FLNG

Emerson South Korea general manager, Patrick Deruytter was in Austin recently. You may recall Patrick from earlier posts about large FPSO projects being performed there. He has an upcoming presentation at FLNG Project Advancement on accelerating FLNG (floating liquefied natural gas) project delivery using a main automation contractor approach.

For those unfamiliar with FLNG, it borrows the idea of floating production, storage and offloading by building a liquefied natural gas facility on a tank ship. From Wikipedia:

LNG is principally used for transporting natural gas to markets, where it is regasified and distributed as pipeline natural gas.

According to a World FLNG Market Report:

The IEA [International Energy Agency] forecasts annual growth in natural gas supply will average 1.6% from 2006 to 2030. By 2030, natural gas will account for 23% of total worldwide primary energy supply. The difficulties in progressing onshore projects in LNG has driven the adoption of FLNG which now offers an increasingly important method of bringing gas from stranded reserves to the market.

I saw an advanced copy of Patrick's presentation. In it, he notes that process automation touches every element of an FLNG vessel including production units, hull, ballast, power generation and distribution, fire and safety systems, and information management systems (IMS).

Automation typically accounts for only 3% of the capital costs for an FLNG project, but is critical to its successful operation. The automation technology and project execution methodology play a large role in determining how successful ongoing operations will be.

The Construction Industry Institute (CII) described a PEpC (Procurement, Engineering, procurement and Construction) process that can produce:

...savings in time between 10 and 15 percent and savings in total project labor cost between 4 and 8 percent were possible.

CII describes how the PEpC process does this:

...utilize supplier expertise in all phases of the project life cycle by developing an advance procurement strategy and reaching agreement with suppliers on strategic procurement items and/or systems prior to the associated project engineering activities.

Patrick described how this process works on FLNG processes. Working as a main automation contractor (MAC), his team helps develop the execution plan and schedule, procurement specifications, design and execution specifications, device communication protocols, power/heat/loading estimations, measurement technologies, and role/responsibility matrices--all in the front end engineering design (FEED) phase of the project.

Post-FEED, the team develops cost estimates, clarifies scope of MAC supply for the engineering and procurement construction (EPC) contractors, and develops control system detailed design and integrated tests for long lead-time equipment such as compressors and tank storage.

He describes the role automation technology can play. A distributed modular approach for the automation reduces control room footprint, reduces cable size and weight, and facilitates modular design, pre-assembly and test which helps reduce the project timeline. Wireless instrumentation can reduce the project tasks required by eliminating power and grounding efforts, I/O and cabinet design, installation, and commissioning.

Also, electronic marshalling reduces design, engineering, drawings, cabinets and the associated incremental installation and commissioning effort required.

These technologies combined with a structured project execution methodology help to reduce the overall project risk and cost. It also provides the vessel's staff with the control, safety, and information required for efficient, ongoing operations.

The key in accelerating project execution for FLNG is in deploying recent technologies such as wireless and electronic marshalling combined with an advanced project execution model such as MAC.

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A few weeks ago, I wrote about a floating production, offloading and storage (FPSO) presentation shared with me. These, because of my background in offshore oil and gas production, personally fascinate me. As a freshly minted electrical engineer back in the day, I found it challenging to do projects on offshore platforms because they included safety shutdown systems, power generation and distribution, process control, and telecommunications.

FPSOs and floating liquefied natural gas (FLNG) vessels add challenges way beyond what I saw--navigation, thrust, ballast and much more complex processes to safely control.

Emerson's Knut Jorgensen and Wärtsilä's Ingebjørg Lien recently presented From MAC To "BIG MAC" For FLNG at the Commercialising FLNG Asia 2008 conference last month. The focus of their presentation was to discuss generic floating LNG plant design, technologies and expertise that Emerson and Wärtsilä combine to deliver.

The name Big MAC comes from the main automation contractor acronym that's been increased in scope. Engineering services extend to electrical, instrumentation, telecommunications and navigation. Wärtsilä adds dual fuel engines (natural gas and diesel), generators, thrusters, and power distribution systems to the main automation contracting services normally provided by Emerson--design, engineering, project management, and project execution around the instrumentation, control, and safety systems.

What reinforced my notion of vastly greater complexity was the breadth of scope in each area. For instance, in the safety and automation system area, the scope includes the production automation, hull automation, ballast and cargo monitoring and control, power management, safety, fire & gas, emergency shutdown systems, and the FLNG information management system (IMS).

This information needs to be shared among the crew, who are located on many levels of the vessel from the engine rooms and high voltage (HV) rooms down low to the engine control room, central control room and bridge at the higher levels.

Knut mentioned the goal for a successful project given this complexity is to do less work at the fabrication yard and pre-commission as many of the systems in modules as possible. This reduces overall engineering and commissioning time and finds the problems earlier when they are easier to solve.

Knut also believes that wireless instrumentation can be a cost-effective alternative for 20 to 25% of the onboard instrumentation measurements. Anything to reduce the overall weight on these vessels increases their efficiency. And, wireless devices help eliminate cables, conduit, cable tray, and the overall steel and space required. For a typical 17,000+ I/O system, this could mean $2 million USD in capital savings plus the ongoing weight savings, which translate into lower operational costs.

A final big challenge I gleaned was the global scope of these projects. The engineering, procurement, construction (EPC) contractors for both the hull and topside may be located in different regions, as are the owners, Emerson/Wärtsilä project center, and module fabrication sites. Global coordination and project management of resources in the U.S., Europe, India, Japan, Australia, China, Singapore and other locations is critical. Executing these as part of a "Big MAC" is an important step in reducing project risks, purchasing interfaces, and interface management.

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