Sub-One News

Sub-One Technology Announces High-Performance Coatings for Offshore Oil and Gas Applications

 

May 2008 — Sub-One Technology, the market leader in advanced coatings for internal surfaces, announced today that it is releasing a family of new coatings based on its breakthrough InnerArmor® technology. The coatings are being tested in key surface, subsea and downhole oil and gas applications including piping, couplers, cylinders, and drilling and completion equipment. InnerArmor coatings were selected based on their unique ability to protect against internal corrosion and abrasive wear, which has been estimated to cost billions of dollars annually.

 

“The release of these new InnerArmor coatings represents an important milestone in our quest to help the oil and gas industry deploy high-performance interior coating approaches,” said Andrew Tudhope, CEO, Sub-One Technology. “Depositing carbon-based coatings, metals, oxides and other compounds that can be ionized and applied on the interior surfaces of oilfield equipment promises to achieve a step change in performance and cost savings in many offshore and land drilling, completion and production applications.”

 

The new InnerArmor family of coatings has been tuned to solve difficult corrosion, wear and friction reduction challenges in the interiors of critical liquid and gas handling equipment and piping. Each coating has been thoroughly tested using applicable NACE, ASTM and other industry standards to validate performance. Hybrid custom coatings are also available to accommodate application requirements for multiple types of protection. For example, heavy oil producers are using InnerArmor coatings to protect internal components against abrasion and corrosion from slurry flows. The new InnerArmor coatings include:

 

• InnerArmor Corrosion Control—protection against corrosion and aggressive media including acids, salts and hydrogen sulfide (H2S). Testing includes sour autoclave test (NACE TM0185) and salt spray test (ASTM B117).
• InnerArmor Erosion Wear Coating—protection against erosion wear in high-velocity sand and other particle flow environments. Completed testing includes erosion test by solid particle impingement using gas jets (ASTM G76).
• InnerArmor Sliding Wear Coating—protection against sliding wear (i.e., adhesive wear) in dry, oil, drilling mud and wet environments. Completed testing includes linearly reciprocating ball-on-flat sliding wear (ASTM G133).
• InnerArmor Abrasive Wear Coating—protection against abrasive wear in slurry flow and other challenging environments. Completed testing includes dry sand rubber wheel test (ASTM G65).
• InnerArmor Flex Wear Coating—protects flexible metals (e.g., aluminum) against wear and corrosion.

 

Sub-One has licensed InnerArmor technology to an expanding network of authorized global coating providers located in Aberdeen and Cambridge, U.K.; Calgary, Canada; Perth, Australia; and Houston and Midland, Texas, U.S. These coating providers have access to a centralized database of InnerArmor coating recipes to ensure consistent application across the world.

 

Oil and gas customers have the potential to achieve dramatic cost savings by using InnerArmor technology to coat low-cost metals instead of purchasing high-price metal alloys and by delivering strong protection against corrosion, erosion and wear. InnerArmor coatings provide longer service life, improved flow performance and reduced operating costs, and are environmentally friendly.

 

 

About Sub-One Technology

Sub-One Technology is the market leader in advanced coatings for internal surfaces. Its InnerArmor® coating process applies a high performance, chemically inert, protective coating which reduces operational costs associated with corrosion, erosion and friction reduction. Based in Pleasanton, California, the company works with a network of global coating providers to offer coating services to Fortune 500 customers in energy, automotive, and other industries. Founded in 2004, Sub-One Technology is a privately held company backed by Chevron, General Electric, Nomura, and Advanced Technology Ventures. Go to www.sub-one.com for more information.

Sub-One Technology Receives Venture Backing from Nomura International, GE, Chevron Technology Ventures and Advanced Technology Ventures

 

February 2008 — Sub-One Technology announced today that it has closed $24 million in new financing. The Series-C funding was led by Nomura International and included GE Energy Financial Services, Chevron Technology Ventures and Advanced Technology Ventures. Sub-One’s InnerArmor® technology is the only process capable of cost effectively applying a hard-as-diamonds coating to the interiors of critical liquids and gas handling equipment and piping. InnerArmor applications cover a wide spectrum of industries and applications including oil and gas, automotive, chemical, semiconductor, pulp and paper, public utilities and aerospace.

