Michael Padilla, Matt Reznicek - INTECSEA
This is an overview of the subsea separation, boosting, and compression progress and development in the offshore oil and gas industry during 2009. Recent awards and start-ups indicate several new projects in the developmental stages plus new world records for installed systems. Subsea separation and boosting technology is now operational in 2,438 m (7,999 ft) water depth in Shell’s Perdido field.
The worldwide oil and gas industry continues to climb slowly out of the economic downturn. With the increasing demand for oil in China, Iraq emerging onto the world stage as an oil exporter, and conflicting opinions concerning peak oil, the industry looks forward with healthy optimism. Offshore oil and gas exploration will continue to advance into deeper and more challenging waters as new technology and increasing demand allow.
Starting production in 2010, Perdido has set the stage as the first commercial Paleogene production in the Gulf of Mexico. Extreme weather and a rugged seafloor were only half the battle. Significant challenges were overcome in order to develop the field’s ultra deep and remote oil reserves. Perdido’s use of multiple subsea separation and boosting stations highlights one option for the future of offshore oil production.
This is one of many field architecture solutions proving that subsea processing technology has matured to a point that component manufacturers are developing qualified equipment internally rather than at the behest of operators. Operators are not alone in advancing technology to meet industry needs. Looking to the near future, they will be able to purchase standardized and qualified equipment to meet subsea processing goals.
Starting at the conceptual level, individual pump and system components are specified to meet the unique requirements of the development. Pumps are then sized to meet the desired production conditions over the entire life of the field. In addition to gas volume fraction and differential pressure, the selection of the pump type and configuration must consider single and multi-phase flow, viscosity, and reservoir drilling programs.
System reliability is critical to the offshore oil and gas industry. Subsea processing technology has emerged from new-product status to establish itself as a reliable solution with far ranging applications. System packagers and component manufacturers have begun to study mean time before failure (MTBF) in an effort to quantify reliability claims and to set maintenance intervals. Overhaul and replacement schedules are now becoming predictable, while MTBF is applied also to estimate project costs.
Framo Engineering continues to develop hybrid solutions which combine the benefits of helico-axial and centrifugal pumps. Framo is manufacturing pumps for the Pazflor and Marlim projects, which are scheduled to be operational in late 2011. Framo’s developments include a primary drive qualified for 4-MW shaft power.
In an effort to provide a 98% gas-tolerant pump, Flowserve recently completed qualification trials for a 3.5-MW twin-screw pump, with the future target of a 5-MW pump system.
FMC Technologies is able to provide complete integrated subsea separation systems in a compact package. Additionally, FMC’s recent alliance with Sulzer Pump affords it the opportunity to produce a complete boosting solution rather than relying on a pump from another manufacturer.
Baker Hughes’ single-phase pumping technology is becoming well established through its inclusion in several GoM and Brazil deepwater projects. Baker Hughes provides electrical submersible pumps (ESP) for Perdido and BC-10 in Brazil. Centrifugal technology continues to increase differential pressure capabilities; up to 350 bar (35 MPa) differential pressure is in development.
As the offshore oil industry reaches out to deeper and more challenging waters, the benefits of subsea processing technology are proving technically and economically viable. The challenge remains to match an owner’s application with existing technology in an effort to reduce development time and cost. As additional fields become operational, field data will aid in future development and testing. Deeper water and deeper wells will continue to be the prize of the industry and subsea processing and boosting will be there to meet those challenges.
Editor’s note: To continue this conversation, please email INTECSEA at [email protected].
Subsea processing poster
This issue ofOffshore also contains the 2010 Worldwide Survey of Subsea Processing: Separation, Compression, and Pumping Systems with a number of improvements and additions to last year’s inaugural poster. The primary aim of this poster is to chronicle the development and developers of subsea processing systems and to introduce the new products, services, and systems that have arisen since last year at this time.
