ClampOn in the US Market: Deepwater GOM and Unconventional Shale

Upstream and Midstream Market:

In the United States the upstream oil and gas market is dominated by two strategically important resource segments: Deepwater production in the Gulf of America (Offshore Production) and unconventional shale (tight oil and shale gas production), primarily in the Permian, Eagle Ford, Bakken, Haynesville, and Appalachian Basins. Together, these assets account for a significant share of U.S. hydrocarbon production and continue to play a vital role in domestic energy security and global supply growth.

The Gulf of America is the largest offshore oil-producing region in the United States and Federal offshore GOM production contributes to approximately 14% of total U.S. crude oil production. Deepwater projects typically require billions of dollars in investment but can produce for decades, making them attractive during periods of stable oil prices.

Operators in deepwater fields face constant pressure to maximize recovery, improve production performance, and protect critical infrastructure. Reliable flow monitoring and early detection of changing process conditions are essential for maintaining well performance and reducing operational risk.

For more than three decades, ClampOn has supported the U.S. offshore industry with advanced, non-intrusive ultrasonic instrumentation designed to enhance production efficiency and asset integrity. Our technology helps operators gain valuable insight into flow conditions while minimizing operational disruption and installation costs.

Leading operators in the Gulf of America that are included in our customer base and sales portfolio include BP, Chevron, ConocoPhillips, Devon Energy, ExxonMobil, and Shell.

ClampOn Deepwater and Flow Assurance:

ClampOn has become the leading worldwide supplier of topside and subsea non-invasive ultrasonic intelligent sensors for sand/particle monitoring, pig detection, leak monitoring, vibration monitoring, corrosion-erosion monitoring, choke condition monitoring and flow temperature monitoring. The ClampOn Subsea Particle Monitor gives operators the best tool for maximizing profits, by means of controlling and minimizing the production of sand, hence producing at the highest production rate with no sand or an acceptable sand rate. Sand production in oil and gas wells is a serious issue for oil and gas producers. The challenge is not merely to avoid sand production, but also to optimize well productivity, as even the smallest quantities of particles in well flow can cause significant damage.

ClampOn’s compact instruments are in operation on thousands of wells, providing quantitative, real-time and accurate measure of produced sand particles. Subsea operating conditions, and in particular deepwater environments demand technical solutions that combine flexibility with high performance and extremely long service life. Our weight-optimized subsea sensors non-intrusive design and clever clamp-on fixtures make it an effortless compact instrumentation to install in up to 10,000 ft of deepwater. Operators all over the world have made ClampOn their preferred supplier of sand monitoring systems, due to the patented technology that turns their wells into profit generators.

ClampOn ASDs in the Unconventional:

Sand monitoring for the Unconventional Shale during post-completion and production operations offer important data used by engineers and operators to effectively manage decisions on well Integrity, facility & pipeline integrity, production optimization, operational efficiency and personnel safety. Industry experts in unconventional space are aware of challenges to reliably quantify sand or solids posed during hydraulic fracturing or fracking operations, plug drill out (PDO), Well offloading/cleanup and during production operations.

The ClampOn Particle (sand, solids, dust, iron fines, etc.) monitor, is an acoustic technology solution that provides measurements in real-time. For the past 34 years, the acoustic sand detector (ASD) has proven to deliver reliable and consistent sand data for managing decisions related to sand production in the upstream and midstream sectors of oil and gas operations for both topside and subsea applications.

Since 2014, several oil and gas operators in the unconventional shale assets in the Permian Basin, Marcellus/Utica, Eagle Ford and Bakken have deployed ClampOn topside acoustic sand detection and monitoring technology in delivering reliable sand data used for applications in real-time sand rate quantification, sand separator (SKO) efficiency, quantification of total sand mass for plug drill out operations and post-well offloading/cleanup. Other deliverables include providing sand data as key input to setup a sand auto-dumping schedule to improve the efficiency and reliability of the auto-dump operational strategy, to achieve minimal human intervention in the entire field operation’s design, reducing manpower cost and improving on overall personnel safety.

To broaden ClampOn’s footprint in the unconventional space and to keep up with our technological innovations tailored towards providing solutions for operators in this space. We have introduced a wireless, non-intrusive battery powered ASD known as the ClampOn BIRD which offers in addition to what the standard particle monitor does, applications for wireless solution in system set up and integration, real-time condition monitoring of pipes, flowlines, valves, etc.

In conclusion, the U.S. market is expected to continue relying on both sectors as deepwater offshore assets offer long-term production stability while unconventional shale delivers operational flexibility and rapid supply growth, making them complementary pillars of the U.S. oil and gas market. ClampOn will continue to be the largest supplier of passive ultrasonic systems for sand/particle detection not only in the U.S. market but the entire international oil and gas sector.