Trelleborg’s offshore operation has been awarded a Pioneering Technologies Award at this year’s Ocean Star Gala event in Houston, Texas. Trelleborg was awarded for its significant contribution to drilling technology for marine riser buoyancy and the company now joins a select group of companies in the prestigious Offshore Energy Center Hall of Fame.
After pioneering the introduction of commercial syntactic foams in 1957, Trelleborg’s manufacturing facility in Houston supplied the first syntactic riser buoyancy modules for use in oil drilling in the Santa Barbara Channel in 1969. For the next decade every new deepwater drilling record was achieved using the company’s buoyancy, as depths reached up to 9,000 feet.
Upon receiving the award on behalf of the company, Mark Angus, Executive Vice President for Trelleborg’s offshore operation, said: "To be recognized for our pioneering work in the use of syntactic foam buoyancy in offshore drilling applications is a huge honor for Trelleborg. We were responsible for innovating the use of syntactic foams for marine buoyancy applications and these are still widely used in today’s most demanding offshore drilling applications. We are very proud to be the only syntactic foam buoyancy manufacturer to be invited into the Offshore Energy Center Hall of Fame."
Established in 1989, the Offshore Energy Center is dedicated to increasing awareness of the energy resources available beneath the world’s oceans and to record the unique heritage and technological accomplishments of the industry that discovers, produces, and delivers these resources.
The Pioneering Technologies Award recognizes important technologies and the development of those technologies by individuals, companies, organizations and institutions in the fields of offshore technology. The center’s Hall of Fame recognizes people and technological innovations that stand out in the development of the offshore industry and its resources.
Trelleborg’s marine riser buoyancy technology, specifically termed drill riser buoyancy modules (DRBM), helps to reduce a drilling riser’s net weight in water to ensure that the structure and drilling vessel are properly supported.
