Energy industry scale management specialist, ClearWELL Energy, has announced the appointment of Professor Eric Mackay, from Heriot-Watt University, as a non-executive director. The appointment will strengthen ClearWELL’s board as the company continues to expand its R&D and commercial operations.

Professor Eric Mackay has worked in the Institute of GeoEnergy Engineering at Heriot-Watt University delivering a range of petroleum engineering related MSc and PhD courses since 1990. Eric has authored over 200 publications related to inorganic scale management and routinely delivers consultancy studies for industry. He is Chair of CCUS and Reactive Flow Simulation for Energi Simulation, a Canadian not for profit company that partners with universities, governments and industry to deliver world leading research into the decarbonisation of energy generation. He is Principal Investigator for the Flow Assurance and Scale Team Joint Industry Project, delivering industry funded, collaborative research into the management of oilfield scale, by Heriot-Watt University and the University of Leeds.

Eric has been a member of the technical committee for the SPE International Symposium on Oilfield Scale since 2003, delivering the event’s keynote presentation in 2004 and chairing the committee in 2006. He was appointed SPE Distinguished Lecturer on the topic of Scale Management during 2007-2008 and received the SPE North Sea Region Production and Operations Award in 2017. He also chaired the technical committee for the SPE Oilfield Chemistry Conference in Houston in 2021.

On his decision to join ClearWELL, Eric said: “We have known for some time that electromagnetic devices can impact the formation and adherence of inorganic scales, however, the exact mechanisms by which they work have not been well understood. ClearWELL’s pioneering work in this field has contributed to our understanding of where a signalling device should, and should not, be applied and how to tune it to individual well configurations. This advance in scientific understanding has resulted in high value industry applications, such as the protection of Electric Submersible Pumps, prevention of halite deposition in gas wells and flow assurance for geothermal power systems. This is an exciting and rapidly evolving technology and one that has the added benefit of reducing well interventions and improving the carbon footprint of scale management for thousands of wells worldwide. I am delighted to be playing a part in this advancement!"

Keith Coutts, CEO at ClearWELL, said: “We are thrilled to welcome Eric to our board. His world-renowned scientific expertise is a superb fit with our innovative work in electromagnetic scale control, flow assurance and asset integrity and his consultation on our R&D programme will assist us to deliver even greater value to the global energy industry.”

Prof. Eric Mackay joins Keith Coutts, Stuart Ferguson, Neil McGuinness and Martin Clark as the fifth member of ClearWELL’s board.