The 690 km South Caucasus Pipeline (SCP) carries gas west from the Shah Deniz field in Azerbaijan’s sector of the Caspian Sea to the eastern border of Turkey. This link, which was completed in 2006, is to have its capacity expanded from 7 to 23 billion cubic meters a year by means of a second pipeline and two large compressor stations. Altogether, the SCP expansion (SCPx) is worth $3 billion.
The SCP and the SCPx are owned by the SCP Company, a consortium of operators led by BP. ABB has already delivered automation and safety systems to a number of major oil and gas facilities in the region including 7 offshore platforms, an onshore terminal and 3 pipelines including the existing SCP.
This work is to be extended to the SCPx scheme, where ABB will supply world leading system 800xA control and automation platform, which will collect and integrate the pipeline’s main functions. It will run the compression plants that move the gas, the “pigging” stations that clear blockages, the block valves that isolate sections of the line if necessary and the gauges that record how much gas has been transported. A range of instrumentation including pressure, temperature and flow measurement devices are being supplied across the installation plus the modularized local electrical rooms, electrical network and power management system, which will handle tasks such as electrical load shedding.
The use of system 800xA with high integrity controllers for the Integrated Control and Safety System(ICSS) will improve process availability and reduce risk by providing a common IT environment for production control, safety supervision and production monitoring.
ABB is supplying several the Extended Operator Workplace (EOW)’s into the new control room where the pipeline will be monitored and controlled. The unique EOW’s enable operator effectiveness and production safety by utilizing ergonomics and designing the entire control process at their fingertips.
The project is the first part of the $45billion Southern Gas Corridor project, a strategic link between central Asia and Europe. The SCPx will join the Trans-Anatolian Pipeline that will take gas 1850 km across Turkey to its border with Greece, and the gas is then transported a further 878 km to Italy, travelling through Greece, Albania, under the Adriatic Sea along the way. As such it forms an important part of Azerbaijan’s energy economy, secures a major route to market for the 12 companies involved and will play a large part in Europe’s future energy security.