ABOUT
"..ability to see new solutions.."
"..one of the most creative engineers in the business.."
"..bold ideas but actually pull them off.."
Dave Shanks is an independent engineering consultant, with more than 35 years of industrial design experience and more than 20 patents relating to the work over the years.
Dave can provide solutions to your product development problems, either with ideas, market insight, prototype build and testing, and any part of the process from conception to manufacturing.
Areas of expertise include down hole electronics for oil field applications, ground fault sensors for ESP's, permanent down hole sensors, fluid and flow measurement technology, machine controls, pump monitoring and control and general electronics and software based systems.
Having spent many years employed by a range of large and small companies Shanks Tech consulting was set up in September 2017.
Dave Shanks
27 years of permanent down hole gauge design and installation, having initially worked in industrial research and hard disk drive design, and then worked 5 years in the UK North sea oil field sector, on platform and subsea, permanent monitoring and logging tools. Started own business in 1994 mostly developing and manufacturing monitoring systems for PCP’s and ESP’s, also installing a world record 137 sensors in one well in a subsea fluid level monitoring project.
In the 27 years of oil business worked in various regions around the world on monitoring rod pumps, PCP’s and ESP as well as reservoir monitoring and latterly fluid monitoring, with projects in Argentina, Ecuador, Columbia, Venezuela, China, Indonesia, USA, Canada, Abu Dhabi, Oman, Saudi Arabia, Iran, Congo, Sudan and UK.
Design experience and patents on flow and fluid measurement, wireless gauge systems, downhole related telemetry, and the patent on the first hard drive for the MAC.
Recently ground fault immune ESP sensor (X2), Downhole linear pump system, rig less pump deployment, cable-based fluid sensors, and extreme high temperature sensors and systems.
Also direct experience of subsea controls, subsea sensors and systems, oil field pump control and monitoring.
Specialties: innovative product design, analogue, digital and processor based systems. Mixed mechanical and electronic systems. Extensive oil field knowledge, completions, artificial lift, and reservoir monitoring. Also 9 years working on novel distributed and point oil field multiphase flow and fluid level measurement. Dave is also a highly experienced Keysight VEE programmer.
Patents
21 PATENTS EITHER PENDING OR GRANTED:
Patent title FLOW METER
Patent description: simple single phase flow meter using an expanded section in a pipe, and measuring linear forces
Patent issuer and number GB2354329 (B); GB2354329 (A)
Patent date Issued Jun 22, 2000
Patent title FLOW METER
Patent description: Oil field flow meter measuring fluid properties and flow rate
Patent issuer and number GB 2354329
Patent date Issued Jun 22, 2000
Patent title RATIO TOOL
Patent description: Device for measuring the volumetric ratio of oil water and gas in an oil pipe line or down hole tubing
Patent issuer and number GB 2386691B
Patent date Issued Jun 22, 2000
Patent title TELEMETRY SYSTEM IN WHICH DATA SIGNALS ARE MODULATED ON POWER SIGNALS
Patent description: data and power on pipe "smart pipe" where the pipeline or downhole tubing string become a data bus which cab power or communicate with many modules and actuators.
Patent issuer and number GB2352376 (B); GB2352376 (A)
Patent date Issued Apr 27, 2000
Patent title TELEMETRY SYSTEM
Patent description: Telemetry system to provide power and signal on a pipeline, can be used on downhole tubing, subsea risers, and surface pipelines.
Patent issuer and number GB 2352376
Patent date Issued Apr 17, 2000
Patent title TELEMETRY SYSTEM IN WHICH DATA SIGNALS ARE MODULATED ON POWER SIGNALS
Patent description smart pipe data and power on tubing, earlier version of the full smart pipe system without the tubing isolators developed later.
