Aubin Brings its Gel Based Products to Brazil

Although the Scottish chemical technology company Aubin originally specialized as a cement and stimulation additive supplier, it has made strong inroads into the Oil and Gas industry in recent years, with the subsea sector being their main target.

The company is based in Ellon, Aberdeenshire and has been in business since 1987. Some 6 years ago they came up with a novel product, which came to be known as “gel with a memory”. It is mainly used for pipe pigging purposes as it can be squashed but returns to its original shape. Named L-gel, the product is also used for risers, which are considered impossible to be pigged. It can go around tight bends and through blocked areas where a conventional pig would probably get stuck.

In its other form, the L-gel can also be supplied as a liquid, so that if a client has a pipeline where it is impossible to get a pig in, the L-gel can be introduced as a liquid gel and the pig forms inside the pipe. Other gels in the company’s pigging line may be used for cleaning pipelines and removing debris.

Aubin started a strategic partnership with Brazilian Nortech to distribute  Aubin products and provide services covering pipeline gels and pig gels. Although Aubin has its own manufacturing plant in Ellon, the Scotish company is also looking at the possibility of building a manufacturing plant in Brazil in the future as it believes the market in Brazil may have great demand for their products and with the added benefit that a plant in Brazil could also cover manufacturing for prospective clients in West Africa, where Aubin has already done some tests for clients and is on the verge of closing important contracts.

Aubin also has interesting products for the ballast market, such as Liquidense, which makes it possible to secure objects to the seabed quickly without the used of heavy cranes. In a very interesting development they can use one gel to provide controlled buoyancy to lower heavy equipment to the seabed and use Liquidense to hold the equipment in place.

Claudio Paschoa

http://youtu.be/1xOEVyLpbzU - L-gel pig introduction