FPSO

Emerson's Wim van Loon and Rafael Lachmann presented Modular Safety Concept (MSC) for Marine & Offshore projects and the Value Proposition at Emerson Exchange. Their abstract:

The current demands from the Marine and Offshore industry require low CAPEX, high amount of flexibility and increasingly faster execution of projects. Emerson offers the Modular Safety Concept as part of a Distributed ICSS allowing customers to meet these requirements and stay Class-compliant. What are the objectives, design constraints and solutions and what are the value adds to the project?

Wim kicked off the presentation describing a conversion Floating Production Storage/Offloading Systems (FPSO) project. In very simple terms, it's converting existing tank vessels into FPSOs. This means building the production and storage facilities with the necessary process automation and safety instrumented system.

One of the issues with FPSO conversions is the capital expenditure risk in cost and schedule overruns. This can drive the return on investment below the set thresholds. Wim described areas where risks can be reduced throughout the project lifecycle. Fit for purpose design concepts contribute to a fast-track character. During the front-end engineering design (FEED) phase, if you split a larger project into parallel modules, you divide the risks where a schedule slippage in one module does not impact all the modules.

Wim described global project engineering standards with a library of standard DeltaV configurations and work processes. These standards are applied globally across all world areas to help provide resources for the process module development, no matter where the construction takes place. Complete wiring, loop test and functional check out of the modules can be done in parallel to minimize project risk.

Rafael described the modular safety concept (MSC). Here's a complete application note on the modular safety concept. Distributed control has been available since the advent of the distributed control system. Distributed safety is required. The safety system applies to emergency shutdown (ESD), process shutdown (PSD), and fire and gas (F&G). Redundancy in all logic solver and power means redundant processor and redundant I/O and two sets of feeders that are individually UPS-backed up. The feeders are each capable of powering the entire ESD or F&G module node.

With the modular approach to both the automation and safety instrumented systems, the modules can be built and tested in parallel and hooked up once they are integrated with the vessel.

The distributed approach provides significant CAPEX and schedule risk reductions over traditional, centralized process control, emergency shutdown, and fire and gas systems.

Update: I've added a link above to a detailed application note on the modular safety concept.

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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I've known Emerson's Patrick Deruytter for many years. He's now the general manager for the Emerson Process Management office in South Korea. As his career has advanced, he's lived in many places--Minnesota and Texas in the U.S., Belgium and the U.K. in Europe, Australia, Singapore, and China. His experiences have included projects, project management, product marketing, lifecycle support, and general management.

He was in Austin last week and we had a chance to catch up. I found out he recently spoke at the Asia Pacific FPSO Summit with a presentation, Enabling Operational Excellence in FPSO. For those not versed in FPSOs, the acronym stands for Floating Production Storage and Offloading. When I worked in the offshore oil and gas industry in the mid-to-late 1980s, the overwhelming majority of offshore production came from fixed-leg platforms that set on the ocean floor.

Patrick highlighted some of the challenges and global trends for FPSOs. The first is the ever-increasing sophistication and complexity of the vessels and the onboard processing facilities. Oil and gas producers are building and modernizing FPSOs to meet the global needs for hydrocarbon-based energy.

Increasingly, FPSO owners want all of their systems integrated--navigation and propulsion systems, integrated automation systems (IAS), custody transfer systems (CTS), etc. Given the fast track nature of FPSO projects, equipment deliveries and skilled project engineers are critical for on time, on-budget performance. Once commissioned, the systems need to be highly reliable and easy to maintain, given the marine environment in which they operate.

Integrated systems provide a single window into the oil & gas production processes, subsea control processes, management of onboard assets, safety instrumented systems, and vessel automation processes (ballast control, offloading, power management, tank washing, etc.)

The design of the processing facilities on FPSOs is becoming extremely modular. This helps with the construction phase while the vessel is in the shipyard, and makes engineering, installation, and commissioning more manageable. The major processes like separation, gas dehydration, gas injection, oil metering, seawater treatment, power generation and distribution, custody transfer, etc. are pre-built, instrumented, and set on the deck of the vessel for integration with the automation and safety systems.

The modular trend extends to the wiring. FPSOs are moving away from large central control rooms toward remote I/O and control stations distributed among the production modules. This reduces the size of the total control room footprint, which is quite expensive on these ships. It also reduces cable runs, which reduces overall weight. And the modular design lends itself to modular pre-assembly and pre-testing which reduces overall commissioning time. Typically, the earlier you find problems, the easier and less expensive they are to resolve.

Patrick listed products across Emerson Process Management and alliance partners used in large marine projects like FPSOs and FLNG (floating liquefied natural gas) vessels. The list included DeltaV automation systems, DeltaV SIS safety systems, AMS suite software, Scanjet tank cleaning, Wärtsilä power distribution / engines / drives / vessel automation / propulsion systems, Rosemount tank radar level gauging and measurement, Fisher valves and regulators, Daniel metering and custody transfer, Micro Motion flow meters, and Valve Automation offshore valve systems.

These technologies have been applied in some of the world's largest FPSOs including ExxonMobil Kizomba A & B, BP Angola, Pemex, and Total, to name a few.

Patrick closed his presentation on WirelessHART wireless devices and how they are being incorporated in applications like wellhead annular pressure and heat exchanger pressure monitoring. This additional monitoring helps more quickly spot abnormal situations and reduces the manual clipboard and keyboard entry work processes.

The level of sophistication and technologies applied to these marine applications has come a long way from my days back in offshore oil production two decades ago!

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