Oil & gas

Upstream applications

Firstly, there are offshore applications such as the drilling rigs and production platforms. These are always open to extreme weather conditions so equipment used here needs to be able to withstand a salty environment. This is achieved through either manufacturing product from stainless steel, as is the case for Kopex-Ex conduit glands, or by ensuring that the product is coated or painted to withstand marine environments.

Equipment in offshore applications also needs to be hardwearing and easy to maintain as production downtime can be extremely costly for example FPSO (Floating Production Storage and Offloading) vessel can produce 200,000 barrels of crude oil per day at approx $80 to $90 per barrel. A breakdown would result in the vessel producing a loss of revenue of over $700,000 per hour.

This has led to ABB products being used in many offshore applications to protect critical data and power cables across these massive vessels. Whether it is data cables from a gas detector or the cable protection on a power transmission unit, ABB offers a whole range of products that are tested and approved to many of the world standards.

Onshore applications can also be split into exploration and production. Single onshore wells may produce as little as a few barrels per day but networking of onshor e wells can result in production of milliions of barrels per day. This brings with it a whole new series of challenges to be overcome. Firstly, the drilling rigs tend to be mobile with motors and pumps often mounted on skids for easy transportation. This can lead to issues of connectivity for which Thomas and Betts has a range of thread converters in a variety of materials, many meeting world standards, ready to resolve the problem.

Secondly, so many rigs in network requires a massive monitoring operation to ensure that the flow of all the rigs is ongoing and consistent. This makes the protection of data cable critical. With the broadest range of systems and approvals, ABB leads the field in providing solutions.

Product selection

• Salt water corrosion (offshore platforms)
• Oil and chemical resistance (Drilling rig MUD)
• Extreme ambient temperature
• Protection level
• Connectivity to other pieces of equipment
• Consequence of down time
• Approval level required (Ex e, Ex d, etc.)
• Approval specification required ATEX, IECEx
• Where product will be positioned, e.g. Zone 1 or Zone 2

Approvals / Characteristics

• ATEX Europe DIrectives 94/9/EC
• IECEx (International Scheme)
• Zones 1, 2, 21, 22
• IP66 ingress protection

Midstream applications

Midstream relates to the transportation, storage and partial processing of crude oil and gas from the wellheads to the refining plants. This brings a different set of challenges to overcome.

This all relates to the fact that what is pumped out of the well is not pure and often contains a mixture of oil, gas, water and often sand which firstly need to be separated off from each other before being shipped or piped to a storage facility. This can be done in a variety of ways depending on the type of oil or gas that the well is pumping and can often take up to 4 processes before the commodity is separated out ready for piping or shipping. These processes require energy and this energy is often created from the commodity itself by the utilisation of the gas.

Once the separating has been completed, the commodity can then be moved to storage. In the case of an offshore rig this separating is often done on shore away from the rig then pumped to the storage depots. In the case of the FPSO vessels it is all done on board and the oil  transferred to tankers at sea for delivery to storage depots.

Product selection

• Salt water corrosion (Tankers)
• Extreme ambient temperature
• Protection level
• Consequence of down time
• Approval level required (Ex e, Ex d, etc.)
• Approval specification required ATEX, IECEx
• Where product will be positioned, e.g. Zone 1 or Zone 2

Approvals / Characteristics

• ATEX Europe DIrectives 94/9/EC
• IECEx (International Scheme)
• Zones 1, 2, 21, 22
• IP66 ingress protection

This is also the point when all metering needs to take place to calculate invoices and taxes today. The amount of oil produced is shapely measures, also the density, viscosity, pressure, temperature, and in the case of gas, the amount of water vapour is also measured. Oil is often pumped directly to the oil refinery which is where the down stream operation starts but often needs to go through a series of pumps to get the required pressure.

With the Kopex-Ex range of products, ABB can offer a range of products and services to meet the demands of midstream oil and gas markets. The Kopex-Ex range of conduit & fittings are manufactured to meet ATEX and IECEx standards. They are designed to be robust and to meet the vigors of the environment whether it is on oil tankers or in the refining production process.

Downstream applications

The term downstream relates to the processing and delivery of finished carbon related product to the end-user. This covers a whole range of applications from refining to petrol stations.

There are over 700 refineries globally all competing to supply finished carbon based products to local and inter national markets. The products refined are varied including:

• Transportation fuels - LPG, gasoline, jet fuel, diesel, gas oil and bunker fuel
• Petrochemical feedstocks - LPG, naphtha and aromatics
• Energy sources - LPG, kerosene, heating oil and fuel oil
• Specialities - Lubricants, bitumen, coke, solvents and waxes
• Petrochemical feedstocks - Synthetic fibres (nylon), plastics (polyethylene, PVC)

Product selection

• Continual Movement (CCTV)
• Extreme ambient temperature
• Protection level
• Consequence of down time
• Approval level required (Ex e, Ex d, etc.)
• Approval specification required ATEX, IECEx, UL, GOST, etc.
• Where product will be positioned, e.g. Zone 1 or Zone 2

Approvals / Characteristics

• ATEX Europe DIrectives 94/9/EC
• IECEx (International Scheme)
• Zones 1, 2, 21, 22

The refining process is in four stages, firstly distillation which separates it into 5 product sectors LPG, Naphtha, Kerosine, Gas, Oil, and Atmospheric residue, this is done using high temperature. The higher the temperature the higher the quality of the product.

The second stage is the upgrading or reforming. This stage is used to change the product at a molecular level for example changing the low octane version of Naphtha to high octane which can be blended into gasoline.

Stages three and four are about treating the product to remove impurities such as sulphur and blending the refined product into distinct products for the market.

The final stage of the downstream process is delivery to the market which involves storage and transportation. For example in the case of aviation fuel this can be shipped direct to airports by road or rail where it is stored, before transferring to tanker trunks for the refueling of aircraft.

All the stages in the downstr eam operation have different requirements to ensure safety of personnel and the quality of the end product. Kopex-Ex products are used in this area and are all designed for easy maintenance. There is also a range of instrumentation boxes either with standard configurations
or custom built to meet the end-users’ requirements, all of which are essential within a refinery where sensors play a key part on the process to ensure quality.