CAD Control Systems is meeting the region’s needs for Blow Out Preventers but do not underestimate a strong maintenance regime says the company’s Dubai based service engineer.
Headquartered in the Gulf coast US state of Louisiana, CAD Oilfield Specialties (CAD) is a specialist in the manufacturing of a range of various oilfield test and control systems which it supplies to the upstream market in 32 countries on all seven continents.
For the better part of a decade, CAD has been serving the Middle East through its strategic partnership with stockist and supplier to the oil and gas industry, Woodhouse International in the Jebel Ali free zone in Dubai.
From this Dubai base, CAD provides the regional industry with its customised closing units and spare parts which are manufactured to strict API standards.
CAD’s Dubai based service engineer and Louisiana native Mark Brupbacher is proud of the company’s profile and longstanding quality in the industry.
“Obviously in an industry where corners were cut, our main emphasis is getting the people that work on the rigs back to their families safely and that’s a big priority for me,” says the family man.
Local client base
Brupbacher, who’s working responsibilities cover the Middle East, parts of Central Asia and Asia, says that by having a local presence in the region, CAD is able to bypass the obstacles of time and geography where there could be a delay of nine hours for technical support.
“That delay, if we’re looking at downtime, is a couple of a hundred thousand dollars a day for an operator,” he says.
He says that it was easy for CAD to open its office in Dubai as it already had a strong clientele base who were already aware of CAD’s products and service capabilities adding that having someone locally available for technical support is important to them.
Brupbacher’s one-man team currently carries out the entire range of technical support and service work for CAD’s clients on a 24/7 callout basis.
“Hopefully within the next year, Woodhouse will be getting its repair license, and it will have a facility to undertake repairs. Once that starts, there’s no way I’ll be able to handle it all because I’m always on
the move.”
Gulf of Mexico
The April disaster and subsequent oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico cast a sharp light on the equipment used to prevent such events. When asked about the fallout of the tragedy, Brupbacher is adamant that it has been a positive learning experience albeit a painful and costly one for the entire industry.
“It has made it so much better, there are so many small operators and contractors that try to slide by, save a dollar, save a penny, and now since the Transocean Horizon everybody is getting more stringent on the safety aspect of it and they will not cut corners.”
“As far the safety aspect goes, it was a bad thing that happened to Transocean and BP but it was a good thing for the industry because now all these companies that were cutting corners aren’t going to be able to be cut corners, they either upgrade or they don’t get the contract,” he added. Ensuring a safe working environment on oil platforms is something Brupbacher is passionate about, he observes that maintenance of equipment namely BOP control systems such as CAD’s is his personal bugbear.
“The biggest issue is keeping the fluid clean,” says Brupbacher, “trash and debris is what tears down the unit and if you don’t have a good electrician or mechanic on the rig, sorry I don’t care how you build it, if the maintenance is not done, it’s not going to last. You can get out on a rig and tell a crew that actually ‘I know what this equipment does and this is going to keep me from jumping into the water and send me home to my wife’, and then you get on some other ones and it’s covered in grease and you can tell that they don’t know the last time that it was tested and you start worrying.”
