Absolute Completion Technologies

Absolute Completion Technologies 10th Anniversary Profi le |

ABSOLUTE SUCCESS

AAAlberta is home to many innovative minds, but how often do you hear about a local company that has achieved international success? It’s rare! Beyond the innovative concepts, it takes years, if not decades of perseverance, an extended reserve of resources and an unwavering commitment to succeed. And such is the case with Absolute Completion Tech-nologies Ltd. (Absolute).

Absolute is an Alberta-based fi rm that has succeeded by designing new technology-based solutions and develop-ing unique manufacturing processes to create products that enhance sand control, fl ow control and well completion per-formance. Absolute’s founders set out to “build better wells” and after achieving success in international markets, heads are starting to turn in North America. They have stayed true to their objective and as a result, they have helped hundreds of oil and gas operators achieve better results by helping them to adopt technological advancements.

Absolute has experienced a 40 per cent growth rate – com-pounded annually – since 2002. They’ve gone from three employees to more than 100 in Canada, while deriving 70 per cent of their sales revenue from outside North America. Their products are installed in 35 countries spanning all the major continents. They have partnered with one of the largest fi rms in the oilfi eld service industry – to provide worldwide dis-tribution – yet Absolute has retained independent Canadian ownership.

Absolute is more than just another Canadian success story; they bring absolute innovation, absolute determination and absolute solutions to the global well completions business – they are “changing the game.”

History in the MakingAbsolute was founded by a group of innovative engineer-

ing professionals with extensive knowledge of completion tool design and sand control technology. This team had engineered and developed the patented technology to manufacture a revo-lutionary sand control product called MeshRite™.

MeshRite was designed specifi cally for sand control in heavy oil, and employs a fi lter technology which had repeatedly dem-onstrated superior performance over conventional fi lter media in laboratory testing and proven fi eld results.

A large international fi rm made a bid to purchase this break-through product and the MeshRite technology was sold in 1999. “In 2002, we approached the company who had bought the technology because we felt they weren’t maximizing its potential,” says Thane Russell, vice president, business develop-ment and technology.

Absolute bought the technology back and agreed to work with the fi rm as their worldwide distribution partner. “We ramped up manufacturing and started aggressively educating clients and repositioning MeshRite in an effort to increase

BY MARY SAVAGE

Absolute Completion Technologies 10th Anniversary Profi le

Thane Russell, VP Business Development and Technology and Jay Haskell, President and CEO

MeshRiteTM Sand Control Manufacturing

Glenn Woiceshyn, VP Engineering

| Absolute Completion Technologies 10th Anniversary Profile

acceptance in the global market-place,” adds Thane. “It truly is a groundbreaking technology and history has proven its merits.”

During 2002, Absolute manu-factured about 2000 linear feet of MeshRite and 10 years later, 2012 will see approximately 250,000 feet produced out of their Edmonton facility.

In 2007, they started to look beyond MeshRite and into the development of new products, including FacsRite™. “We had been researching advanced filtration technologies for years and were closely following the development of fusion-bonded lam-inates,” adds Thane. “These laminates, combined with a unique screen geometry, proved to be the integral design components in the FacsRite filtration technology.”

By 2010, Absolute had developed and patented FacsRite, and by December of that same year, the product was commer-cialized. Today they see a growing demand for its application

worldwide including Canada. Recent enhancements to the laminate technologies by Abso-lute and one of its partners have yielded a superior filtration

media, which is leading to a step change in the performance of the FacsRite product. Early deployment results are very encouraging.

A third innovation to emerge from Absolute is FluxRite™, a technology that combines superior sand control with pressure profile and flow control. “Flow control is a newer concept for Canada, but it has been deployed extensively internationally over the past five years. There are pockets of the international industry where the benefits of this very exciting technology are already well understood and in use,” remarks Thane. “Effec-tive inflow and injection control is critical to the production efficiency of SAGD or CSS well geometries, therefore we are confident that FluxRite will have a significant role to play in

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PERFORATED TUBES I N C O R P O R A T E D

Congratulations on the Completion of ten absolutely amazing years.

