Schlumberger has recently announced the launch of the GROVE IST integrated seat technology ball valve.
The new ball valve technology features a patented seat-on-ball design that significantly improves performance over conventional metal-seated ball valves in addition to offering considerable size and weight benefits.
“As the industry deals with more demanding reservoir conditions, conventional trunnion-mounted ball valves have only been slightly modified in design to adapt to these challenging environments,” said Brent Baumann, president, Valves & Measurement, Schlumberger.
“The GROVE IST ball valve introduces a disruptive technology uniquely designed to mitigate the risk of leakage at higher pressures and temperatures and to save operating cost,” Baumann was quoted as saying in a press release sent to arabianoilandgas.com.
Conventional ball valves tend to become larger in size and weight as oil and gas companies explore harsher environments. The GROVE IST ball valve overcomes these conditions with its enhanced seat design that provides advanced sealing performance and increased valve life span while minimising size and weight, ‘enabling customers to reduce total cost of ownership’.
The GROVE IST ball valve has undergone a qualification test programme that qualifies the full product range to API 6A PR2 for performance, API 6AV1 for slurry testing and API 607/6FA for fire testing. In addition, in-line flow testing validation was performed at an independent, accredited testing facility to further simulate real operating conditions.
