Keeping offshore oil rigs powered up

#offshore #drilling #oil #rigs

In our everyday lives we use products made from plastic; we use our cars to commute to our workplaces; we take airplanes to fly to our vacation destinations. But what do all these products depend upon? They all have a common ingredient: crude oil.

In the 19th century, paraffin and kerosene were used on house lamps and street lights. What made kerosene attractive was that it was less expensive than other oils, so demand increased and consequently, oil exploration and production rapidly spread around the world.

First oil wells were drilled on land and as technology improved, exploration moved from land to offshore, then from shallow waters to deeper waters.

In shallow waters offshore drilling platforms could rest their legs on the seafloor; however, as crude oil demand increased and reservoirs were discovered on deeper waters, more complex designs were developed to withstand the new environmental conditions.

Deep water structures designs have been developed with different shapes, and different mooring systems: units may be anchored to the sea floor or actively positioned in a location precisely controlled by dynamic positioning systems.

As a result of the evolving environmental awareness, the industry faces more stringent regulations of the oil processing and refining, which has led to investment in new technologies to recycle hazardous waste as much as possible.

Carolina Pardo has been in the forefront of the electrical engineering of the power provision for offshore oil production facilities. She will describe in detail three projects:

1) The Delta House deepwater floating production facility with a daily peak rate of 100,000 barrels of oil and 240 million cubic feet of gas, was designed and fabricated in 22 months. A record for the industry. The hull was fabricated in a South Korean shipyard, while the topsides where built in Texas. Construction was run in parallel in both locations, which saved a lot of time, but engineering had to be in total synchronization.

2) A floating production/storage/offloading (FPSO) facility with two power generation and distribution systems consisted of 4 identical dual fuel reciprocating driven engines with generator output of 15MW each, plus one spare. An electric swivel installed in the FPSO connected to two subsea cables which provided 24MW/34.5kV to nearby platforms.

3) A flare gas recovery (FGR) system installed in a refinery where gases like NOx, SO2 are recycled into the chemical process rather than being released into the atmosphere. The two main compressors are 500Hp each at 4160V.

• Date: 07 Apr 2018
• Time: 10:00 AM to 12:00 PM
• All times are (GMT-08:00) US/Pacific
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• The Terraces HOA Clubhouse
• 100 Cypress Way
• Rolling Hills Estate, California
• United States 90274

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• Dr. Surender Gupta

  skgupta@ieee.org

  IEEE Memebers please use Promo Code: IEEEmembers to get a free ticket.

• Co-sponsored by Dr. Peter Shackle

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