R S Clare & Co Ltd, founded in Liverpool in 1748, is the UK's oldest lubricants manufacturer.

Now a leading company in Upstream Oil & Gas valve lubrication, it has recently established a technical and sales support operation in the Gulf.
The company's Middle East Regional Manager, Hassan Fazel, is based in its branch office in the Jebel Ali Free Zone, UAE.
Richard Grantham, Oil & Gas Sector Manager, splitting time evenly between the UK and the Gulf, assumes overall management responsibility.
The Oil & Gas division provides high technology, cost effective valve lubrication solutions, building a reputation for proven long term performance even under the most severe well conditions.
R S Clare has worked closely with Pressure Control Equipment OEM's to develop leading technology valve lubrication and sealing products.
This technology, in turn, is presented to field operators throughout the world, providing them with the highest levels of valve operation and protection.
The company's focus centres on the lubrication of gate valves in production/x-mass trees and plug and ball valves on process equipment situated downstream of the tree wing valve.
Preventative maintenance is essential to ensure operational reliability at all times, reducing the risk of component damage and valve leakage.
Repairs to faulty valves can be extremely costly, particularly if the well has to be shutdown.
An important aspect of preventative maintenance is valve lubrication. When a valve starts to leak, damage to the sealing surfaces has already occurred.
A reactive action is usually to inject a sealing compound. However this is generally only a temporary solution, requiring more significant intervention at a later stage.
Scheduled maintenance is a proactive action. Effective lubrication and sealing of the valve throughout its operational life can greatly reduce the risk of the valve's sealing surfaces becoming damaged.
Such maintenance can then also extend the valve's operational life, and the cycle continues.
Think about this in terms of a motor vehicle. If the vehicle's engine is never serviced (and the oil is not changed), the performance of the engine will gradually reduce until the engine stops working completely.
Similarly, a high performance engine requires a special 'non-standard' oil in order to continue operating to the design parameters.
In many industries, a knowledge gap in the subject of lubrication is not uncommon for engineers. In many Engineering courses, Tribology - the science of friction, wear and lubrication - is rarely studied as a main subject.
Grantham says, "During my Mechanical Engineering course, Tribology was only offered as a final year optional subject."
A central part of R S Clare's activity is the provision of Lubrication Seminars to Engineering Teams at Production and Service Companies and OEMs. The seminars provide an overview of Lubricant Technology, Tribology and Valve Lubrication.
The company has found the training seminars to be very useful for the industry's engineers who have responsibility for the servicing of Pressure Control Valves. Not only does it explain the merits of effective valve lubrication but also what type of lubricant products should be used.
The seminars have already been provided to several prominent Operating Companies in the region with very good feedback.
The company's product portfolio is wide ranging, with lubricating and sealing products for gate valves, plug valves and ball vales and special lubricants for the treatment of valves after well stimulation through acid injection.
It has also developed synthetic, non-hazardous cleaning fluids to remove lubricants and sealants during on-line and workshop servicing.
The company partners with lubrication pump equipment manufacturers. This partnership allows us to design and build high performance injection systems suited to well pressures up to 20,000 psi and accommodating all container drum sizes.
The company continues to diversify its Oil & Gas division. The company is a technical partner of Hunting Oilfield Services for its 'Clear-Run' system, a leading technology dope free system for premium connections of tubing and casing pipe.
It is introducing bespoke corrosion protection solutions for Coiled Tubing, optimising the operational life of this equipment. It also has a complete range of environmentally friendly/biodegradable lubricants that minimise the impact to the environment where oil and gas is produced in sensitive areas.
For further information, please visit the company’s website at www.rsclare.com. To arrange a consultation or technical seminar, contact directly at RGrantham@rsclare.co.uk / HFazel@rsclare.co.uk.