 

Russell Pullan, Nomura’s Director of New Energy & Clean Technology Ventures, commented, “InnerArmor technology will deliver significant corrosion, erosion and friction reduction benefits across industries in a wide variety of applications worldwide. Sub-One has put together an experienced team of business managers, scientists and coatings experts, and we were attracted by the strong support from heavyweights such as Chevron and GE.”

 

Many industries make extensive use of pipes, couplers, tanks, valves, cylinders and other equipment through which liquids, gases or materials flow. InnerArmor coatings provide longer service life, improved flow performance and reduced operating costs, and are environmentally friendly.

 

“The Sub-One team, advisors and investors are committed to delivering commercial applications of InnerArmor coatings with unmatched anti-corrosion, erosion and wear abatement properties,” said Andrew Tudhope, CEO, Sub-One Technology. “Sub-One will use the new funding to meet growing customer demand for our revolutionary coatings that significantly outperform comparable interior coating approaches.”

 

 

About Sub-One Technology

Sub-One Technology develops high-performance protective coatings for industrial applications. Its InnerArmor coating process applies an ultrahard, pinhole-free, chemically inert protective coating to critical equipment to reduce operational costs associated with corrosion, erosion and friction reduction. With offices and staff in Aberdeen, Scotland, Houston, Texas, and Pleasanton, California, the company is providing commercial coating systems to coating applicators and manufacturers worldwide. (www.sub-one.com)

 

About Nomura International

New Energy & Clean Technology Ventures, a division of the leading Asia-based investment bank Nomura, aims at leveraging the bank’s strengths in opening markets across Asia. It intends to act as a bridge between later-stage U.S. and EU companies and the surging demand for new forms of clean energy and water technologies in India, China and across Asia. Based in London, the division is in a strong position to provide larger sums of capital to companies with potentially game-changing technologies, and to help its portfolio companies forge links with Japanese multinationals. Nomura is a global financial services group dedicated to providing a broad range of financial services for individual, institutional, corporate and government clients. The group offers a diverse line of competitive products and value-added financial and advisory solutions through its global headquarters in Tokyo and an international network in 30 countries. (www.nomura.com)

 

About GE Energy Financial Services

GE Energy Financial Services’ 350 experts invest globally with a long-term view, backed by the best of GE’s technical know-how and financial strength, across the capital spectrum and the energy and water industries, to help their customers and GE grow. With $17 billion in assets, GE Energy Financial Services, based in Stamford, Connecticut, invests more than $5 billion annually in two of the world’s most capital-intensive industries, energy and water. (www.geenergyfinancialservices.com)

 

About Chevron Technology Ventures

Chevron Technology Ventures, the Venture Capital Arm of Chevron, identifies and invests in new technologies and business opportunities that can create value, clear competitive advantage and superior financial returns for Chevron. Chevron (NYSE: CVX) is one of the world’s leading energy companies. With approximately 56,000 employees, Chevron subsidiaries conduct business in more than 180 countries around the world, producing and transporting crude oil and natural gas, and refining, marketing and distributing fuels and other energy products. Chevron is based in San Ramon, California. (www.chevron.com)

 

About Advanced Technology Ventures

Founded in 1979, Advanced Technology Ventures (ATV) is a bi-coastal venture capital firm with more than $1.6 billion capital under management. ATV works closely with entrepreneurial teams in cleantech, information technology and healthcare, to build emerging-growth business ventures into market leaders. With more than 29 years of experience, ATV has a proven track record of success in helping to build strong, sustainable business enterprises. (www.atvcapital.com)

Interior Coating Developed for Exploration, Drilling, Completion and Production Applications

Improvements in corrosion, erosion and friction reduction properties of interior surfaces of oilfield equipment will lead to substantial operational cost savings

 

August 2007— An oil and gas industry first, Sub-One's InnerArmor™ coating technology is the only process capable of cost-effectively applying an ultra-hard, pinhole-free, chemically-inert protective coating to the interiors of critical surface and downhole equipment used in oil and gas operations.

