Cameron has been a Schlumberger company since 2016. Its dedicated and experienced people are committed to providing state-of-the-art wellhead, surface, and ow control products, systems, and services to oil, gas, and process companies around the world. Leveraging a global manufacturing, sales, and service network and working alongside industry experts across markets, disciplines, and applications enables Schlumberger’s Cameron business to keep creating and delivering the technologies that help its customers in the Americas and across the world achieve their goals.
Valve World Americas had the pleasure of speaking with Joshua Stanford, Production Systems Product Manager, Valves and Actuation, to discuss the four key focus areas of Cameron’s U.S. operations—manufacturing, employees, services, and a diverse portfolio—and how they exemplify its dedication to engaging and partnering with its customers to continuously achieve more.
By Angelica Pajkovic
Following its passion for innovation and its purpose of ‘unlocking access to energy for the benefit of all,’ Schlumberger provides the technologies and services that help the energy industry solve some of its toughest challenges. Through its Cameron business, Schlumberger provides pressure control, production, processing, flow control systems, and project management services. With a focus on its service offerings, domain expertise, manufacturing capabilities, a diverse technology portfolio, and employee excellence, Schlumberger provides its wide range of industry-leading technologies and services to customers in the Americas and across the globe.
“Our primary objective is always to help our customers, both in our plants and in the markets that we serve,” stated Stanford. “Schlumberger is putting in significant effort towards getting end users to understand that we are their partner, and that we are looking to help them accomplish their goals.”
How is this accomplished? According to Stanford, it is the combination of experience, knowledge, and expertise gained from all of Schlumberger’s facets that allow the company to navigate the constantly changing industry. This allows the Cameron business to provide not only pioneering technologies, but high-quality products and extensive service that meet the needs of its vast client base.
Comprehensive Service
“I believe a unique advantage of Schlumberger, especially in terms of our services, is that we are physically located everywhere in the world that produces oil and gas,” explained Stanford. “Our presence and overall ability to be close to each of these markets really helps drive the ideas and the strategies that keep us ahead, and allow us to offer our expertise.”
With over 60 locations around the world, including 25 in North America that support Cameron’s OEM and third-party brands, the company can efficiently provide high-quality products and services to all its customers. The direct access to engineering and manufacturing subject matter experts (SMEs) within Cameron, simultaneously allow the company to solve the most challenging issues its customers face. “The personal relationships that we build with our customers mean that not only do they have someone to speak with, but in many instances they also personally know the people,” Stanford added.
The Cameron Valve Services team is also able to leverage synergies with other service teams for multi-skilled support and understanding of its customer needs. “Our service engineers can support customers during routine maintenance or turnarounds, with anything from valve replacements, to providing solutions with the latest available technologies,” said Stanford.
Manufacturing Excellence
To accommodate the fast and reliable service that its customers have come to expect, Cameron has two manufacturing facilities in the U.S. that support a wide range of products for the North American market. Both facilities are Cameron Centers of Excellence, supported by all functions of the organization, including engineering, project management, quality, customer service, and supply chain.
The Oklahoma City facility opened in 1946 as the Drilling Equipment Manufacturing Company and has continued to evolve by adding more products and brands over the years. It now specializes in high-volume production and manufacturing of valves, and is aided by a rigorous Continuous Improvement Program, as well as automation in assembly and testing.
The other plant dedicated to the North America market is in Ville Platte, Louisiana. This facility opened in 1983 as part of Cameron Iron Works, manufacturing wellheads. Like the company’s Oklahoma City facility, this plant has evolved quite a bit over the years and is now a Center of Excellence for products serving the transmission market, specializing in large-bore pipeline valve manufacturing, including welding, machining, assembly, testing, and value adds, such as coatings or extensions. Most of the manufacturing in Ville Platte is make-to-order, which allows customers to select specific congurations for their application and then release orders to production for the shortest possible lead time.“By design, the culture we have created in our manufacturing facilities puts the customer at the center of everything we do,” expressed Stanford. “We encourage customers to come to our facilities for valve training, to participate in kickoff meetings, and perform routine audits. We do this because we really want to establish the long-lasting relationships between our customers and the employees who manage their orders every day.”
Depending on the objective of the individual who is visiting the facility, a plant tour can consist of anything from a quick tour in which the customer is able to walk the fl oor, watch a demonstration of some core competencies, and an introduction to a service representative, to more in-depth design reviews to explain the processes being used and establish reliability.
