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Trelleborg’s buoyancy technology receives Pioneering Technologies Award

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Oilfield Technology,


Critical to delivering onboard operations offshore is the drill riser, which provides a conduit for the drill string and drilling fluids from the ocean floor to the rig. However, this has significant weight, which must be supported by its own structure and ultimately by the drilling vessel.

After pioneering the introduction of commercial syntactic foams in 1957, the need to reduce a drilling riser’s net weight in water, and ensure that the structure and drilling vessel are supported lead to Trelleborg supplying the first syntactic riser buoyancy modules for use in oil drilling in the Santa Barbara Channel in 1969. The marine riser buoyancy technology, specifically termed drill riser buoyancy modules (DRBM), for the next decade, achieved every new deepwater drilling record as depths reached up to 9000 ft.

As such, Trelleborg was awarded a Pioneering Technologies Award at the 2015 Ocean Star Gala event in Houston, Texas. Awarded for its significant contribution to drilling technology for marine riser buoyancy, Trelleborg now joins a select group of companies in the prestigious Offshore Energy Center Hall of Fame.

Alan Burgess, President for Trelleborg’s offshore operation, said: “To be recognized for our pioneering work in the use of syntactic foam buoyancy in offshore drilling applications is a huge honor for Trelleborg. We were responsible for innovating the use of syntactic foams for marine buoyancy applications and these are still widely used in today’s most demanding offshore drilling applications. We are very proud to be the only syntactic foam buoyancy manufacturer to be invited into the Offshore Energy Center Hall of Fame.”

Established in 1989, the Offshore Energy Center is dedicated to increasing awareness of the energy resources available beneath the world’s oceans and to record the unique heritage and technological accomplishments of the industry that discovers, produces, and delivers these resources.

The Pioneering Technologies Award recognises important technologies and the development of those technologies by individuals, companies, organisations and institutions in the fields of offshore technology. The center’s Hall of Fame recognises people and technological innovations that stand out in the development of the offshore industry and its resources.


Adapted from a press release by David Bizley

Read the article online at: https://www.oilfieldtechnology.com/drilling-and-production/16032016/trelleborg-buoyancy-technology-receives-pioneering-technologies-award/

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