Superior Energy Services and Concentric: Innovating for Higher Performance

 

Superior Energy Services (Superior) assists drilling and production companies through integrated well intervention services and tools, with a focus on health, safety, environment, and quality (HSEQ). Superior provides premium customer support from experienced staff, and offers well services and tools to supply a broad range of operational needs, from onshore to subsea solutions. 

 

Fostering a “Founder’s Mentality” is a point of pride for Superior. “We look to acquire top-performing companies, then ask them to keep doing what they were doing well,” said Superior Vice President of Corporate HSEQ and Training, Kerric Peyton. “All the while, our corporate side provides capital support for growth, as well as HR guidance and strong HSEQ leadership.”

 

One example of this principle in action is Superior’s subsidiary company, Concentric Pipe and Tool Rentals (Concentric). Founded in 1972 and purchased by Superior in 2000, Concentric, provides rental tools and equipment for the completion and well servicing phases of the petroleum industry. Since its purchase by Superior, Concentric has grown strategically and is currently expanding its presence in Brazil.

 

Concentric’s President David Wilson explained, “Entrance into the Brazilian market requires commitment and patience; it will take time before seeing the return on investment. Superior empowers us as a smaller entity. We have autonomy, but we also have publicly-held corporate backing from Superior.”

 

In an industry where a five million dollar job can sometimes be sacrificed due to an ill-maintained or misused piece of two hundred dollar equipment, Concentric’s leadership recognized an essential market need. In response, Concentric provides excellence in the details by taking over supply and installation of the low-tech equipment that can make an enormous difference in rig safety and efficacy.

 

Brazilian rig operations are shifting to adopt Concentric’s services. Mr. Wilson explained, “Instead of all the pain of maintaining capital expenditure, reinvestment, painting, inspection, etcetera, they just call us for perfect equipment in perfect shape, installed for them.”   

 

In addition to providing these essential services, Concentric is also innovating new equipment to improve performance. A next generation product aimed at eliminating the use of sledge-hammers in the makeup and break-out of high-pressure, temporary flowline connections, The Superior Safety Wrench System (SSWS), has been proven to decrease rig setup time by nearly two hours while substantially reducing injuries. With an industry-average of USD $100,000 cost per injury, and 58 percent of injuries being sledge-hammer-related, the combined increase in profit from Concentric efficiency, and reduction in injury-related cost, provides clients’ return on investment and increased HSEQ performance. According to Mr. Wilson, the SSWS “pays for itself on the first job”

 

Concentric’s services offer massive benefits to companies like Petrobras, which currently cannot work at night or in rough seas due to their system of umbilicals and piping to boats. Mr. Wilson said, “We can set everything up on the rig and all they have to do is pull up with a single line and hook up before moving on to the next job. They could do ten times more than they are doing now by using our system.”

 

Superior Energy Services Website

Concentric Website