FieldQ™ diagnostics help simplify work practices and improve efficiency

Emerson Process Management has released cost-saving new diagnostic capabilities in its FieldQ rack & pinion, fully integrated valve actuator and controls. The updated capabilities greatly simplify daily work practices with the release of FieldQ Foundation fieldbus Version 3, with device diagnostic alarm management in a flexible modular package.
 
The enhanced diagnostic alarm tools enable users to categorise and prioritise device alarms based on the criticality of the device and the severity of the problem detected by the diagnostics. Alarm settings can be configured to alert appropriate plant personnel so they can take action without being distracted by irrelevant alarms.

"Our device diagnostics can be tailored for maintenance and matched to predictive routines. Users will see efficiency improvements in their daily maintenance and turnaround planning, which help to maximise uptime and reduce costs," said Sue Ooi, Vice President, valve automation rack & pinion products, Emerson Process Management.

The FieldQ product modularity further extends efficiency by offering plug-and-play modules for many requirements, including explosion-proof and intrinsically safe capabilities, as well as bus communication options. In addition, control modules are available for diagnostics such as travel time, cycle counts, time in position, and module temperature. This capability enhances field services capabilities and makes user interface more cost effective.
 
For additional information about the new diagnostic power and modularity of FieldQ, please visit www.emersonprocess.com/fieldq 

Abu Dhabi National Oil Co. (ADNOC) has chosen Shell to participate in a 30-year JV to develop the major Bab sour gas reservoirs in Abu Dhabi.

Shell beat off competition from Total for the contract, reportedly worth up to £6.5 billion. It will hold a 40% stake in the JV, with ADNOC holding 60%.

The two companies will now enter a period of commercial and technical work leading to the development of the challenging sour gas reservoirs, 150km south-west of the city of Abu Dhabi. The JV is to be the operator, and that the gas will supply the local market in the UAE.

“We have more than 60 years’ experience of safe and successful sour gas field development globally and we will apply this experience, along with our leading research and development, and technology expertise, to the development of the Bab resource," said Peter Voser, Shell’s CEO.

"We will also work closely with ADNOC to enhance the technical expertise of its workforce through effective knowledge transfer," added Voser.

Brussels – After three consecutive months of expansion, EU chemicals production fell by 1.6% in January 2013 compared to January 2012, according to the latest Cefic Chemicals Trends Report.

Despite the decline. EU chemicals prices for the month climbed by 2.2% compared with the same period the year prior. However, overall chemicals industry confidence indicators deteriorated slightly in March

Cefic linked the decline in sentiment to lower order-book assessments and worsening in assessment of production expectations for the coming months.

The year-end 2012 net trade surplus reached €49.6 billion, more than €9 billion above the level seen during the same period in 2011.

Recently published data show sales were slightly lower in 2012 compared with 2011, but stood 5.4% higher than the pre-crisis, full-year peak level reached in 2008.

EU chemicals production index for January was dragged down by petrochemicals, which declined 3.6% year-on-year during the month.

Lower overall production was also affected by polymers, down 1.3% in January compared with January 2012. Consumer chemicals output rose by nearly one per cent in January. Specialty chemicals output declined by only 0.6%.

Year-on-year EU chemicals prices rose by 2.2% in January, driven by the price for petrochemicals, which increased by 5.5% in January as compared with the year prior.

Recent oil price increases factored into the petrochemicals spike. Prices climbed for consumer chemicals by 1.4%.

Trade data available through December 2012 show a €49.6 billion year-to-date EU chemicals net trade surplus with other markets, up €9 billion compared with same 12-month period the year prior.

The EU net trade surplus with non-EU Europe, which includes Russia and Turkey, contributed significantly to the jump in the January-to-December overall surplus, reaching €15.2 billion, a 23% jump from 2011.

The EU net trade surplus with NAFTA reached €11.3 billion last year, rising by €1.8 billion compared with the same period in 2011. A slight bump occurred in the trade surplus with Asia, excluding Japan and China, edging up by €0.3 billion to €5.3 billion.

Total 2012 chemicals sales were 1.0% lower compared with full year levels in 2011. EU chemicals sales during 2012 were 5.4% higher than the pre-crisis, full-year peak level reached in 2008. December sales were 1.9% higher compared with December the year prior.