To all our friends at Absolute Completion Technologies, happy anniversary.

PT-11140_congrat_ad_FINAL_R2.indd 1 9/6/12 8:48 AM

MeshRite™

MeshRite™ is a sand control system that’s completely unique in the industry and Absolute is the only company that

manufactures it. “Effective sand control involves a few key components, and primary among them is very high retained

permeability. Whatever system you put in place, it needs to retain its flow capability through the life of the well,” says Glenn

Woiceshyn, vice president engineering. “MeshRite has very high flow capability. Its performance is unique because it has

a wide distribution of pore sizes and shapes that give it extremely high retained permeability when tested by virtually any

distribution of particle sizes. Simply put, it can handle high production rates with a very low-pressure drop for a very long

time,” explains Woiceshyn. “It can be used in any sand control application and we build it to virtually any length and size.”

With MeshRite, the operator gains significant advantages: longer-life wells, higher-productivity wells plus wells that are

de-risked with respect to changing sand sizes encountered along the length of the well bore.

“MeshRite can handle a large variety of sand sizes and mechanically, it’s very tough. You can bend it, torque it, compress

it, or expand and contract it thermally and it stays together. The filter media is inert to temperature, so neither filtration

performance or mechanical integrity is affected even by extreme changes in temperature typical of Canadian operations,”

he adds. “These three advantages are powerful incentives for operators to use it in their wells.”

Absolute Completion Technologies 10th Anniversary Profile

FacsRiteTM Manufacturing

Absolute Completion Technologies 10th Anniversary Profile | www.perftubes.com

PERFORATED TUBES I N C O R P O R A T E D

Congratulations on the Completion of ten absolutely amazing years.

To all our friends at Absolute Completion Technologies, happy anniversary.

PT-11140_congrat_ad_FINAL_R2.indd 1 9/6/12 8:48 AM

| Absolute Completion Technologies 10th Anniversary Profi le

Canada, and in other heavy oil markets.” Although Absolute’s main objective is to design better per-

forming technology, another key priority is getting people to

understand that there are better products available now. “We

are trying to raise the level of awareness of new technology

within the technical community, and to raise the degree of

understanding of how these new products and technologies

work within the well bore system,” says Jay Haskell, president

and CEO.

“When people have a greater understanding of the science

that underpins the behaviour of these products, they begin to

look beyond the status quo and to realize what’s possible to

achieve out of their wells. That’s how we unlock the potential

to really improve well performance,” says Jay.

“We provide engineering services in an effort to ensure

companies are using the right solution – even if it is not our

solution. We have a history with many different technologies

and applications and we are happy to offer an alternative or a

different approach to optimize well performance,” adds Jay.

“We have a fairly conservative industry when it comes to

new completion technology and it takes time for new solutions

to be accepted,” asserts Jay. “It’s a high capital industry and the

risk tolerance is low. It’s not until horizontal wells are on pro-

duction for a few years and start to show signifi cant problems

that people begin to look for new solutions.”

Years ago, Absolute recognized the importance of persever-

ance and resiliency in order to succeed. “For a company like

ours that’s trying to bring new technology to the marketplace,

you need staying power, perseverance and resiliency. You have

to be in the game for a while before you can start to change

the game,” adds Thane.

Looking ForwardThe Absolute team is looking optimistically to the future.

They have new ideas and an unwavering commitment to pro-

vide optimal solutions. “One of the key reasons that we are

excited about sand control and fl ow control is because it’s a

Manufactured in Alberta Absolute started 2012 by moving into a brand-new 36,000 sq. ft. manufacturing facility in Edmonton. Given market

demand, they hadn’t even fully moved in when they realized they needed greater production capacity, so they added another

14,000 sq. ft. expansion. The facility is purpose-built, fi lled with custom equipment that provides large-scale machining

capabilities; in fact they have 10 of the biggest milling machines anywhere in Alberta.


Absolute recognized the importance of perseverance and resiliency in order to succeed.


