Wireline Issue 46 - Autumn 2019

Thinking globally Similarly, Baker Hughes’ upgraded and expanded CoE at Montrose was supported by a £4.9 million grant from the Scottish Government through Scottish Enterprise. The campus, spread across more than 35 acres, supports the design, manufacture, test and assembly of advanced subsea technology and solutions in one location. Equipped with a range of advanced tools and processes, it represents the largest footprint of Baker Hughes’ oilfield equipment division. “With the large advances we’re going to need in technology and equipment—and given the challenges our customers are seeing in deepwater operations — we saw an opportunity to relocate our strategy and how we support our market and our customers,” explains Rich. He says Montrose represents the global hub for Subsea Systems operations and is now set to deliver everything from design and development to shipment and servicing. Features of the new-look facility include an indoor system integration test (SIT) area which, he says, has prompted positive feedback from customers because of the way it has further improved quality and customer delivery standards. The site is also now home to Baker Hughes’ Aptara Design Centre, focused on its Aptara™ Totex-lite solution — a family of modular, technology-focused products designed for the life of field. Baker Hughes has had a presence in the Angus port since the early 1980s and Rich says the enhancement of the facility is a logical extension of that relationship: “The level of investment is a vote of confidence in the UK and in our operations, and equally signals to customers how we are going to drive solutions for them — not just in this area of the world but globally,” he adds. “The work of this site feeds around the world — we’ve had shipments to the APAC region and to Egypt recently, for example. It’s the hub of our network within subsea and offshore as well as within our services footprint, and it partners with other sites around the world.” He believes that those capabilities — and flexibility, in manufacturing terms — help customers to achieve greater productivity: “Just as important is the way it supports collaboration with our customers, who can come and work with us. Many modern-day fields are very complicated, and the technology needed to support them is much more complex.” Grow with the flow One of the core features — and core benefits — of the AMF at TÜV SÜD National Engineering Laboratory is the three-phase gravity separator system, which Muir says has been conservatively designed to allow for the separation of components at very high pressures and flow rates.

“We believe we’re building the future of metrology here in Scotland.”

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