Pioneers under
the Sea
The depths of the ocean are less familiar to man than the
surface of the moon. But this is where Siemens is reaching
out, 3,000 meters below the sea, in order to equip the oil
and gas industry with a pioneering technology. Siemens
is developing a hub and a grid to power subsea factories
that will make it easier and cheaper to produce offshore
hydrocarbons.
Text: Lukas Lehmann
dil Toubia, CEO of the Oil & Gas
Division of Siemens Energy,
has several decades of experience in this industry. He intends to
enhance Siemens’ profile in the oil and
gas industry by pioneering an entirely
new technology. The subsea power
grid, once installed, will be the first
of its kind and a “game changer,” he
claims. Living Energy spoke to him
about the challenges and benefits,
both technical and economic.
Living Energy: Why is the subsea
factory of such great importance to
oil and gas production?
Adil Toubia: Because “easy oil” is becoming a scarce resource. Back in the
1940s, when big oil fields were discov-
34 Living Energy · No. 8 | July 2013
ered in Saudi Arabia, Texas, or Iraq,
they were shallow onshore reservoirs –
in places, just 400 meters deep. Now,
in its search for oil, the industry has
not only moved offshore, but also
much deeper, accessing increasingly
complex reserves. We want to enable
the oil and gas industry to develop
fields in deep water and with long
step-outs, in the most profitable way.
We’re talking 2,000 to 3,000 meters
and more of water depth – and that’s
before you drill another 5,000 to 7,000
meters into the earth. Our equipment
will reduce the cost of these developments, making subsea production
more profitable, and in some cases,
making the difference between a field
being economically viable or not.
LE: How does Siemens want to
enable the industry to realize
“subsea factories”?
AT: Subsea factories will consist of a
lot of equipment that requires power,
which is the key requirement for any
subsea processing facility. Today,
there is limited means of transmitting power underwater over long distances. With current technology, single power feeders are run either from
onshore, or the power equipment
must be placed on floating facilities,
from which cables are run to the
seabed. These can only handle one
function at a time. That makes the
operation both complex and costly,
and it is not a viable solution for long
step-outs, high numbers of subsea
consumers, or for high power requirements. With our technology – the
Siemens Subsea Power Grid – the power can be distributed locally, underwater, to where it’s needed. This technology is more efficient and, for some
developments, the only possible
solution.
Photos: Siemens/Paul MacLeod
A
LE: How is that economically
important?
AT: We deliver a cost-optimum solution for making large-scale subsea
processing possible. To enhance
production, you need power for the
various subsea consumers like pumps
or compressors. Current technology
can transmit only limited amounts of
power to the seabed – that does not u
“Our solution will be a game changer
in the sense that we are setting the
standard for the oil and gas industry
in this field… We at Siemens expect
to be first to market with our subsea
power grid.”
Adil Toubia, CEO, Siemens Oil & Gas Division
Living Energy · No. 8 | July 2013
35
Oil & Gas
Oil & Gas
Adil Toubia
“Siemens is a great brand, and I see a big
opportunity to expand it within an industry
that I know very well and where a lot of
money is being spent.”
Adil Toubia, CEO, Siemens Oil & Gas Division
Background and Education
Professional Experience
Born in Khartoum, Sudan, in 1958,
Adil Toubia has a Master’s degree in Electrical
Engineering from Columbia University, New
York. He speaks Arabic, English, German,
French, and Norwegian.
Toubia has 30 years of experience in the oil and gas industry,
where he has held various executive positions. Before taking over
as CEO of the Oil & Gas Division of the Siemens Energy Sector in
2012, he was a partner at Energy Capital Group, a private equity
investment firm in the oil and gas industry. Prior to that, he was
CEO of GCC Energy Fund and a senior executive at Schlumberger.
allow you to connect a lot of equipment to it. But when we implement a
power hub and grid on the seabed itself, we will enable operators of subsea fields to distribute power to numerous consumers on the seabed.
Overall, new alternative field development solutions can be realized that
are economically superior to platforms and other concepts. In addition,
our solution helps unlock reserves
that would otherwise be inaccessible
today because a topside installation
is not possible, or would just become
way too complex. For example, this
could apply to oil and gas recovery
under ice in the Arctic. Also, subsea
processing lets you extend the productivity of mature fields.
LE: Where exactly do you expect
more cost-efficiency?
AT: Our subsea power supply and
distribution system eliminates a lot
of complexity. For example, there are
fewer cables running from the surface
36 Living Energy · No. 8 | July 2013
to the seabed. At the same time, you
can boost your production by putting
more processing equipment close to
the wells. Enhanced recovery rates
are an important factor in the oil and
gas industry. Typical recovery rates
for offshore fields used to be 15 to 20
percent. They are 30 and even 40 percent today. Subsea processing is the
key to further increasing the recovery
rates from mature reserves. And in
mature areas, subsea tiebacks to
existing processing facilities will
reduce the costs for developing new
reservoirs. This will result in higher
oil recovery with lower capital expenditure and operating costs.