 

Sub-One Technology offices and staff have been established in Aberdeen, Scotland and Houston, Texas to introduce InnerArmor coatings to oil and gas companies, oilfield service and supply companies and coating applicators.

 

A benchmarking study conducted with 30 global oil and gas companies in seven countries confirms that improvements in corrosion, erosion and friction reduction properties of interior surfaces of oilfield equipment lead to substantial operational cost savings. The study also revealed that the most important applications will be coating the interior surfaces of line pipe used to transport hydrocarbons, chemicals and alternative fuels, drill pipe, risers and tubulars, downhole tools, subsea equipment and surface piping, pumps, valves, chokes and heat exchangers.

 

"As we develop the first commercial applications of InnerArmor coatings, we're seeing their anti-corrosion and erosion abatement properties translate to longer wear and more uptime for oil and gas companies," said Andrew Tudhope, CEO, Sub-One Technology. "A number of tests indicate these revolutionary coatings outperform comparable interior coating approaches."

 

 

 

Sub-One Elects C. Robert Bunch to its Board of Directors

Bunch brings over 26 years of oil industry experience to Sub-One

 

April 2007— Sub-One Technology, an energy infrastructure company focused on providing next-generation internal coatings for the oil and gas sector, today named C. Robert Bunch as a member of its Board of Directors. Bob brings decades of oil industry experience to Sub-One and will help poise the Company for key strategic partnerships and customer relationships in the multi-billion energy market.

 

With over twenty-six years of direct involvement in the oil and gas industry, Bob has held a variety of executive positions with leading energy companies. Currently, Bob serves as Chairman of the Board of Directors of Pioneer Drilling Company (ASE:PDC), a Texas-based land-drilling contractor operating over 60 drilling rigs throughout the United States. Bob also serves on the Board of Directors of Olin Corporation (NYSE:OLN) and Z-Seis Corporation, a privately-held company providing geophysical services utilizing proprietary technology to the oil and gas industry.

 

“Bob has a proven track record of understanding and growing emerging oil industry market segments and we’re confident he’ll contribute significantly to Sub-One’s strategy for succeeding in this market,” said Andrew Tudhope, CEO, Sub-One Technology. “The Board will look to Bob to provide insight on strategic partnerships and customer relationships on which Sub-One should focus during the next year.”

 

From 2004 to 2006, Bob was Chairman, President and Chief Executive Officer of Maverick Tube Corporation (NYSE:MVK) where he also served as a Director since 1991. During his executive tenure at Maverick, Bob was responsible for all aspects of Maverick’s daily business, including defining key value propositions, maximizing operational efficiency, and ensuring shareholder value. In addition to Maverick, over the past twenty-six years Bob held a variety of executive appointments including President and Chief Operating Officer at Input/Output Inc. (NYSE:IO); Executive Vice President and Chief Operating Officer at OYO Corporation (NASDAQ:OYOG); Senior Vice President and Chief Administrative Officer at Siberian American Oil Company (60%-owned subsidiary of Pennzoil, Inc. (NYSE:PZL)); and President and Chief Operating Officer at Tescorp, Inc. (NASDAQ:TESC). Bob is also a certified public accountant and attorney-at-law.

 

“My career has focused on creating value for companies in the energy industry and I believe Sub-One Technology is positioned to do just that,” said Bob Bunch. “Sub-One’s InnerArmor technology is an innovation that the oil industry has been waiting for to address corrosion at a fraction of the cost of existing options. Potential applications for this technology in the energy industry are extensive, including making down-hole exploration and the transportation of produced products more affordable and environmentally — safe without sacrificing quality and performance.”

 

Bob joins Sub-One’s existing Board members, Andrew Tudhope, Sub-One’s CEO; Wes Raffel, General Partner at Advanced Technology Ventures; David Lam, Chairman of the David Lam Group; Nial McCollam, CEO of ITI Energy; Mike Lee, General Partner at Dominion Venture and Greg Brown, Sub-One’s COO.

 

Bob received a B.A., cum laude, Phi Beta Kappa in economics and a M.A., with honors, in accounting from Rice University. In 1994, he earned his J.D., magna cum laude, from the University of Houston.

