Castor Drilling Solution AS
Rising above
“We established Castor Drilling Solution AS (CDS) in 2011 and have been operative for more or less two years; today we are focused on the offshore market and all types of equipment related to drilling, and well intervention vessels,” begins Oyvind Vaagland Reiten, chief executive officer at CDS.
“We are mostly active with IMR operators and drilling companies. We have until now been working with developing a strong product base of different tailor-made equipment for various drilling and IMR operations such as plug and abandonment, top hole drilling and module handling. All of our engineering is carried out internally to deliver customised solutions for our customers.”
With a vision to become the preferred partner of customers requiring drilling equipment, solutions and engineering services within the global offshore market, CDS offers rig solutions and modifications, riser analysis, failure analysis, dynamic simulations and mechanical integrity services to rig operators, ship builders and oil companies. Based in Kristiansand, in the centre of the NCE NODE cluster (Norwegian Offshore & Drilling Engineering) CDS is run by a team of experts, boasting long-term experience within the offshore drilling systems industry. The innovative firm is focused on niche markets that require custom-made products within heave compensation, riser tensioning, hoisting and handling systems.
CDS is well prepared to deliver complete heave compensation packages and riser tensioner packages to the offshore market, as well as ensuring a full range of aftersales support services. CDS’ core product range includes drill string compensators (Castor Drill string Compensator (CDC)) and heave safe systems (inline heave compensators and coiled tubing lift and compensating frame (CCTLF)), as well as riser tensioning systems including conductor tension units (CTU), wireline riser tensioners (WRT) and production riser tensioners (PRT). Other products available include a variety of niche rotating equipment, pipe handling equipment, drillfloor equipment, air and nitrogen systems and well intervention systems. Flexibility is the key word here; CDS can tailor all products to successfully meet the demands of its customers.
Furthermore, CDS uses its extensive engineering knowledge to carry out services such as product developments, system modifications, engineering studies, multi-discipline simulations, dynamic modeling, damage analysis, material analysis and mechanical integrity assessments.
“Establishing us in a mature market is a challenge because we have to prove our unique capabilities in order to be pre-qualified for the different customers. This is time consuming, but we are so far making good progress and have been embraced by several large customers also together with our co-operating partners. Our achievements in the work of mechanical integrity analysis, multi-discipline system simulations and multi-body dynamic analysis, means that we can work in-house to fully understand the characteristics and verify how the overall tensioning and compensation systems will perform i.e. all the way from the baseplate on the sea bed to each hydraulic component and sensor comprising the complex systems,” highlights Oyvind.
CDS provides Riser Analysis for better insight into the dynamics of riser systems and other load configurations connected between the sea bed and a floating DP vessel in various offshore environments. The software used for the Riser Analysis is Orcaflex
CDS also uses Simulation X for 3D to accurately account for how all the sub-systems interact, these analysis services offer system visualisation at various modes of operation ensuring impressive benefits such as, enhanced engineering efficiency, cost reduction during product developments and early system testing. The simulations provide a valuable tool during the validation of the multitude of drilling, hoisting and motion compensation systems and sub-systems in accordance with specific requirements and or regulations during the engineering process.
Typical examples of simulation and analysis projects includes forces on well heads from the riser system and tensioning system, global riser analysis, anti-recoil control settings, landing and retrieval of BOP, accuracy of active heave compensation (AHC) systems; WOB variation for both passive and active drill string compensators, tension variation for inline compensators during a well test, ‘what-if’ analysis of systems, wire rope endurance analysis, material selections and failure analysis due to breakdown of protective coatings and corrosion damage.
In 2012 Seaonics AS entered into an agreement to acquire a 34 per cent share in the company from an unrelated party. Seaonics AS, is a joint firm between ICD industries AS and Vard AS (former STX OSV). By giving Seaonics a new insight into the demands of the offshore market, the acquisition provides both firms an opportunity to merge their knowledge and develop innovative integrated solutions.
“I think the two companies fit together well, we are a strong team, especially towards the well intervention and top hole drilling market. Our core competence is within offshore drilling systems, while ICD and Seaonics have a lot of experience in marine operations; by working together we have products to offer these new sophisticated operations on smaller ships as well as integrating products to maintain subsea installations,” says Oyvind. “We are strategically located, CDS is in the midst of the drilling cluster of Kristiansand, while Seaonics is based in the maritime cluster in Alesund on the west coast, so we are hoping our complementary knowledge will be a perfect match for developing integrated solutions.”
At the forefront of the market for using 3D design and simulation tools for multi-discipline multi-body dynamic analysis, CDS has the knowledge to generate operational input that can be used as a research platform for future product designs. “Our focus is on customised solutions for drilling through the development of specialised products for the existing drilling market; we are now introducing a new and highly improved drilling hoisting tower and compensation system with potential of being the future preferred drilling solution in the coming years. Based on this we hope to be one of the new and innovative players in this market with focus on optimised solutions for offshore drilling and IMR equipment,” Oyvind concludes.
Castor Drilling Solution AS
Services: Offshore engineering and drilling equipment provider