Patent issuer and number GB2352150 (B); GB2352150 (A)
Patent date Issued Apr 14, 2000
Patent title TELEMETRY SYSTEM
Patent description: Telemetry system for transmitting data through noisy medium, and also to combat cables with poor insulation. Principally for ESP monitoring, but suitable for use on tubing and pipelines (see other patent) and also for data over power lines
Patent issuer and number GB 2352150
Patent date Issued Apr 14, 2000
Patent title HIGH CAPACITY DISK DRIVE
Patent description: pseudo hard sectored disk drive designed for the first Apple MAC fondly known as Mac bottom, as it sat under the first MAC's
Patent issuer and number US 4757406 A
Patent date Issued Jul 12, 1988
Patent title MULTIPHASE FLOW METER
Patent description: multi-phase fluid metering technology for down hole or surface use, Utilising thermal heat loss fluid velocity and resonance imaging technology to measure fluids.
Patent issuer and number WO2015019081 (A1)
Patent date Filed Aug 6, 2014
Patent title MULTI-COMPONENT FLUID DETERMINATION IN A WELL BORE
Patent description: distributed fluid mixture measurement in a well bore, using the high frequency pulse response from an electrical cable suspended in the well bore.
Patent issuer and number WO2014140539 (A1)
Patent date Filed Mar 10, 2014
Patent title DATA COMMUNICATIONS SYSTEM
Patent description: Wireless data transmission system for Sucker rod driven pumps
Patent issuer and number WO2014174266 (A2)
Patent date Filed Apr 25, 2013
Patent title DATA COMMUNICATION SYSTEM
Patent description: Telemetry for data transmission on ESP's
Patent issuer and number US2015022371 (A1)
Patent date Filed Feb 28, 2013
Patent title DISTRIBUTED TWO DIMENSIONAL FLUID SENSOR
Patent description: Distributed measurement of fluid mixtures in 2 and 3 phase fluids
Patent issuer and number US2014290335 (A1)
Patent date Filed Nov 21, 2012
Patent title FLUID DETERMINATION IN A WELL BORE
Patent description: Distributed fluid measurement system for oil wells
Patent issuer and number US2014253128 (A1)
Patent date Filed Sep 25, 2012
Patent title DOWNHOLE DATA TRANSMISSION USING TWO DIFFERENT TRANSMIT FREQUENCIES
Patent description: Method of sending data from down hole to surface on an ESP based instrumentation system, with redundancy for possible interference from other electrical equipment.
Patent issuer and number GB2500047 (A)
Patent date Filed Mar 8, 2012
Patent title LINEAR PUMPING SYSTEM AND METHODS OF CONTROLLING THE SAME
Patent description: Full duplex down hole linear pump with synchronous PM linear motor drive
Patent issuer and number US15432542
Patent date Filed Feb 14, 2017
Patent title SYSTEMS AND METHODS OF COMMUNICATING SIGNAL PROCESSING FOR DOWN HOLE APPLICATION
Patent description: signal processing and telemetry system for data transmission over a 3-phase power cable with insulation faults
Patent issuer and number US2015/056414
Patent date Filed Oct 20, 2015
Patent title HIGH TEMPERATURE DOWNHOLE GAUGE SYSTEM
Patent description: specific application of high temperature technologies to produce a pressure temperature measurement system with operating temperatures up to 500C
Patent issuer and number US2014007668 (A1)
Patent date Filed Nov 16, 2011
Patent title DISTRIBUTED FLUID VELOCITY SENSOR AND ASSOCIATED METHOD
Patent description: complete distributed fluid velocity & fluid mixture measurement system,
Patent issuer and number US2014144226 (A1)
Patent date Filed Oct 26, 2011
Patent title METHOD OF DETERMINING A PHASE CHANGE IN A RESERVOIR
Patent description: measuring distributed fluid mixture in a well bore using a cable based sensor. Uses high frequency pulse response to determine the 2-D image of fluids over the length of the sensor wire.
Patent issuer and number US2013261977 (A1)
Patent date Filed Oct 19, 2011
Patent title REDUNDANT DOWNHOLE SENSOR SYSTEM WITH VOLTAGE CONTROLLED SWITCHING
Patent description: simple voltage controlled system for operating two redundant ESP gauges on the same ESP system
Patent issuer and number GB2491823 (A)
Patent date Filed Jun 9, 2011
Experience
The most successful projects (responsible for, either individually or as a key team member):
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First car ignition system with HT modules on every spark plug – now commonplace
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First hard drive for the Apple MAC. Sold at 6000 per week at its peak.
