TYCOR® Provides Enabling Solution for Lightweight, High Strength Composite Oil Rig Mat

An international oil exploration company has travelled deep into Brazil's Amazon region, using helicopter-delivered lightweight, composite rig mats designed and sold by Canadian Mat Systems Inc. (CMSI) to create a temporary floor and protect the virgin jungle.

Specializing in heli-rig drilling, the company air-lifted a full complement of CMSI’s FiberCon high strength, lightweight composite mats to perform exploratory drilling in the jungle. The ability to transport the four-inch thick composite mats into hard-to-reach areas minimizes the operation’s environmental footprint. The oil exploration company selected FiberCon because the composite mat is almost two-thirds lighter than conventional mats yet offers the high capacity foundation needed to support drilling operations. The company will reduce transportation costs along with green house gas emissions. The corrosion resistant mats, able to withstand extreme temperatures, offer an anti-slip surface and long life cycle (up to 15 years). The environmental strain associated with replacing shorter-lived wood mats multiple times in the same timeframe is eliminated.

"These FiberCon mats are the next generation, and leave a very small footprint. Everything comes in by air, and if no hydrocarbons are found they pull out, leaving nothing behind," said Shawn Beamish, president of Canadian Mat Systems. For CMSI, WebCore’s TYCOR fiber reinforced composite core provided the enabling component that allowed the manufacturer of temporary structural foundation panels to engineer a lightweight but high capacity core. “We require different properties from the core because we are engineering the mats to customers’ unique specifications,” Beamish said. “TYCOR’s flexibility allows us to adjust for cost and performance to best meet our application.”

According to Beamish, high crush and shear capacities are critical because the environment where mats are used is often variable and unlevel. “There can be substantial voids in the surface which means the mat will not have the necessary ground surface contact for support,” he said. “In other cases there may be a well prepared subsurface with known conditions. With TYCOR, we can design economically for each of these surface conditions.”