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Adaptor turns wired field instruments into wireless devices
Yokogawa has developed a multi-protocol wireless adaptor that enables wired field instruments or analytical sensors to be used as ISA100 Wireless devices, and will release models in May and July that support communications based on the HART and RS485 Modbus standards.  (Read more)

Magnet picks up profit from demolitiom waste
In the materials sector, Atlas Copco has introduced an interesting addition to its range of hydraulic tools for recycling plants, scrapyards and the demolition industry. Hydro Magnets enable valuable iron and steel to be separated quickly and easily from concrete waste for subsequent recycling. Installed on the existing grapple or shear installation, they require no extra generator or electro cable on the carrier.  (Read more)

Energy-saver demo highlights huge opportunity for UK industry
Huge amounts of energy are still being wasted throughout British industry because variable speed inverter drives are still not fully appreciated, so Mitsubishi Electric has developed a simple but effective demonstration that can be seen in an on-line video, operated as a virtual demo or used in reality at the company’s headquarters in Hatfield.
(Read more)

High-pressure pumping systems for steel industry
The steel industry encompasses a large number of very different processes, from the smelting of the raw materials to the rolling and shaping of the finished product. In the modern economic climate, it is essential that the equipment used in these processes is as reliable and efficient as possible.  (Read more)

CASE STUDY - Control valve threatened Welsh Water supply
Dŵr Cymru Welsh Water investigations of ‘pin holes’ by non-destructive testing of a strategic flow control valve found that in less than five years, cavitation had caused extensive detrimental and potentially fatal wear to the plug valve, which was in danger of imminent failure.  (Read more)

EnQuest PLC has appointed Neil McCulloch as president, North Sea, with effect from 1 April. He will succeed David Heslop, who retires from his role as managing director UKCS

McCulloch has held a number of senior positions in the oil and gas sector, and joins EnQuest from international oil and gas company OMV AG, where he had the global role of senior vice president production & engineering.

Prior to this, he spent 11 years with BG Group in a range of senior UK and international roles, most recently as vice president & asset general manager, UK Upstream, with accountability for the delivery of BG’s UK North Sea business.

Heslop is to continue to support EnQuest in an advisory capacity or on special projects.

EnQuest is currently investing £4bn in the one of the largest new oil fields in the North Sea, which could employ up to 20,000 in the construction phase and create 1000 operational jobs over its expected 25-year lifetime.

The 140m-barrel Kraken development will be EnQuest’s sixth production hub in the UK North Sea.

As operator, EnQuest will develop the project - located in the East Shetland basin, about 125km east of the Shetland Islands - on behalf of itself and its partners.

Around 80% of the investment will be in the UK, said the company, which estimates that the project will generate future revenue of £9 billion. Gross peak oil production is expected to exceed 50k barrels of oil per day, with first oil production in 2016/2017.

The Kraken development has two separate heavy oil fields, both of which will benefit from UK government tax measures to stimulate investment in the UK North Sea, said EnQuest, which claims to be the largest independent North Sea producer.

Energy technology services company Proserv has unveiled what it claims is a game-changing technology for subsea control and monitoring communications.

The Artemis 2G (A2G) subsea electronics module is a controls and communications tool. It is designed to free operators from the constraints of an existing brownfield umbilical by finding additional signal capacity to enable a cost-effective field upgrade or extension.

In addition, the design is said to offer high-speed, copper-based, multi-drop networks as a viable alternative to fibre optic infrastructures within the subsea production system.

According to Proserv, A2G provides more powerful communications and instrument support and increases accessibility for remote usage though its webpage interface from subsea to the desktop.

The product, it adds, complies with the latest ISO 13628 part 6, API 17F and Subsea Instrumentation Interface Standardisation. A2G can be used to co-exist with existing networks, is fully back compatible with all existing technology and does not require any proprietary software for remote configuration and support.

With the extraction of subsea oil and gas reserves becoming increasingly challenging in deeper and more isolated areas, greater data is required from subsea instrumentation, notes Alan Peek, Proserv’s VP for subsea controls and communications.

Longer step-out distances between subsea fields and host facilities also mean that improved communications and power technologies are needed to enable production in remote locations, he adds.

