Sensa Announces Acquisition of York Sensors Following Funding from Lime Rock Partners and 3i
10/10/2000LONDON, October 10, 2000 – The demand for fibre optic technology that optimises the production and delivery of energy has led Sensa, specialists in real-time fibre optic data solutions to the oil and gas industry, to acquire York Sensors Ltd.
York Sensors developed fibre optic distributed temperature sensing during the 1980s. The technique has now been used extensively around the globe to monitor power distribution cables, detect leaks and monitor hot spots in refining, LNG operations and petro-chemicals in addition to its use as a downhole sensor for oil & gas production.
York customers include Electricite de France, National Grid Company, and other power utilities, underground train and tunnel operators, who use the unique technology to identify potential hazardous ‘hot spots’ and maximise the capacity of buried and subsea power cables.
Fast becoming the industry standard for effective reservoir management, Sensa’s new generation of fibre optic pressure and acoustic sensing systems, combined with advanced telecommunications and analytical techniques, help maximise recovery from oil and gas reserves — providing reliable and continuous, life-of-well performance-information and reduces the cost of gathering ‘downhole’ production data by up to 75% — without well intervention.
The acquisition opens up major new applications for Sensa’s performance enhancing technologies. The York purchase will enable Sensa to more closely integrate R&D resources whilst increasing manufacturing capacity and allow Sensa’s energy-asset optimisation techniques to be extended from oil and gas extraction through to refining and on to delivery of electricity to the end consumer.
Says Glynn Williams, Sensa’s chief executive, “Acquiring York was the natural step forward, following a period of close collaboration in the deployment of York Sensors’ distributed temperature sensors in oil & gas wells and the more recent development of our pressure sensor. The proven asset optimisation techniques from which our upstream oil and gas customers currently benefit, can now be extended across the whole energy supply chain on a global platform.”
The acquisition follows funding from 3i, Europe’s leading venture capitalist and Lime Rock Partners — investors in energy companies throughout the world.
About York Sensors
Based in Chandlers Ford, near Southampton, UK, York Sensors Limited develops, manufactures and markets DTS (distributed temperature sensor) equipment and systems worldwide. York’s first commercial DTS system was sold in 1986 and both business and product development has rapidly expanded since. Over 250 DTS systems are operating within the power distribution, refining, petro-chemical and upstream oil and gas industries.
About Sensa
As market-leader, Sensa has extensive global experience in specialist data gathering services, optimising performance of customer assets. Backed by field technicians, telecommunications engineers, optical sensor development scientists and data processing specialists, the team installs distributed optical sensing systems in some of the most harsh and remote environments in the oil and gas industry. Data is retrieved via telecommunications and analysed in-house so recommendations on best operating practise can be made to customers. Sensa is headquartered in Andover, UK and has operations in Aberdeen, Bakersfield, and Venezuela.
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