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First 200C memory production logging tool, run in the North Sea as a successful service for 4 years
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First dual redundant, all metal sealed permanent downhole gauge – sold over 200 systems in the North Sea
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First fully computer controlled workshop torque machine, able to hold at target torque. Sold over 120 machines worldwide.
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PCP monitoring sensor, sold over 900 systems worldwide, able to operate at 175C with 20G continuous vibration.
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First partially ground fault tolerant 175C ESP sensor – sold over 300 systems worldwide
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World record 137 sensor fluid level sensor, battery operated from a sea bed mounted acoustic linked logger. Sold 3 systems to North Sea. 150C operating, installed at 6500ft and in 1500ft of ocean.
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First fully ground fault tolerant ESP sensor, sold over 40 units, still in manufacture.
Other projects with mixed commercial success, or one off:
Hydrogen fuelled spark plugs, 2.5 inch disk drive, 3.5 inch disk drive, subsea data logger, & interface cards, pressure test systems, gas lift valve testers, data loggers, live tubing wireless down hole system, EM transmission wireless down hole system, acoustic wireless down hole system, electrical resonant fluid measurement, thermal fluid measurement, TDR based spatial fluid sensor, distributed flow and fluid sensor, wireless rod pump sensor using electrical downhole generator, ESP and PCP pump controllers, 3 axis vibration waveform capturing down hole sensors for ESP and PCP, Linear motor driven pump, ground fault tolerant ESP sensor, predictive pump monitoring systems.
Publications
A collection of publications over the years
For SPE members a webinar I did last year on the problems facing digital oilfield around artificial lift.
Rueters (unfortunately now removed)
GE Oil & Gas Wins Two "Spotlight on New Technology" Awards at OTC 2014 Monitoring Technology to Keep Critical Data Flowing from Oil Pumps Deep Underground Part of GE's Ongoing Investment in Industrial Internet Technologies in the Energy Sector Each year, the Offshore Technology Conference (OTC), taking place May 5-8 in Houston, recognizes innovative technologies that have industry-changing potential in the energy sector.
Joining Zenith
The first MAC hard drive, you will find the patent for this in my patents list
Recommendations from the last 35 years
Amer Kassab
NT Development Engineer/ Technologist at Zenith Oilfield Technology Ltd (GE Oil & Gas)
May 2, 2015, Amer reported directly to David
Dave is one of the most intelligent and creative electronics scientists. Very creative and practically smart; born to be an engineer. Provided the industry with true solutions for many problems lasted for long years. Very active and very fast in making the ideas real, once he comes up with a great idea he just makes it so!! Haven't learnt from anyone more than Dave, proud to be one of his team members. He has a great sense of humour and a very wide general knowledge. A great scientist, a nice person and a top driver!! very unique combination, eh?
Shadi Bahloul
ESP ARTIFICIAL LIFT ENGINEER
March 9, 2012, Shadi reported directly to David
In response to your recent Recommendation Mr David, I would like to respond it back with very modest words ,which will fail to express your high experience and skill: you have been a teacher, you made the transition easy by your interest and advanced way in management, with both students………..
Henning Hansen
hansenpumps.com / Aarbakke Innovation
December 18, 2009, David worked with Henning in the same group
David is one of the most creative engineers in the business of downhole electronics, and he has an ability to see new solutions which are based on his many years of experience in the business. If you think something can be done by electronics downhole, Dave is the one that will find the solution.
And his great sense of humour and very positive attitude always makes it a great pleasure to work with Dave.
Dave McLaughlin
Director and Design Engineer
December 28, 2009, Dave reported directly to David
If you’re looking for someone who enjoys his work and is great with other people, then Dave would be a good asset to any company. I always enjoyed working with Dave. His humour, his knowledge of electronics and his fairness made it a pleasure to work but at the same time he will push you to get it done. If you do a good job, he will give you credit which is pretty rare in a lot of managers.
John Hunter
Stay Curious
December 17, 2009, John reported directly to David
Dave is an excellent Engineer, one a rare breed who can have wacky bold ideas but actually pull them off. When Dave says he can design something, he can do it and make it work.