Electrical Business

News

Siemens presents concept for powering subsea oil and gas facilities

July 12, 2010 | By Anthony Capkun


At the Offshore Technology Conference (OTC) in Houston, Texas, Siemens Energy presented what it calls an innovative concept for supplying power to subsea oil and gas facilities located on the seabed. The subsea power grid will be a first in supplying power to processing systems located at water depths of up to 3000 metres at ultra-long step-outs from the coast. This Siemens solution will be available for deployment late 2012.

“Full subsea processing is unthinkable without an industrial,
heavy-duty, high-reliability power grid directly on the sea bed,” said
Tom Blades, CEO of the Oil and Gas Division of Siemens Energy. “The
depletion of onshore reserves is forcing oil and gas companies to
exploit fields in the remotest places at ever greater water depths.”

Siemens says the water pressure in subsea environments leads to a
recovery gap as compared to traditional surface wells that can be as
high as 30% . Siemens believes its subsea power grid is an enabler in
closing this gap, opening the way for full-fledged subsea processing.

“The complete power grid solution provided by Siemens is mounted on a
single base frame directly on the seabed,” said Bjoern Einar Brath, who
is responsible for subsea applications at Siemens Oil & Gas.

Advertisement

The company’s subsea solution encompasses power cables, transformers,
switchgear and variable speed drives, to power and control electrical
driven pumps or turbo-compressors, separators and other processing
equipment. The requisite power is provided by an industrial onshore or
topside combined cycle power plant remote to the subsea facility.
Siemens specialists are currently optimizing existing solutions to
enable reliable subsea deployment at extreme pressure and low
temperatures. Siemens is now opening two new subsea competence centres
in Houston, Texas, and Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, in addition to its
existing centre in Trondheim, Norway.

CLICK HERE for Siemens Energy Sector.


Print this page

Advertisement

Stories continue below