Valle Silencioso SA has increased its stake in promising Socotherm

On 17th April, 2012, Valle Silencioso SA, a company managed by Sophia Capital, has acquired 50% of the outstanding shares of SO-4 Ltd from 4D Global Energy Investments Plc. With this transaction, Valle Silencioso S.A. will now beneficially own 60% of the outstanding capital stock of Fineglade Ltd, which owns shares representing approximately 95.8% Socotherm's capital stock and growing business.

A coating contractor, Socotherm, has seen its participation in the main sectors of the worldwide offshore industry increase recently. Through its US subsidiary, located a few miles away from Houston and in partnership with LaBarge Coatings LLC, the company is mainly serving the US Gulf of Mexico (GoM), but also other auspicious regions such as Brazil.

Cardamom, Llano (Phase 3), Tubular Bells, and Papa Terra are among the latest contracts awarded to Socotherm for the application of its premium product Five-Layer Syntactic Polypropylene (5LSyntPP) thermal insulation coatings. The first three oil and gas fields are located in deepwater in the GoM and the fourth one in Brazil.

Cardamom is located in blocks 427 of the Garden Banks, 195 miles southwest of New Orleans and at a depth of 2625 ft. It is 100% owned by Royal Dutch Shell (Shell), and it was the first project to be approved by the US government since the lifting of the moratorium on deep drilling, placed after the Macondo oil spill on April 2010. For this project, Shell Offshore Inc. awarded Socotherm the contract for the application of 5LSyntPP coating on the riser pipes (10 800 ft of 6.625 in. x 1.119 in.).

Llano is in blocks 385 and 386 of the Garden Banks, approximately 200 miles southwest of New Orleans in around 2600 ft of water. Shell, the operator, holds a 27.5% interest in the field. Amerada Hess owns 50%, while ExxonMobil has the remaining 22.5%. J Ray McDermott, as responsible for detailed engineering and installation, awarded Socotherm a contract for coating its subsea pipeline. In this case, the company was awarded by Shell Offshore Inc. for the application of 5LSyntPP coating on the flowline pipes (15 200 ft of 8.625 in. x 1.137 in.)

Tubular Bells is situated 135 miles southeast of New Orleans in the Mississippi Canyon area, in water depths ranging from 4300 - 4600 ft. Hess holds a 57.14% stake in the field and Chevron USA holds 42.86%, while Technip is managing the project during the engineering and construction stages. The coating operation involves flowlines and risers and it is the largest project to be carried out by Socotherm during 2012 in its US facility as described in the table.

The Papa Terra field is a heavy crude oilfield located in block BC-20 of the Campos Basin, Brazil. The field lies at a water depth of 3904 ft, 59 miles offshore Brazil. Petrobras operates the field with 62.5% interest, while the remaining 37.5% interest is held by Chevron. Coating application was awarded to Socotherm by Dril Quip. In addition, Dril Quip also requested a system that could keep the same thermal insulation properties on the coupling areas of the pipeline. In order to provide an end-to-end solution to this issue, Socotherm will design and manufacture tailormade Syntactic Polypropylene (SyntPP) half shells.

The involvement of Socotherm in these operations is positively correlated with the increasing empowerment given to its R&D team after the reorganisation of the company due to the presence of new shareholders. With a bigger stake in the company, Valle Silencioso SA, is aiming to make Socotherm the main player in state-of-the-art thermal insulation technologies, providing that increasing depths of new subsea wells are demanding stringent operation conditions. Going down this road, Socotherm recently presented a new corporate image under the slogan: “We are ready for the challenge; we are in the future, now”.

Edited by Cecilia Rehn with input from Socotherm.

Read the article online at: https://www.oilfieldtechnology.com/drilling-and-production/16052012/valle_silencioso_increases_its_stake_in_offshore_coatings_contractor_socotherm/