For decades, oil and gas companies have used tools called geophones to get a glimpse of the inside of a well or a potential oil field, helping direct where to drill.
The technology uses electronic sensors that measure seismic waves moving through layers of soil and rock, valuable data for geologists mapping the subsurface.
It’s also a potential tool for oil and gas drillers employing the practice of fracking, which pumps millions of gallons of chemical-laced water into oil- and gas-bearing rock formations. The problem is geophones are easily ruined and costly – a system designed for a single deep well might cost $5 million.
That’s where Jim Andersen, chief executive of US Seismic Systems Inc. in Chatsworth, sees a huge opportunity. His company manufactures a different kind of well-monitoring tool that is about 20 percent the price of traditional systems and one that he claims is much sturdier.
Traditional geophones use wire-wrapped magnets to measure seismic waves, but those elements and other components of the system are prone to failure at high heat. US Seismic’s system captures ground movement through the use of an armored fiberoptic cable that emits light and captures its reflection. The electronic systems that translate that light data into seismic information are at ground level, not underground.
“The only thing going down into the well is a fiberoptic cable with fiberoptic sensors. There’s no electronics down the hole,” Andersen said.
Founded in 2007, US Seismic made its first sales last year and has ramped up this year, growing from just eight employees a few years ago to more than 50. The company had sales of $1.1 million in the first half of the year; last month, it reported selling a system worth more than $1 million to Brea geologic imagine firm SR2020 Inc.
Bill Bartling, chief executive of SR2020, said he hopes to use US Seismic’s tool to help oil and gas producers get more out of wells in the booming Eagle Ford Shale region in southern Texas.
By using the system to monitor existing wells and providing images of untapped areas, he said companies should be able to make better decisions about where to drill and to see whether fracking is unlocking as much oil and gas as expected. The Eagle Ford Shale is an area where high-temperature wells make the use of standard geophones impossible.
“Right now, they’re doing it blind,” he said. “They have some great (well) zones and some horrible zones, but the horrible ones cost just as much.”
Andersen said US Seismic has demonstrated its technology to seven firms and six of those bought systems. He expects sales to boom next year.
“We’re going to start putting them out in a lot of volume,” he said.
Cold Snap
Calnetix Technologies LLC, a high-tech manufacturer in Cerritos, specializes in building compact generators and magnetic bearing systems found in everything from unmanned aerial vehicles to biomedical plants.
Now, the 60-employee company is headed for the high seas. Calnetix announced last week that its technology will be part of a prototype cooling system for the Navy.
The Navy is retrofitting older ships and wanted smaller, more efficient chillers, which are used to cool everything from electronic equipment to crew quarters. It’s now testing a system that uses Calnetix’s high-speed small generators and magnetic bearings, which stabilize a drive shaft using electromagnetism instead of lubricated ball bearings.
Herman Artinian, vice president of business development at Calnetix, said the chilling system is smaller and more powerful and efficient in part because, unlike older models, it doesn’t need oil.
“You don’t need oil cooling, you don’t need oil pumps,” he said. “It gets rid of a lot of the auxiliary systems.”
The company is a subcontractor on the project to York International Corp. of York, Pa., which won a $2.4 million contract to develop a chiller prototype. Calnetix officials would not disclose the value of the subcontract.
Targeted Market
Specialized work gloves made by Torrance company Ironclad Performance Wear Inc. have always been available at hardware stores, lumber yards and sporting goods stores.
But the company has announced that starting this week a few of its products will be available at more than 1,700 Target Corp. stores nationwide.
Minneapolis-based retail giant Target will carry outdoor sports gloves co-branded by Ironclad and camping giant Coleman Co. Inc. in Wichita, Kan. Ironclad acquired licensing rights from Coleman last year and makes two models, a lightweight cloth glove with a synthetic leather palm that retails for $17.99 and a cold-weather fleece glove with a reinforced palm and finger grips that sells for $24.99.
Gloves for outdoor sports are among Ironclad’s newest products. The company is best known for making task-specific work gloves for all kinds of professions, from lightweight gloves specifically for box handlers to impact- and heat-resistant models for oil and gas workers.
Staff reporter James Rufus Koren can be reached at [email protected] or (323) 549-5225, ext. 225.
