Taking a Giant Leap in Subsea Technology
In a groundbreaking co-operative agreement between FMC Technologies and Siemens
Power Generation, the two companies are to jointly develop and market solutions for subsea oil and gas recovery. At the heart of the latest technological development is an
electrically-driven centrifugal compressor developed in a joint initiative between Shell
and Siemens. The new system will operate continuously on the seabed allowing efficient,
economic and environmentally friendly recovery of oil and gas at even the most extreme
depths.
An artist’s impression of a typical subsea installation for natural gas production.
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We all live in an energy-hungry world. The health, wealth and political stability of nations around the globe are inextricably linked to
the availability of plentiful, affordable sources of energy. Highly
industrialized countries in the western hemisphere and rapidly
growing economies around the world are alike in their seemingly
insatiable demand for fuel and energy which is continuing to grow
at an ever faster rate.
LOOKING TO THE FUTURE
At the same time that consumption of both oil and natural gas is
spiraling upwards, many of the world’s major existing oil and gas
reservoirs located either onshore or in relatively shallow water offshore are in decline, and the forces behind the international oil and
gas business are having to look for innovative solutions.
With the low-hanging fruit all but picked by the oil companies as
their onshore and more accessible offshore oil and gas fields mature,
operators are now scrambling to find new reserves, often in the form
of smaller, ‘stranded’ reservoirs or in locations where resources are
physically and economically difficult to extract.
THE NEXT STEP
In the new deep and ultra-deepwater operating environments and in
Polar Regions where sea ice exists year-round, production strategies
based on the use of surface structures are either impractical, environmentally harmful, or are becoming prohibitively complex and
expensive. One solution has been to replace fixed platforms with
FPSOs — Floating Production, Storage and Offloading vessels, giant
combined floating factories and storage tankers, capable of operating in the deepest waters with long tie-back distances from multiple
wells. Now, in what has been described as “the next logical step”, as
well as moving away from fixed platform systems the industry is
looking ultimately to replace even these high-tech surface vessels
by moving the production process to the sea floor.
MARKET LEADERS
Illustration: Lorna Egan
On November 4th 2005, Tore Halvorsen, Managing Director of FMC
Technologies’ Kongsberg Subsea business unit, and Klaus Voges,
President of Siemens Power Generation, signed an agreement between their two companies to develop and market joint solutions
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for subsea oil and gas recovery. As a ‘next step’ for the energy industries, but representing a ‘giant leap’ in offshore technology, the
two companies will jointly develop the subsea systems forming a
new generation of hydrocarbon production and processing plants
installed on the sea floor. A global leader in energy industry and
other industrial applications, US-based FMC Technologies Inc is a
US$2.8 billion company, supplying a wide range of products and
services on a global scale. Its subsidiary FMC Kongsberg Subsea AS
is the acknowledged global leader in the manufacture and supply
of subsea production systems.
YELLOW SUBMARINES
In an environment only dreamt of by Jules Verne, although not
quite reaching Captain Nemo’s 20,000 leagues beneath the sea, the
new-generation ‘intelligent’ production and processing plants being developed, manufactured and marketed by the partnership will
operate in a world more alien and less well explored than the
moon. The size of a small city block and painted in a bright yellow
finish for optimum visibility, these sea floor ‘factories’ will be installed — and very occasionally serviced — by robots, in the total
darkness, sub-zero temperatures and crushing depth of the seabed
nearly 2 miles below the surface.
SPACE-AGE TECHNOLOGY
Not only designed to operate in ‘inner-space’ under unbelievably
harsh conditions, the electrically-driven machines are being engineered to compress the raw, wet, ‘dirty’ natural gas which is also
typically mixed with hydrogen sulfide and other highly corrosive
gases, directly from an undersea reservoir. Adapted from
Siemens’ conventional existing compressors, but using the very
latest materials and technologies, the subsea compressor system
employs a high-speed induction motor developed from an
Photos: Florian Sander
Model of a typical subsea compression facility.
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Components for advanced subsea solutions manufactured
at FMC Kongsberg Subsea AS
existing design at Siemens’ Berlin facility, powered through a
variable-speed drive system. The stator uses liquid cooling and
the integrated ‘squirrel-cage’ rotor is equipped with maintenancefree magnetic bearings. The design eliminates the need for seals
between motor and compressor housings and the entire machine
is contained within a hermetically sealed pressure casing. Despite
its space-age technology, the compressor uses an essentially simple, highly robust modular construction, enabling it to operate
with total reliability, continuously, 24-7, 365, for a minimum of
five years without maintenance of any kind.
IT’S A GAS FOR NORWAY
The initial development contract for the subsea compressor was
signed originally in November 2001 between Siemens PG and Shell
in the Netherlands. Norske Shell will be operator of the giant
Ormen Lange gas field, where the first subsea production and processing system will be installed. Development operator for the field
is Norske Hydro. Discovered in 1997 and located in the Norwegian
Sea some 140 kilometers west of Kristiansund, with recoverable
reserves of more than 315 billion cubic meters, the giant natural
gas field is the second largest ever discovered on Norway’s continental shelf. With factory testing now completed, June 2006 will see
an onshore version of the technology being field-tested in the
Netherlands. Subject to final decision in 2010, a fully commercial
system incorporating four compressors, each with an electrical
power rating of 12.5 megawatts, will be installed at a depth of 895
meters at the Ormen Lange field in 2014. The new system will be
remote-controlled from the onshore facility 140 kilometers away,
through an underwater ‘umbilical’ cable, which will also carry the
high-voltage AC electrical power to the compressors.
UNDER THE ICE
Even before the first commercial systems sink into the cold black
depths beneath the Norwegian sea, further applications are already
being planned together with other operators. Although this recordbreaking, world-first installation will be a major achievement for
the industry, the ability to transfer critical production systems to
the seabed at large distances from any onshore facilities will also
allow the recovery of previously untapped oil and gas resources in
the Polar Arctic regions. Installed either below permanent ice or
where ice movement presents a major hazard to any fixed platform
or floating surface production facility, arctic subsea systems are
already also planned for installation by 2020.
Minimizing environmental impact, slashing production costs and
enabling the economic recovery of stranded reserves of oil and gas,
the pioneering development of subsea compressors as vital elements
of the new generation of intelligent seabed processing systems will
help to keep supplies flowing for as long as they are needed.
Tore Halvorsen, Vice President/Managing Director, FMC Kongsberg