M A C H I N E L T DCNC & MANUAL MACHINING EJECTOR & DEEP HOLE DRILLING

FacsRite™

The FacsRite™ fi ltration technology is comprised of

multiple layers of woven metal screen bonded together to

create a dense mesh. The screen elements can be woven in

practically any pattern and each weave has a different solids

retention capability.

The metal screens are layered to create a pseudo-3D

structure then fused together to create an incredibly strong

construction, while maintaining all the desired fi ltration

properties. “The industrial process engineering world has

been using similar structures for years, but it is a relatively

new concept in the oil and gas industry,” says Woiceshyn.

“When we mounted these screen structures inside the

wall of the pipe, we found we could create something that

was geometrically advantageous with a larger open fl ow area

and large well bore radius – properties that tend to improve

well production,” he adds. “That geometry also makes it

very easy to deploy in long horizontals, it’s extremely strong

and it creates a very effi cient well bore. The fi ltration system

has a higher plugging resistance and is made from high-end

metals like stainless steel, so it won’t corrode.”

The FacsRite patent was issued in 2010 and since that

time, Absolute has commercialized the technology and built

the manufacturing process from scratch. Since launching

FacsRite, Absolute has increased production ten-fold to

support unabated demand.

“All of our technologies were targeted specifi cally for

heavy oil applications and specifi cally the Canadian market,

but we have people interested from all sectors of industry and

that’s because FacsRite™ delivers excellent fi ltration and

better strength at a reasonable cost,” Woiceshyn comments.


FluxRite™

Fluxrite™ is a flow control system that marries MeshRite and/or FacsRite with flow control devices to manage both

sand control and flow control in a well. It can be used in either injection and production applications. Absolute’s technology

allows the well operators to manage the pressure profile along the well bore, thereby optimizing the productive potential

of the well.

“When you change a well from vertical to horizontal, you change the flow dynamics in the well. It’s a totally different

engineering problem and you have to think of it more like a pipeline than a well,” says Woiceshyn.

“We started to see some interest in flow control around 2005 and we had the technology approved for use in Saudi Arabia,

Africa and Southeast Asia. Now we are introducing the technology to Canada,” he adds. “When you look at Saudi Arabia,

they won’t drill any wells without this technology.”

As Woiceshyn indicates, Absolute has engineered and supplied all the flow control completions to date in Kuwait. “There

are parts of the world where flow control is big news and companies have been running the technology for years, but there

are other parts of the world where they have never tried it so it’s a great opportunity for us.”

FluxRiteTM Injection and Inflow Control System


tremendous platform around which to build better wells. Our

platform of sand control technologies is just the starting point

for Absolute,” says Thane. “Our success to date has allowed

us to hire some excellent people, and they are making a ter-

rifi c contribution to the company and to industry. We are very

proud of the team we have assembled here at Absolute.”

“As the trend continues toward the application of horizontal

well construction, new problems with new complexities are

emerging. The drilling industry is moving in a direction that

dovetails well with the technology areas we are developing.

Drillers are very creative in delivering innovative well bore

geometries. However, now industry has to fi gure out how to

complete these wells, produce them and intervene in them

when something goes wrong. What do you do with a failing

horizontal well that’s 15 years old? You need a whole new set

of tools because what you used in a vertical well can no longer

be applied. Everything changes,” he observes.

“We are trying to establish a culture around technology

adoption that includes education and a higher level of technical

understanding than what we have today. We need to help pro-ducers to stop relying on what was done in the past and instead fi nd the technical and economic solutions required for better producing long-life wells. You can only achieve that through experience, investigation, research and development of new technology,” he adds. “We are grateful to work in a province that puts so much emphasis on new technology, and has made world class research resources such as C-FER and Alberta Innovates available to growth companies such as Absolute.”

What’s NextDuring October, Absolute will be holding an open house

where they plan to unveil additional new technologies in three product categories.

For more information, please contact:

Jose Francisco AlbornozTechnical Advisor Manager - Canada, US & Mexico.403-266-5027 | www.absolutect.com



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