Q & A

- Who are Tracerco?

Tracerco is an industrial services company that primarily works within the Oil and Gas Industry. They use specialised equipment and techniques to aid with unique detection, diagnostic and measurement solutions.

- Where are they and where did they come from?

Tracerco’s headquarters’ is situated in Billingham, Teesside, in the North East.

Tracerco was formed in 1958 as a small research and development arm of I.C.I (Imperial Chemical Industries); it diagnosed internal I.C.I problems through early tracer technology and grew in knowledge and expertise in this new and exciting field. At the fall of I.C.I it was deemed appropriate for Tracerco to offer their diagnostic services to other companies (this previously wasn’t practice as it would be seen as helping out the competition). Tracerco continued to develop new tracer techniques to assist 3rd parties, thus different departments started to take shape. In 2002 Tracerco was sold from I.C.I to Johnson Matthey.

- Where are they working? Where are their offices around the world and who are their customers?

Tracerco overate all over the world. Given the nature of some of the work, they go to where they are required by the customer. This could be on offshore drilling platforms in the North Sea, refineries in the Middle East, pipe yards in South Africa or using detection equipment of vessels above sub-sea pipelines anywhere on the globe.

- Where was I working/ based during my time with Tracerco?

My title was Industrial trainee and I was based at Tracerco’s Headquarters’ in Billingham. I worked within two departments within the year, the Process Diagnostics department and the Reservoir Technologies department.

- What do they do as a business?

The modern Tracerco is split into six different departments. These include; Process Diagnostics, Reservoir Technologies, Radiation Protection Advice and Training, Product Assurance, Instrumentation, Radiation Monitors and Analytical Ser-vices.

- What is their number of worldwide employees?

Tracerco employ approximately 350 people worldwide.

Industrial Placement 2012/2013 Poster Presentation - Tracerco,

Oil and Gas Services Company.

Tom Freeman, Chemical Engineering Undergraduate.

FRACKING TRACER INJECTION

Where:

I was given the opportunity to apply my learning by working with my US Tracerco colleagues in Texas, USA

My role:

To support the flow profiling of onshore hydraulic fracking

How it works:

By the application/injection of a liquid chemical tracer down the well

Different areas of the drilled hole are ‘tagged’ with different chemical tracers

During flow-back of shale gas the tracer can provide insight on which areas of the frack contain the most hydrocar-

bon reserve

What I did:

My job was to inject the specific chemical tracer fluid for each particular stage of the Frack (each perforation in the

rock is a stage)

Water, acid and sand in specific orders, types and volumes are pumped in to aid recovery; we also pump our tracer

in during this process

I had a 9 minute window to apply the tracer and had to ensure that the tracer was evenly distributed throughout the

perforation

The job took 8 days, working 12 hour shifts per day and I tagged two wells in each shift

I was fully trained prior to the job. There is a photo of our tracer injection station in the appendix of this report

PERFORATION PELLETS APPLICATION

Where:

In March 2013 I was given the opportunity to travel to South Africa to complete a perforation pellets application on-

to a pipeline used for petroleum extraction

I was due to return to South Africa and complete the sampling, however unfortunately the job was delayed past the

point of my return to university

My role:

To prepare and apply the tracers and support the interpretation of the results

How it works:

There were 12 pipes where tracer perforation pellets were applied

The tracers are spread in the reservoir by explosion of the charge they are attached to

When the product is collected at the surface and sampled, we can indicate which areas within the reservoir are

producing

What I did:

Prior to the job, I was heavily involved in producing the different pellets from their original tracer compound

I wrote a risk assessment for the compaction equipment prior to use

On the pipe yard, we installed the perforation pellets onto the ‘scallops’ (Scallops are lowered areas on the pipe

surface) with epoxy adhesive and titanium putty to ensure a strong bond and minimize risk of failure

PIG RECEIVING

Where:

In June 2013 I was given the opportunity to travel to Germany to be involved in a Pipeline Inspection Gauge (PIG) receiving job at Germany’s main gas terminal from the North Sea, which provides most of the gas for northern mainland Europe

My role:

I was involved in installing the Tracerco tracking equipment onto three areas of the pipeline as it neared the termi-nal, and also the removal of the radioactive sources from the PIGs once they were out of the PIG receiver

How it works:

The PIGs were used as ‘plugs’ during the de-commission of pipeline at a closed rig

Radioactive tracing equipment was put onto the pipe, ready for the PIGs to set off the signal (showing they had reached those points)

This gave the clients information of the whereabouts of the PIGs and how long until they were to reach the termi-nal

If the PIGs did become blocked the radioactive signal could be used to determine their location

What I did:

I met with the Tracerco German Engineers upon my arrival, explained how to use the equipment and worked with them throughout the job

Prior to leaving for the job, I was trained on how to use the new radioactive tracking equipment developed by the Development department at Tracerco

I travelled by van and ferry from the Tracerco base in the UK to the German Tracerco base with all of the equip-ment required for the job

I was also involved in removing the radioactive sources from the PIGs once they were out of the PIG receiver. This involved using a radioactive monitor, tongs and a radioactive type 1 container

PIPE SCAN

Where:

The Bruce platform, North Sea

My role:

I carried out (with a senior Tracerco Diagnostics Engineer) a pipe scan on the gas platform in the North Sea

This required the prior completion of the industry off-shore survival course

How it works:

Pipe scans are very similar to column scans, the source is placed on one side of the pipe, the detector on the other

and the counts are taken

The counts are proportional to the density. When the thickness of the pipe is known, we can calculate the depth of

known substances in the pipe

What I did:

My job involved positioning the source and detector for counts, talking and recording the counts and assisting in in-

terpreting the results and producing the report for the client

This poster presentation focuses on the 4 main on-site jobs that I completed during my time at Tracerco.

Each of these overseas trips were fantastic opportunities that I earned through my hard working ethos and

standard to the work that I completed at the Tracerco base and at sites around the Teesside area for 3rd

party companies.

Each of these job were when Tracerco sold jobs to Oil and Gas companies and I went with colleagues to

complete said jobs. During these jobs, I was the face of Tracerco to the customer and therefore it was of

the upmost importance to complete the job with the upmost professionalism.