The new product, said Peek, is "effectively the brain of the subsea and control operations because unlike other tools, it controls all of the communication systems and enables the power, speed and accessibility necessary for the control and monitoring of challenging subsea infrastructures and environments.

“What sets A2G apart is the way in which it manages information and power and the sophisticated way that it configures and communicates the data while at different rates. This new technology has already generated an extraordinary level of industry interest and we expect a strong uptake.”

Earlier this year, Proserv announced two separate contract wins with Noble Energy and Talos Energy in the Gulf of Mexico where the A2G system is to be implemented on Noble Energy’s Gunflint field in the Mississippi Canyon area as part of work to control two deepwater wells about 70 miles from the Louisiana coast.

Subsea production systems employ connectors to attach hydraulic lines and other associated equipment to each other.

Traditionally an MQC, or ‘stab plate,’ with screw threads—much like a household nut—is installed on subsea structures and the cables and leads are then attached—much like a household bolt. These connections are key to the overall reliability of the subsea distribution system.

Over time the corrosive, high pressure subsea environment can lead to degradation of the threads, with frequent connection failures experienced by installation contractors and operators during life of field.

The result; a connection system that proves easy to attach when new, but often very difficult to de-couple after years of service during required maintenance or equipment replacement. This, in turn, translates into longer staff hours for service, more effort, more downtime—and higher costs.

After working closely with customers to identify issues posed by connector models with traditional stab plates, GE’s UK-based subsea engineering team re-desiged the technology and removing the screw threads in their entirety—which is an industry first.

The resultant FLX360 is an innovative solution that reduces the corrosion and connection seizure issues previously experienced due to marine and calcerous growth; a common and costly problem. GE has also reduced the number of moving parts that would typically be located subsea for the life of the equipment, from 16 to one.

The design of the FLX360 adopts a mechanism comparable to that seen in a bayonet fitting on a light bulb. In this type of threadless design, small pins are located on the side of the unit that is to be attached. When a remote operating vehicle (ROV) mates the unit to the base, the ROV then rotates it so that the pins catch and lock.

Guidance features on both the tool and stab plates help to avoid any angular, rotational and lateral misalignment possibilities, giving the operator the most ‘room for error’ on the market today.

The new design is "a clear example of common-sense engineering ... stab plates are a critical component which, once engaged, are held together by a huge force," said Paul White, director-subsea technology at GE Oil & Gas Subsea Systems.

"They should remain in position regardless of external conditions for many years, but should also be able to be ‘de-mated’ on demand," he added. "[This] significantly reduces risk, removing the reliability issues in this key aspect of our customers’ operations.”

By removing the vulnerable moving parts typically sited within the subsea component and locating them within the installation tool itself, the connection system can be exercised without disconnecting hydraulics.

The solution, adds GE, allows the provision of clear information to the operator during tool engagement and facilitates improved ease of recovery for servicing purposes.

The UK government has now confirmed that it will fund front end engineering and design (FEED) studies for the Peterhead carbon capture and storage (CCS) project. The FEED work is expected to continue until 2015, and the project to be up and running by 2020.

The project is designed to capture, compress and transport by pipeline one million tonnes a year of carbon dioxide from the Aberdeenshire facility to an offshore gas reservoir for long-term storage beneath the North Sea.

The project is led by Shell, which recently signed an agreement with the UK Government to progress the scheme to the next phase of design. The project, which has strategic support from SSE  - owner of the Peterhead gas power station -could represent the first industrial-scale application of CCS technology at a gas power station anywhere in the world.

"The signing of this agreement is a hugely important step towards the UK delivering the world’s first CCS demonstration facility on a gas-fired power station. The project has the potential to make gas, already the cleanest burning fossil fuel, even cleaner,” said Ed Daniels, chairman of Shell UK.

The proposed initiative at Peterhead is part of a portfolio of CCS projects supported by Shell. Others include the Quest oil sands project in Alberta, Canada, and the Gorgon project in Australia.  

Another key player is Atkins, the technical advisor to the DECC CCS programme to develop and deploy full-chain CCS demonstration plants.  It has provided technical and commercial advice and support to DECC throughout the negotiations of the risk-reduction-phase contracts with the two preferred bidders (White Rose and Shell).  

