James Walker - ED-Resistant Elastomers and Seals for Downhole, Wellhead and Upstream Duties

High performance fluid-sealing specialist James Walker provides products and services on a regional basis to satisfy the demands of global operators in the oil and gas industry.

Engineers who use James Walker seals on North Sea projects expect the same technical support and service when using them in the Gulf of Mexico or Timor Sea.

Similarly, equipment manufacturers in China and Singapore need identically-approved seals for valves and pumps as those in Europe and the USA when supplying multinational operators.

James Walker's oil and gas sector operation now holds local stocks for the major oilfield supply bases of Aberdeen, Stavanger, Houston and Singapore. Backed by oilfield support in France, Italy, Germany, Australia and South Africa, it serves the worldwide exploration, production and refinery markets efficiently.

Our global pricing structure is also important, as purchasing officers appreciate cost stability as much as product quality, sealing reliability and surety of supply.

HIGH-PERFORMANCE ED-RESISTANT ELASTOMERS AND SEALS FOR DOWNHOLE, WELLHEAD AND UPSTREAM DUTIES

Explosive Decompression (ED) problems in the North Sea fields led to James Walker becoming involved in the trouble-shooting aspects of the oil and gas sector. Today, it leads the world with high-performance ED-resistant elastomers and seals for downhole, wellhead and upstream duties.

Our five main grades of ED-resistant elastomer have been in-house validated at elevated temperatures using high-pressure methane / CO2 mixtures. They were tested at our own ED test house – a facility few other companies possess. Shell, Total and OEMs have approved these materials.

Two ED-resistant grades are qualified to Norsok M-710 requirements, with FR58/90 having a sour gas rating of 817 years and Elast-O-Lion® 101 rated at 36.7 years. Both have high integrity fluid-sealing capabilities.

In addition, FR58/90 possesses excellent chemical and thermal properties, with Elast-O-Lion 101 also having exceptional mechanical strength and wear resistance.

ONE OF THE TOUGHEST ED TESTING REGIMES

Norsok M-710 has one of the toughest ED testing regimes, combining rapid gas decompression tests for ED-resistance with the evaluation of sour gas (H2S) aging.

This enables life predictions to be made for application conditions. This is invaluable information for operators in the North Sea, Caspian Sea, Middle East and sour fields worldwide.

With ED-resistant materials under constant development, the company regularly introduces new high-performance seals to take advantage of material advances. It tailors materials and seal designs for optimum performance, then precision-moulds them up to 2.2m (87in) diameter seals in a single operation.

SEALING PRODUCTS FOR OIL AND GAS

‘O’ rings are moulded in more than 100 grades of high performance and general elastomers in order to fulfil international standards and custom specifications. Seven million are stocked, many in ED-resistant materials.

SPRINGSELE® AND TEESELE® DOUBLE-ACTING SEALS

Springsele® and Teesele® double-acting seals are used downhole, on wellhead and surface equipment, valves, high-pressure pipelines and riser systems. They handle arduous mechanical conditions with anti-extrusion elements that enable them to seal large clearances.

ELASTOMER-PROOFED FABRIC FOR ROUGH CASING AND PRODUCTION TUBING

P-Seal is for rough casing and production tubing. It has a profiled element of elastomer or elastomer-proofed fabric, plus anti-extrusion elements of compressed stainless steel mesh. It is energised by injected plastic packing.

FS CASING AND TUBING SEAL

FS casing and tubing seal combines the benefits of Springsele® and P-Seal. This wellhead seal is validated on rough casings to API 6A Appendix F, PR2.

CUSTOM-SEALS

Custom-seals are developed by James Walker's materials technology centre, where materials application and field engineering teams study clients' fluid sealing problems and create the best value working solutions.

OTHER JAMES WALKER PRODUCTS

Other products include tie-down and lock-down screw packings, mud pump packings, Metaflex® spiral wound gaskets, metal ring joints made in the UK by API-licensee James Walker Moorflex, Comflex® expansion joints and flexible bellows, RotaBolt® tension control fasteners and Tico® pipe support products.