ORBIT Success Story

Friction-free sealing. Long Life. Reliable positive shutoff. Buying quality pays off in the long run.
ORBIT rising stem ball valves installed in a hot emulsion service in Wolf Lake SAGD thermal recovery
project are inspected after 20 years of service and are found to be sealing 100%.
About 30 years ago when SAGD in the Canadian Oil Sands was in its infancy, ORBIT rising stem ball
valves were selected for a thermal recovery project at Wolf Lake, a facility owned by Talisman at the
time.
The ORBIT valves were installed into SAGD recovery in their production well lines as ESDVs (Emergency
Shutdown Valves) and critical isolation valves which were manually operated, in this case. The service
was hot emulsion which consists of bitumen, water and entrained sand, where temperatures can reach
between 450 and 800 F (or 232 and 425C). These valves remained in this service for 20 years.
When a decision was made to expand the project, facility operators were charged with evaluating their
existing equipment before moving forward with their best recommendations for new flow equipment.
By this time, BP owned the Wolf Lake SAGD operations.
Facility operators knew the ORBIT valves were not leaking because no pressure had been detected
downstream.
CAMSERV Camerons Aftermarket Service, was called in to do an internal inspection of the ORBIT
valves.
Bruce Wedley, a long-time employee in the valve industry, first with ORBIT and later with Cameron for
the past 27 years, recalls the day when he went out to inspect the ORBIT valves. When we stripped
down the valves, we found there was no damage to ball face, at all. There were some sand particles
pressed into the seat, but the ORBIT valves were still sealing one hundred percent (100%). We put the
valves back together and BP kept them in service for many more years.
With the discovery of how well the ORBIT valves stood up in such a hot, abrasive and critical service,
SAGD facility operators were very impressed and a decision was made to standardize on ORBIT for
future ESDs in a hot emulsion service. BP purchased approximately $9 M in ORBIT product in the 6 years
following the inspection. ORBIT valves are in operation at the facility today.
When asked to comment, Bruce Wedley replied, ORBIT made standardization a very easy decision for
facility operators to make. I wasnt a bit surprised by the valves performance and durability. After
working with ORBIT valves for almost my entire career, experience has shown that ORBIT is the best
valve ever. Thats my opinion.
Friction-free sealing. Long Life. Reliable positive shutoff. The ORBIT rising stem ball valve is your best
choice for total cost of ownership.