. The DDR, like the flight recorder used on aircraft, captures operational data and stores it on a hardened system that can survive in ultra deepwater depths and pressures in the event of an emergency.
Other BOP innovations include RamTel which provides a direct indication of ram position and activity and a system that allows remote operated vehicles to access critical information when the main BOP control system communication path is ‘disrupted.’ The technology can be retrofitted to all GE BOP Multiplex (MUX) control systems. More from www.oilit.com/links/1105_12.
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