Type Subsidiary Founded 1958 Parent organization Johnson Matthey | Industry Oil and Gas Number of employees 250 | |
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Products Instrumentation and Services Headquarters Billingham, United Kingdom | ||
Tracerco profiler nucleonic level density measurement instrument for separators desalters etc
Tracerco is the oil and gas services subsidiary of British chemical company and conglomerate Johnson Matthey.
Contents
Tracerco brief introduction
History
In 1958 Imperial Chemical Industries (ICI) established a division to research the use of ionizing radiation within chemical processes. They found it was not possible to use it as a catalyst, but found it could be used to assess/diagnose within the chemical process, typically ahead of plant turnarounds. In the 1960s the division was named Physics and Radioisotope Services, performing flow studies, heat exchanger leakage tests and column scans on a chemical plant in the UK. To support the work being done in hazardous areas, a range of Intrinsically safe radiation monitors were developed. Most of this early work was later recorded by Peter Jackson.
In 1967 the first nuclear gauge was developed to measure the level within a vessel at Billingham chemical works. The Specialist Measurement Instruments section was established with a range of level, trip and Nuclear density gauges, typical application of which is slug catchers and separation vessels.
A General Atomics Triga 250 kW Mark 1 nuclear reactor was operated from 1971 to 1998. This was used to create short half-life radioisotopes for use in chemical plant diagnostics, sample analysis and forensic work.
In the 1970s the business supported development North Sea oil industry, selling a range of services and nucleonic gauges. In the 1980s bases were established in Aberdeen, Houston, Sarnia and Edmonton. Subsea gauges were developed for grout monitoring. Subsea nucleonic gauge level system was developed for Texaco Highlander Slug Catcher Tartan tieback. As well as techniques to assess and diagnose fluidised catalytic cracking units.
In the 1990s a range of Flooded Member Inspection and Pipeline Inspection Gauge Tracking services used in pipeline pigging campaigns. As well as methods to characterise the flow from oil and gas reservoirs were developed.
The Tracerco Profiler entered the market in 2000, this Nuclear density gauge allows customers to see into their separator. This product received the Queen's Award for Innovation.
Imperial Chemical Industries sold the group to Johnson Matthey in 2002.
Tracerco bought the Process Diagnostics division of QuestTruTec in 2006 to become the largest supplier of nucleionic diagnostic services currently in operation.
Business Operations
The company has 7 business units: