The supply contract is the result of two years of negotiation and evaluation by flow assurance and subsea surveillance professionals from Chevron, Technip and Cameron.

Chevron's engineers have decided ClampOn's sand monitors, using digital signal processing (DSP) and acoustic sensors, provide the best available real-time information on sand trapped in the subsea pipes, which can damage process equipment.

In subsea conditions, preventative equipment and process monitoring is a priority, given the logistic difficulties and extended downtime caused by maintenance procedures. The Subsea Sand Monitors will be deployed at depths over 1200m.

The ClampOn DSP Particle Monitor is based on ClampOn's Ultrasonic Intelligent Sensor (UIS) technology.

Sensors are installed after a bend, where sand particles are forced out of the flow and hit the inside of the pipe wall, generating an ultrasonic pulse which is transmitted through the pipe wall and picked up by the acoustic sensor.

The company says UIS onboard processing enables the sensor to discriminate between the noise of sand-generated or flow-generated noise, regardless of change in flow rates or gas/oil ratios.

The Tahiti field was discovered in 2002 and is believed to have 400 million to 500 million barrels of ultimate recoverable oil reserves.