“We also welcome customers to come to our facility so that they can see the advanced manufacturing technology and attention to detail that goes into each of our products. It is so important for our customers to see this, because it goes far beyond what we can communicate to them virtually, or in a spreadsheet.”
A Progressive Portfolio
With over 100 years of experience, Cameron has established an extensive portfolio of high-quality valves and actuators. These include, but are not limited to: ball, gate, check, plug, butterfly, globe, choke, chemical injection metering valves, as well as mechanical and power actuators that cover most onshore and subsea top-side application needs.
“All of the valve types that we manufacture, along with the range of available sealing technologies, are managed under the many brands that our customers are so familiar with. “Cameron, WKM* valves, GROVE* valves, ORBIT* rising stem ball valves, GENERAL VALVE* plug and diverter valves, TOM WHEATLEY* check valves, WHEATLEY* check valves, TEXSTEAM* plug valves, RING-O* subsea valves, DEMCO* valves, ENTECH* nozzle check valves, NUTRON* ball valves, AOP* valve and choke technologies, LEDEEN* actuators, DYNATORQUE* valve accessories, MAXTORQUE* high-performance valve productions, and several other brands are all supported and produce a wide range of products,” stated Stanford. “As a manufacturer and supplier of premium valve brands, our customers also expect us to keep up with the industry requirements such as emissions, which is why Cameron continues to invest in developing new technologies for these industries.”
Cameron therefore has an extensive portfolio of certified low-emission (lowE) valves. “Over 95% of our products are low-E certified,” continued Stanford. “We launched a low-E campaign several years ago and have since developed a number of new sealing technologies that meet the API 641 and ISO 15848 standards. Recently, Schlumberger has also been particularly focused on the emerging hydrogen market. “We are actively working on defining the necessary standards to ensure that we offer lab-certified solutions to the ever-growing market.”
Process Live
Process Live data-enriched performance service optimizes the economic performance of a production network or process facility from the point source to enterprise levels. It integrates digitally enabled equipment, collaboration with OEM experts, and maintenance, to enhance asset life cycle management.
Some of its main features include:
- Monitor and proactively identify equipment integrity and health with data-driven recommendations;
- Optimize processes by integrating data-driven automation and connected production models;
- Provide Green House Gas (GHG) Control, which delivers domain advisory insights to minimize environmental impact.
- For example, Process Live Uptime Assurance for valves provides real-time insights and alerts on valve integrity to schedule maintenance, reduce unplanned downtime, and mitigate risks to people and the environment.
The Extra Mile
Schlumberger further elevates its service offerings through its new digital technologies. “For example,” said Stanford, “Schlumberger recently commercialized its latest digital solution tool: Process Live* data-enriched performance service.
Process Live service is a data-enriched performance service tool designed to prevent valves and actuators failure by monitoring key performance parameters. It will fl ag performance characteristics that are outside the operating envelope for an intervention before the valve fails, which can result in an overall system’s down-time. By integrating systems like these, Schlumberger can ensure that its customers have the opportunity to be proactive rather than reactive.
Employees
“While we are very proud of our world class manufacturing facilities and the diverse product lines, our greatest assets at Schlumberger are our employees,” said Stanford. To achieve its legacy of technology innovation, Schlumberger has recruited talented people from all over the globe to make up the best engineering teams in the industry. In addition to developing original products, this team of skilled professionals participate with industry organizations, maintain valuable relationships with customers, and are in constant contact with their peers to leverage the best technical knowledge for the company.
“Everyone from the design engineers, and front-line manufacturing team, to the individuals in our shipping departments, have incredible pride in what they do; they strive to make our customers happy,” expressed Stanford. “It is evident when we host customer meetings in our plants, offices, or virtual calls, that our people really make the difference. We are grateful to have an employee base that is made up of several generations of excellent service.
Looking Forward
As a company that is recognized not only for its dedication to advancing energy technology, but for all the industry-firsts it has had, Schlumberger is excited for the opportunities that the projected growth of the energy sector will bring.
“Over the last 12 months, we have seen a ramp up of activity in the U.S. market, which has translated to an increase in demand, especially for our onshore production products. Our objective now, like always, is to assess the needs of our customers, make sure our sales and operations planning process are up to date, and then use our expertise to create technology that moves the industry forward,” concluded Stanford.