Atkins is to provide advice and review of the engineering and designs across all technological elements of the CCS chain from the Peterhead power station, carbon capture and gas processing, transport and underground storage of the CO2. Its remit also covers the consenting process and commercial aspects of the programme delivery.

David Few, director at Atkins’ energy business, said: “This announcement follows the government’s commitment to funding the FEED study at White Rose CCS project in December last year and signals a major step forward in the commercialisation of CCS in the UK."

Meanwhile, Shell UK Ltd has awarded Technip a contract to provide front-end engineering design (FEED) for the onshore elements of the Peterhead demonstration project in Aberdeenshire, Scotland.

The FEED scope includes a grassroots carbon capture and compression plant and modifications to an existing combined cycle gas turbine power plant.

Technip's operating centre in Milton Keynes, UK, which executed a pre-FEED study for the Peterhead CCS project about 18 months ago, will execute the FEED for this next phase.

This office serves as a centre of excellence for the development of end-to-end solutions for carbon capture and sequestration projects.

Project details

The Peterhead CCS Project is part of the UK Government’s CCS Commercialisation Competition and in March 2013 was shortlisted as one of the two preferred projects bidding for funding.

The Peterhead CCS project is based on post-combustion capture and will use amines to absorb the CO2, a method that has been used by the industry for around 50 years. It is therefore a mature and cost-effective solution. It has already been demonstrated as feasible, having been deployed in several small installations in the USA and it is recognised as the best available technology for post-combustion CO2 capture.

Following feasibility studies on a variety of options, Shell proposes to build a short length of new pipeline from Peterhead Power Station and link this into the existing offshore pipeline from St Fergus to the Goldeneye reservoir, approximately 12 miles (20 KM) from shore.

CO2 will be stored in the depleted Goldeneye reservoir, which lies about 62 miles (100 KM) from the shore in the outer Moray Firth, and 2.5km beneath the seabed. The reservoir has the key geological features necessary for storing CO2 permanently: a body of high-quality porous rock overlain by impermeable rock to seal the CO2 in place.

Goldeneye was a producing gas field from 2004 to 2011. Injection is the reverse of production: during production, natural gas was drawn from the rock and naturally replaced by salt water; injection of CO2 will drive the salt water back out of the store and into the adjacent rock formations from whence it came. The Goldeneye gas store will be monitored throughout its life.

While most of the infrastructure for the project is already in place, construction is expected to create between 100 and 150 jobs. When operational, the proposed project is expected to support 20 to 30 jobs over a ten-year period.

Fortum has signed a leasing agreement with UK-based Wave Hub in order to test wave power solutions off the coast of Cornwall. The agreement provides Fortum with a new opportunity to rapidly deploy advanced, full-scale wave power converters in ocean conditions.

The Wave Hub facility offers Fortum an opportunity to test wave power converters in favourable ocean conditions. The site is consented, constructed and grid connected, which significantly reduces the time it takes to get devices into the water. The berth that Wave Hub will provide is capable of handling up to 10MW installed generation.

“This is as much ‘plug and play’ as it gets when it comes to wave power generation development. The site already has everything we need to start testing,” says Fortum's chief technology officer Heli Antila, PhD. “From the very beginning, Wave Hub has been very supportive of our project development, which is important as this is a testing environment.”

“One wave power solution that we are currently evaluating to be deployed at the site is the ‘Penguin’, developed by Finnish wave power company Wello,” says Heli Antila. “This technique comprises vessels that float on the water and capture kinetic energy, which is then turned into electrical power, with minimal anchoring attached to the bottom,” she concluded.

Fortum has been involved in wave energy development since 2007 and has participated in the development of several technologies. One of these is the Finnish AW-Energy’s WaveRoller technology, which has been successfully tested off the coast of Portugal.

Last year, Fortum also signed a cooperation agreement with the French marine technology company DCNS to further test and develop AW-Energy’s technology off the coast of Bretagne, France.

In Sweden, Fortum and Seabased AB are currently cooperating around a 10-megawatt wave power park on the west coast of Sweden, in Sotenäs. It is one of the world’s largest wave-power demonstration projects and will start production during 2014.

The technology of choice in Sweden is Seabased's linear wave power generator that is placed on the bottom of the sea.