ABB has evolved the installed systems at the Apache facility to meet its changing production and business needs, with system and functionality enhancements that maximize the value of the original ABB system investment.
The largest gas producer in the Western desert
Apache Egypt, a joint-venture between Khalda Petroleum Company and Qarun Petroleum Company, is the largest producer of liquid hydrocarbons and natural gas in the Western desert region and the third largest gas producer in Egypt. It acquired the facility from GUPCO/British Petroleum in 2010.
This plant is one of the main LPG extracting facilities of the Egyptian gas grid, with a daily gross production of 135 million cubic feet or 4,000 barrels/day.
Enhancing the installation beyond HMI expansion
The plant’s original ABB MOD 300 controllers had been running the extraction process since 1992 — a remarkable 20-year history; that was later evolved to ABB’s Freelance AC 800F control technology.
Further control system evolution project had initially started as a Human Machine Interface (HMI) expansion. However, ABB was able to demonstrate that evolving the process controller and operator stations as well could enhance the installation and fully support Apache’s future business needs, including their smart grid utility requirements.
Operator stations were evolved to ABB’s System 800xA Operations for Freelance platform using AC 800F connection software. The number of channels supported by the redundant AC 800F controllers in the new installation grew from 150 to 800.
ABB also conducted customized training on the engineering, configuration and operation of System 800xA for the Khalda Petroleum project team.