LE: What makes Siemens suited to
developing this kind of pioneering
technology?
AT: We have established ourselves as
electrical experts in the oil and gas
industry. We already have all the
components that we’re talking about,
working in ambient temperature and
conditions. The challenge is putting
the electricity into deep water at the
bottom of the sea. We are exposing
the subsea power grid to very high
pressure – the equivalent of 300 bar
at 3,000 meters of water depth. Areas
considered “harsh” by operators are
no challenge for our technology, as
we adapt it to subsea conditions. And
we’ve done that before: We’ve been
providing equipment to the oil and
gas industry for subsea applications
on a component basis for more than
ten years now. Additionally, we have
made two key strategic acquisitions
in the last year and a half. The first
one has given us the ability to adapt
electrical equipment for work in seawater, what we call “marinization.”
The second was the acquisition of the
world leader in underwater connector
technology. Put all of that together,
and it’s clear how we’re perfectly
qualified to develop such a crucial
piece of equipment as the Siemens
Subsea Power Grid.
LE: Norwegian oil company Statoil
plans to realize its first “subsea
factory” in 2020. Do you think this
is realistic?
AT: Definitely. Our own expectations
and targets are just as ambitious: We
want to have the subsea power grid
available by 2015, at the latest. That
will be a vital enabler for all the other
components of subsea installations.
The availability of our power grid and
single components allows the operation of parts of the processing facility
long before 2020, and it will help the
industry to realize the step-by-step
transition towards the full vision of a
complete subsea factory.
LE: How important is the development of the subsea power grid?
AT: Our solution will be a game
changer in the sense that we are setting the standard for the oil and gas
industry in this field. It is one of the
key enabling technologies for realizing the long step-outs of the future.
Hydrocarbons will be the main source
of energy for generations to come.
The industry is evolving; it is trying
to explore areas that have not been
explored before. Very few new discoveries are being made onshore. The
deep sea is one of the last frontiers
because it has been such a technologically difficult environment. The
number of subsea wells being drilled
is expected to grow by 16 percent annually, between now and 2020. That is
quite some growth – and it needs
supporting technology.
LE: Where in the world can we
expect to see deep-sea production?
AT: We expect deep-sea operations
around the globe. With oil prices at
over US$100 a barrel, it is attractive
for operators to invest in hydrocarbon
exploration; hence, the demand for
such extraction equipment will rise.
We at Siemens expect to be first to
market with our subsea power grid
solution. Once we have developed the
technology, we can also adapt it to
other industries that need power
equipment on the seabed, like deepsea mining, or even the renewables
industry.
LE: How do you ensure safe operations in what are often extremely
fragile marine environments?
AT: Operators talk about “unlocking
the Arctic in a sustainable manner.”
We intend to play a part in that endeavor, integrating our equipment
into their subsea installations with a
minimal impact on the environment.
How we do that is by ensuring that
our design is fit for purpose. Not only
do we put a strong focus on the selection of fluids and components, but we
also place great importance on conditional monitoring. So we know the
status of the equipment to a much
greater degree, and can ensure safe
operations this way. We have a lot of
ongoing initiatives in surveillance
technology: with permanent reservoir monitoring and environmental
monitoring, which will allow operators to better manage their operations.
LE: What are the main technical
challenges you envisage for the
subsea power grid?
AT: The major technological challenge is to design our grid for deepwater conditions, ensuring that it will
operate reliably. A keyword in this
context is “thermal management,”
a real design challenge: avoiding the
requirement for an additional cooling
system, and thus keeping our solution as simple as possible. Our subsea
power grid fully relies on natural
cooling. An additional technical challenge is that the equipment must be
connected underwater.
We have a very extensive qualification
program to ensure that the system is
fit for purpose. Our clients expect us
to incorporate specifications that suit
their requirements, so we have created joint development projects with
some of them to meet those needs.
Overall, the technology is complex,
costly to rectify, and, therefore, it
must work impeccably: You can’t send
technicians to service components at
the bottom of the sea. Redundancy
and thermal management will ensure
reliability, as will integrated and
remotely operated controlling and
monitoring capabilities.
We are breaking new ground. But we
know that we are taking the right
initiatives to become the pioneers in
supplying a subsea power grid.
LE: Where will this technology be
20 years from now?
AT: The big news will be within the
next two years, when we finalize the
development of our subsea power
grid, prove the technology, and make
it ready for deployment. Once the
first commercial projects are implemented, this will be regarded as standard technology and part of the operators’ toolbox. So two decades from
now, this will be widely deployed. p
Lukas Lehmann has studied marine biology
and is a freelance journalist based in Geneva,
Switzerland.
In a Nutshell
Customers from the oil and gas industry value the assistance of Siemens
in making optimal use of ever-scarcer resources and the efficient products and solutions that the company provides for decentralized energy
supply. One development currently under way is the subsea grid, which
will make the extraction of resources from underwater fields more profitable or, in some cases, economically viable in the first place. Siemens
also supplies a large portfolio of other products and solutions for industrial power and various process industries.
Living Energy · No. 8 | July 2013
37