Sub-One Technology Raises $7 Million Series B Financing

Industry veteran David Lam joins board of directors

 

October 2006—Sub-One Technology, a material science company focused on providing a higher performance technology for exploration, storage and transporting liquids such as oil, ethanol and natural gas, today announced a $7 million Series B round of funding. Advanced Technology Ventures (ATV) led the round, with current investors, Chevron Technology Ventures and ITI Energy also participating. Wes Raffel, General Partner at ATV and David Lam, Chairman of the David Lam Group, will join the company’s board of directors. Sub-One will use the financing for product development efforts, further advancing its revolutionary interior-surface coating technology, InnerArmor™.

“There are approximately 2.1 million miles of pipelines in the U.S. alone, transporting natural gas, crude oil, petroleum and other products,” said Wes Raffel, General Partner, ATV. “Sub-One’s unique technology shows tremendous market opportunity because it can be applied to a wide variety of industries and will show tremendous return-on-investment.”

Many industries (i.e. oil and gas, chemical, food processing, medical, semiconductor, aerospace, geothermal, utilities and pulp and paper) make extensive use of pipes, valves, chambers, and cylinders for transporting fluids and gases. Often, the internal surfaces of these products corrode which can cause down-time for maintenance, minimize rate of flow and compromise the purity of the liquid or gas. Sub-One’s technology directly addresses these challenges by depositing a super-hard, smooth, pure patented film that prevents corrosion, maximizes flow, protects purity, increases service life, lowers maintenance costs, and protects the environment. Sub-One’s current area of focus is upstream and midstream oil and gas applications, especially coatings for down-hole oil exploration.

In addition to today’s funding news, Sub-One also announced that semiconductor industry veteran David Lam joins Sub-One’s board of directors.
Mr. Lam, Chairman of the David Lam Group, also is the founder and former CEO of Lam Research, a Silicon Valley-based global leader in semiconductor capital equipment. Over the past decade, Lam has guided high-tech entrepreneurs and executives in commercializing technologies, launching new products, forming strategic partnerships, and managing growth. He currently serves on the boards of Qcept Technologies, Multibeam Systems, Microfabrica and Deep Photonics. Lam holds a B.S. from the University of Toronto, and an M.S. and a Ph.D. from MIT.

“I’m excited about Sub-One’s unique technology and enormous opportunity, and impressed by the strong technical and management teams it has assembled,” said David Lam. “I look forward to helping launch Sub-One’s business and contributing to lower energy cost for the consumer.”

Today’s Series B investment of $7 million is joined by a final tranche of $1 million from Sub-One’s existing series A investor ITI Energy, as a result of achieved milestones.

“We’ve received incredible demand for our technology thus far and see a great advantage to having David Lam and Wes Raffel join our team,” said Andrew Tudhope, CEO of Sub-One Technologies. “We look forward to working with them to apply our technology in the oil and gas arena.”

ITI Energy to invest £3M to develop a high-performance coating technology— Potential to save the oil & gas industry billions (£)

 

December 2005— ITI Energy, and innovative California-based materials science experts Sub-One Technology Inc, are to jointly develop a revolutionary new interior surface coating. Chevron Technology Ventures has invested alongside ITI Energy in the project. The technology will for the first time allow an ultra-smooth, hard, diamond-like carbon film to be used in a range of applications in the oil & gas, utility, food processing and pharmaceutical industries.

 

Although high performance coatings are already used widely on exterior surfaces, none have proved adaptable to give a low-cost means of protecting interior surfaces. The technology being developed here promises to address this issue and has the potential to at least double the existing in-service life expectancy of high-wear critical components and provide a significant improvement in fluid and gas flows by delivering a step change in erosion and corrosion resistance.

 

Sub-One will establish a new European operations base in Scotland to work with ITI Energy to further develop the technology and to commercialise it in Europe, the Middle East and Africa.

