Dates in 2010
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2-5 Nov - Houston
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| vol. 27 - no. 4 13 May 2010 |
| Latest front page news: |
| IT’S ELECTRIFYING: FUV MAY BE ON ITS WAY |
| From OTC-2010, Houston: Just as the offshore industry is getting used to a first new type of floater - a floating LNG facility - as part of a field development concept, yet another is being proposed - a floating utility vessel or FUV - - which could provide power and other services for a number of fields. As the industry has become increasingly comfortable with the idea of pumps on seabed, now in very deep waters, there is some consideration to providing that power in a less conventional way, ie not from the main host facility. In a paper presented by Cornelia Noel, one of Shell’s senior subsea engineers on its ‘novel subsea systems’ team, it was suggested that there are a number of scenarios in which requirements for deepwater power, in the form of a micro-grid, would be required at a higher level than in the past. These include long-distance tiebacks of more than 160km; marginal fields in which the cost of the umbilical and power cable might reduce commercial viability; water depths beyond 3,000m; and stranded gas. Buoy-ant idea The idea of a separate power generation facility is not exactly new. Canadian Natural Resources, in the now defunct plan to re-develop the Lyell field in the UK sector of the North Sea, had proposed a power generation buoy to support esps that were to be installed in new and recompleted production wells. As one would expect, there are a number of options to provide power, both conventional (from a platform) and new. The latter might be a buoy, a leased fuv or, as is now becoming more common in Norway, a long-distance power cable from shore which would provide hydro-generated power in order to meet new lower carbon emission requirements. There are a number of issues related to power consumption, efficiency, the cost of generation, et al, that have to be considered, but what could drive a decision on using a fuv might be what services are required, a number of which are currently provided through an umbilical and/or long-distance power cable. This might be system power; water injection for reservoir support; chemical supply; and energy for a direct or trace heating system for flow assurance purposes. According to the paper, a joint effort by Noel, Ron Dee and John Vucic, the technology for a micro-grid is ‘relatively mature’, although it admits there are elements of the system, ie subsea inverters, which are not commercially available, and suggests a power buoy is a good alternative approach. An interesting point is that a drawing of an fuv shows the pull-in of the power cable to the topside on a porch rather than a turret. Issues related to pulling a high-power cable through a turret pushed Eni Norge to choose the circular Sevan designed fpso for its Goliat project on which it will take a large percentage of its power from shore. While papers like this one are often viewed as ‘blue sky’ thinking, the idea of a leased fuv is not as far out there as one might think. SEN has already learned that Siemens, which is involved in both power and pumping, has expressed interest in the idea of an fuv. Whether it is in the near or long term remains to be seen. |