Yorky grinder's fishing application lands a sale

The order follows on from a recent sale to the Baker Hughes Azerbaijan Oilfield Equipment Repair Facility, Based in the Hassi Messaoud Commune, the Baker Hughes facility in Algeria needed a high speed, heavy duty but flexible, easy to operate machine to grind specialised fishing tools which can be unwieldy in design. A fishing tool is required when a drill pipe is damaged or lost, or if the drill bit comes adrift during the drilling operations. The adrift part has to be retrieved before drilling can proceed and this is where the fishing tool comes in. The tool is generally tailor-made via an impression made in soft material sent down the bore hole. As soon as a drilling operation is shut down costs escalate, so the fishing tool needs to be ground to specification with some urgency before being put down the bore hole to retrieve the damaged or lost equipment, so drilling can continue. Initially discussions were held with the Baker Hughes Aberdeen facility, as Graham Thomas, managing director of Broadbent Stanley, explains: "Bakers are a tough company and insist everything has to be spot on. Apart from cost, any product going into an oilfield environment has to be of a heavy duty construction and be ultra reliable due to the costs involved. "From years of experience in the oil and gas industry with our oil country lathes, we knew there was a market for the Yorky and, pleasingly, we're now getting some prestigious installations - we've sold almost a dozen machines in the past year alone."