From Subsea Expo, Aberdeen: There is much talk in the UK sector about the need to increase recovery rates from fields with much potential for subsea processing.
The facts are actually right in front of the industry. Pieter Voor de Poorte of Premier Oil gave a very good technical paper on the subsea pumping station that was installed on the Brenda field.
The multiphase helico-axial pump was installed as part of the multiport manifold originally supplied by Framo to Oilexco, which went under early in the recession with the assets picked up by Premier as part of its strategy to get into the UK sector.
Now the joint Brenda/Nicol complex has seven gas-lifted wells supported by the mpp. This ‘dual-lift’ approach is the way forward, de Poorte opined in a post-presentation question.
Big fractions
The Framo mpp operates at gas-void fractions of up to 80% and changed the operating envelope of the field. The pump had to be replaced twice during operational life, although neither problem had to do with the pump itself. The first was due to ‘sparking’ across the motor and the second was when the pump was damaged by a piece of the choke being pushed through the impellers.
Subsea 7 is working on its 71st pipeline bundle - over 35 years of providing this technology - at the moment for BG’s Knarr fpso project in Norwegian waters. This is not the longest at 4.4km, but it is a high-ish pressure (6,500psi) design with relatively high temperature (135°C) which has to be reduced to 110°C for arrival. It will also have the biggest ever leading towhead at 590t. All in all, a challenging project.
While on pipelines, Cortez Subsea is promoting the Zaplok mechanical pipeline connector technology, which would allow a pipeline to be installed in up to 120m without a conventional pipelay vessel.
The opportunities for subsea companies in East Africa were highlighted here. Phil Haymes, a business specialist with UK Trade & Industry, spoke on the opportunities in Mozambique, Tanzania, and Kenya. ‘It's a region of great potential,’ he said.
But Haymes also warned of the challenges of doing business in these countries. He said more hydrocarbons had been discovered in East Africa in the last two years than anywhere else in the world.
The main commercial focus just now was FEED and EPCM contracts. UK expertise was valued in East Africa, added Haymes, who said the challenges companies faced in the area included poor infrastructure and lack of a skilled labour force (IF).
BG, one of the companies with big gas finds in Tanzania, is also facing a major technical issue. The deepwater gas will be produced subsea-to-beach, but SEN was told here that there is a significant amount of water associated with the gas which presents a major flow assurance issue.
Up in Egypt, where BG is facing major commercial issues as the government is forcing gas production to be diverted for domestic consumption rather than conversion to LNG for export, SEN was told the UK-based company is looking to take over a licence from BP which is less than keen to invest more in the country.
If turnabout is fairplay, then now is the turn of the service companies, according to Colin Welsh of Simmons & Co. He suggested that in the period since recession began it has been the service sector, not the oil companies, who have benefited the most and performed the best.
Matt Corbin, headman of Aker Solutions’ subsea business in the UK, voiced in public what is often said around boardrooms and down the pub - there has to be a halt to the ‘poaching’ of personnel.
It is just driving up salaries, he said, and the only beneficiaries are the recruitment agencies. If companies need additional and better workers, they need to train them.
Despite this plaintive call, people continue to move around the industry, albeit not all of them simply for better salaries.
Nils Vagen of OneSubsea - but everyone knows him as a Framo-man - is returning to Aberdeen to take over the 1-S office here. Nils will be looking to build on the success it had in the UK sector with Premier as indicated earlier.
Trond Olsen who did yeoman’s work during his seven years as the head of NCE-Subsea in Bergen has joined monitoring equipment specialist Clamp-On and is shipping out to Houston shortly.
Peripatetic business development man Jim Cramond has joined McDermott at its new ‘London’ (?) office in Epsom...Subsea veteran Adrian Phillips, well-known around the industry during his stints with Aker and FMC, has joined metering specialist Alderley and up sticks to Dubai.
Johnnie Reed is a well-known figure around the offshore sector for his years with Heerema. This was followed by a stretch heading up Intec before Heerema sold it to WorleyParsons and then at Global Industries before it was gobbled up by Technip.
Reed is now chairman of IRM specialist Harkand where he is trying to build a $1bn business in the next five years. He called 2013 ‘a transitional year’ as it digested Veolia Marine Services in the Gulf of Mexico, found its way into new markets (Africa), while consolidating its position in the North Sea.
But there was a more interesting fact to learn by SEN’s NYC-born editor. Reed’s father Jack played for the NY Yankees baseball team when ‘we were just a lad’ in the 1960's, but was resigned to being a support player most of his career as he played behind one of the alltime greats, Mickey Mantle. A great bit of info to learn. Thanks Johnnie, you made this latest trip to Aberdeen worth it.
Chemical engineering company Aubin Integrity and riser integrity specialist Flexlife have formalised their existing collaboration on subsea integrity management, notably on chemical solutions suitable for the interface zone between the sea and the air.
Together they developed a pipework sealant (AXI-Lokk), while Aubin Integrity has developed AXI-Cast (sealant), AXI-Gard (corrosion mitigation/plugging), and AXI-Bind, a flexible sealing gel.
Nautronix has launched NASDive, a fully digital diver communication system. Paradigm Flow Services has developed SUFU, a flushing unit for cleaning subsea umbilicals.
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