 

ITI Energy estimates the market potential for applications in the oil & gas industry alone to be several hundred million pounds per annum. Until now the operators of most high-wear critical components, such as pumps, valves, and specialist down-hole equipment, have had to accept that conventional coating technologies only give partial protection against erosion and corrosion. These effects, in combination with loss of line pressure resulting from the high friction levels, have a negative impact on operational performance. A new interior coating technology, with significantly enhanced corrosion and erosion resistance properties, combined with improved flow dynamics, has the potential to create substantial value through the reduction of costs related to the replacement of failed and worn parts.

 

Commenting on the announcement, Deputy First Minister, Nicol Stephen said:

 

Once again, ITI Energy has been successful in identifying and securing access to an exciting, early-stage technology with substantial global market potential. With Sub-One locating its European operations in Aberdeen and with Scottish researchers and businesses working on the development of the technology, the economic opportunities are tremendous. This further underlines the opportunity for Scotland to be a leading player in providing key technologies for the oil and gas sector."

 

On announcing the ITIs most recent investment, Tony Amor, CEO of ITI Energy said:

 

We believe that this new technology has a wide range of potential applications across a number of industry sectors. The potential for Sub-One’s coating to reduce operating costs is enormous, and this has important implications for producing hydrocarbons from challenging regimes and from mature reservoirs. We are delighted that Sub-One has chosen to come and work with us to develop their technology and their business here in Scotland.

 

The process and technology being developed here, Hollow Cathode Plasma Immersion Ion Process (HCPIIP), builds on a combination of existing techniques such as plasma vapour deposition, and metallic and ceramic sputtering. These techniques are already used today to apply diamond-like carbon coatings on a variety of surfaces but these are restricted to external surfaces only. HCPIIP promises to make these techniques applicable to a variety of internal surfaces, in a fully automated and scaleable way.

 

Sub-One will work alongside ITI Energy and Scottish Universities to further develop the core technology to enable a better understanding of the molecular structure of the coating’s surface. This will allow a range of potential applications to be developed and commercialised across a number of market sectors. The project will harness and further strengthen the expertise already present in a number of Scottish Universities, particularly in the area of plasma, molecular and erosion modelling.

 

Andy Tudhope, President, Sub-One Technology Inc, said of the project:

 

We see a real opportunity, as a result of this collaboration, to advance our technology, to develop industry partnerships, and to generate business. We are impressed with the expertise and professionalism that the ITI Energy team has shown in assessing and concluding this transaction, and we look forward to setting up our European operations in Scotland and working with them to meet the objectives of the programme.”

 

All the commercialisation activities for European markets will be managed from Sub-One’s base in Aberdeen, and this will enable a number of Scottish companies to become involved in manufacturing, component supply and sales in realising the potential of the technology.

 

For more information about ITI Energy, please visit http://www.itienergy.com.

Chevron Invests In Sub-One Technology

 

May 2005— CTTV Investments LLC, the venture capital subsidiary of Chevron Technology Ventures LLC, has invested in Sub-One Technology. Sub-One’s proprietary coating technology is being developed for use within Chevron, as well as for applications throughout the oil & gas industries.

 

In addition to oil & gas applications, numerous other industries can benefit from high-performance films on the interiors of components and complex parts. Applied with Sub-One’s unique process, these films can protect against corrosion and wear and provide a lower coefficient of friction for better flow.

 

Other potential applications include industries such as chemical, automotive, aviation, mining, food processing, pharmaceuticals, electronics and many more.

 

For more information about Chevron Technology Ventures, visit www.chevron.com/technologyventures/.

Sub-One and Chevron’s MolecularDiamond Technologies Enter Into Material Transfer and Research Agreement on Next-generation Diamondoid Films

 

May 2005— Sub-One and Chevron’s MolecularDiamond Technologies (MDT) have entered into a Material Transfer and Research Agreement to develop next-generation films using MDT’s unique diamondoid molecules.

 

In addition to its diamond-like carbon, metal and other films Sub-One is working on an exciting new class of coatings made from diamondoid molecules.

 

Diamondoids are nanometer-sized molecules having the same internal carbon framework as the diamond crystal lattice. They are durable, polymerizable and derivatizable molecules with multiple shapes and sizes.

 

Their characteristics provide the potential for developing new nano-structured surface films and coatings.

 

For more information about MolecularDiamond Technologies, please visit www.chevron.com/moleculardiamond/.