Custom built hydraulic motors designed and manufactured by Parker Hannifin are playing a role in helping Cameron, a major oil and gas flow equipment supplier, make deep sea oil wells safer, more productive, and more profitable.
Cameron blowout preventers (BOPs) are installed on half of the floating oil production platforms operating worldwide, and on more than 70% of the jackup rigs. In 2008, the company’s engineers started to develop BOPs capable of operating at the extraordinary depths and pressures the industry was beginning to reach.
While existing devices operated at up to 15,000 psi, Cameron wanted BOPs that could work and contain wellbore pressures of 20,000 psi in water depths up to 15,000 ft (4,572 m). These extreme pressures and depths presented engineering challenges, both in creating a BOP that could shut quickly enough when required, and in ensuring that, once shut, the device could contain the well without leaking.
High pressure was not the only issue facing Cameron. Space on the BOP stack already was at a premium; the christmas tree fitted at the top of the well must contain not only blowout preventers but also a range of other chokes and valves used to control flows into and out of the well. BOPs need to be as compact to take up as little space as possible and to ease installation. They also must operate reliably for many years in deep sea conditions, and routine maintenance must be as straightforward as possible so it can be conducted without disrupting oilfield operations.
During initial prototype testing the new Cameron BOP hydraulic locking mechanism, initially powered by a Parker vane-type motor, was not optimized for the application. With time running out before qualification testing, Cameron’s engineering team in Houston explained the circumstances to Joe Kovach, vice president of Technology at Parker Hannifin.
Parker’s designers used the extensive experience of extreme conditions hydraulic equipment to create a design that used a 250 cc displacement motor to operate a hydraulic motor-powered locking mechanism able to operate and contain pressures up to 20,000 psi.
The unit, more compact than Cameron’s existing design could be actuated by an ROV in the event of a total hydraulic failure at the wellhead, a first for this application in the industry.
By the end of March, the new actuators were arriving at Cameron’s manufacturing facility for installation on the first of its new generation of BOPs. To date, over 100 motors have been manufactured and shipped to Cameron.
