A decade ago, few could envision the technologies we all currently enjoy. Technology has improved the way we approach just about everything in our day-to-day life.

Today, it is entirely possible that all your activities surrounding OTC--from booking airfare, securing a hotel, making dinner reservations, all the way to arranging for a driver to pick you up and drive you to NRG Park in a private car--were done using your smartphone.

That same phenomenon is occurring in well completions as frack operations just became significantly less complicated.

Thanks to new innovations, Weir Oil & Gas is taking frack-iron handling and flowback operations where they’ve never been before. Many will look back and wonder why the industry worked with such a large footprint of cluttered, disjointed pipes and thousands of moving parts to manage very high pressures, rising costs, and increased nonproductive time.

And, they will wonder how companies operated without real-time data and automated controls in managed-pressure drilling (MPD).

Today, Weir Oil & Gas is offering new, fit-for-purpose applications that can be tailored to any condition or basin from its new Simplified Frac Iron System to its innovative Pressure Control Intelligent Systems (WPC-IS).

While it may still be common over the next few years to see a maze of pipes and hammer unions that resemble a bowl of spaghetti more than a high-tech operation for natural resource extraction, this no longer needs to be the case.

These simplified iron systems reduce the amount of iron on-site by 84%, from the frack stack to the zipper manifold. Think of the simplification that brings to the jobsite: less potential leaks to chase, fewer connections, and a dramatic decrease in nonproductive time, to name a few.

An independent Canadian operator recently put the One-Straight Line (OSL), a component of this new simplified system, to the test. Results were persuasive, as they completed 40 frack stages resulting in minimal pipe wear. In addition to experiencing all the benefits mentioned, system components lasted more than 3x longer than similar applications under the same harsh operations.

Beyond a simplified frack iron system, Weir’s new Pressure Control Intelligent Systems (WPC-IS) include removing the guesswork for MPD and flowback operations.

For those applications, there has not been an accurate method for measuring the levels within the mud gas separator and eco-tanks, or for reporting the carbon footprint from vent gas emissions. The most common way of learning of a problem is when a tank overflows or a kick occurs, leaving little time to respond.

This technology now provides real-time data and automated controls to enhance safety, reduce environmental impact, and enable customers to make better, more informed decisions.

These systems provide customers with a control panel that enables the ability to receive and record information from sensors placed on pressure control equipment.

This information can be communicated through a Cloud-based customer portal and collects data for a single piece of equipment or multiple products, depending on need. An entire system can be used, or customers now have the ability to rent control panels and sensors and retrofit to their own equipment.

The system can monitor a variety of measurements for each piece of equipment.

Currently, Weir’s Vent Gas Analyzer IS (VGA-ISF), Mud Gas Separator IS (MGS-ISD), Ecotank IS (ECO-ISL), and the control panel are available for rent as part of the WPC-IS, with additional enhancements coming soon.

In a world where everyone wants more, it turns out less is more when it comes to the way we approach well completion operations.

Less NPT, less iron, less footprint, less guesswork, fewer connections, fewer potential leak paths, lower labor cost, less risk…it all adds up to more than we ever could have imagined.

Weir Oil & Gas will be exhibiting in its new booth 3438 at OTC.