Offshore
The FPSO Abigail Joseph
Keppel delivers latest FPSO project Singapore’s Keppel Offshore & Marine, through its wholly-owned subsidiary Keppel Shipyard, has delivered the world’s fastest FPSO modification and upgrading project safely and on time. The FPSO Abigail-Joseph was delivered to Yinson Nepeta Production, a wholly-owned subsidiary of Yinson Holdings Berhad. Chris Ong, CEO of Keppel O&M said, “This is our 134th floating production vessel, and we are pleased to be able to fast-track the project and upgrade it in less than seven months. This achievement reflects Keppel’s track record of reliability and quality, anchored in our strong engineering and project management capabilities, which enable us to offer value adding solutions for customers.” Keppel’s scope in this project includes refurbishment and life extension work, engineering and procurement, fabrication and installation of new structures including the heli-deck and riser balcony, as well as the installation, integration and completion of topside modules. Lim Chern Yuan, Group CEO of Yinson Holdings, added, “This is our third FPSO conversion project with Keppel since 2012, and our close partnership has grown from strength to strength. Leveraging our FPSO expertise and Keppel’s experience in vessel conversions, we are able to achieve this significant industry milestone and bring FPSO Abigail-Joseph to market quickly, maximising its operational uptime.” Chartered by First Exploration and Petroleum Development Company on a firm seven-year
contract with options to extend, FPSO AbigailJoseph will be deployed in Block OML 83/85 in the Anyala-Madu field, Niger State, Nigeria. FPSO Abigail-Joseph has a processing capacity of 50,000 bbls of oil/day and 60,000 bbls of liquid/day. It also has a gas compression capacity of 34m standard cubic feet/day (mmscfd) and a storage capacity of not less than 550,000 bbls of oil. It is designed for 15 years of operations without drydocking.
Sulzer completes pump repair offshore Australia Not many service providers can deliver complex service solutions to all types of rotating equipment regardless of the OEM. When a FPSO unit off the coast of Australia required engineering support, Sulzer stepped in to provide the solution. FPSOs are critical in the oil & gas industry for the production and processing of hydrocarbons as well as the storage of oil. When such vessels have production capacities of over 90,000 bbls of oil/day, there is little room for ill-performing equipment on-board. Where subpar performing pumps and motors are identified, service experts need to be called in for peace of mind. After over a decade in operation, three API BB3 water injection pumps were subject to a number of seal failures, which were outside the routine maintenance schedules. The failures were caused by an increase in the seal chamber pressure - an issue that resulted in the owners contacting Sulzer for expert analysis and
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support. Field service teams provided on-site inspection and a review that revealed a reduction in pump head and performance as well as wear caused by sand particle impingement. The high amount of sand passover, coupled with incomplete regular cleaning of auxiliary equipment, lead to the pumps operating at a reduced efficiency, having a detrimental impact upon production output. Having gained the necessary information to understand the root causes of the problem, the engineering team based in the Suzhou factory began designing the solution. Specialist engineers proposed a multi-faceted solution to combat the wear and seal issues. This included modifying internal geometries, ensuring a smoother flow and allowing particles to follow the fluid streamline more closely, resulting in reduced turbulence and thus reducing erosion. A tungsten carbide-based coating SUME, specially developed for sand abrasion within pumps on water injection duties, was used for coating of the impellers and wear parts due to its high wear resistance and anti-galling properties. Finally, the wear rings were upgraded in material to a ceramic type providing further wear and abrasion resistance. The proposed solutions were approved by the customer and executed according to the customer’s outage plans. One of the pumps was upgraded, while the FPSO vessel was in dry dock, at Sulzer’s Singapore Service Centre and the subsequent pumps were upgraded within Sulzer’s Perth Service Centre once the vessel was back in operation in Australia. This allowed the customer the flexibility of completing the job within their project schedules. Furthermore, having the service sites nearby gave the customer piece of mind, with the equipment being repaired to the highest level of quality and offering excellent support during the project. In addition to the support with the mechanical rotating equipment, Sulzer was also able to deliver maintenance and repair work for the electrical equipment. This time, the FPSO vessel required support on the removal of an old 2 MW, 11 kV Siemens motor while simultaneously installing and commissioning a brand-new identical piece of machinery. The original motor was removed from the vessel and sent to the Perth Airport Service Centre for a full inspection, repair and testing. Specialists assessed the condition of the unit and replaced a number of components including stator leads, rotating seals and grease lines as well as remanufacturing a new terminal box to better suit the application on site.
