Photo courtesy:EnQuest
In October 2014, ABB won its third contract to work on a floating oil production platform for Bumi Armada Berhad, the Malaysian-based offshore services provider. When complete, the vessel will be delivered to the oil company EnQuest UK, which is planning to begin operations at the Kraken field in the East Shetland Basin of the North Sea in 2017.
ABB will fit the vessel, which is known as a floating, production, storage and offloading unit, with all its power and automation systems. These include medium and low-voltage switchgear, transformers, medium-voltage variable-frequency drives, uninterruptible power supplies, and electrical monitoring and control systems. Much of this equipment will be stored in an e-house, ABB’s prefabricated module for containing switchgear and protecting it from the extreme weather conditions encountered in the northern North Sea.
As well as the electrical hardware, ABB will install the automation platform that controls its routine operation and provides real-time feedback and diagnostic information to the engineers who are overseeing the FPSO vessel.
EnQuest is an oil company that mainly develops oil and gas beneath the UK’s continental shelf. In 2013, it was granted permission to exploit the Kraken field and is now engaged on a £4 billion development programme in partnership with Cairn Energy and First Oil. The Kraken contains an estimated 140 million barrels of oil, and has an expected production life of up to 25 years.
The two other orders that ABB fulfilled for Bumi Armada Berhad were an e-house package for a vessel that operated off western India and a complete automation package for the company’s units exploiting the Balnaves oilfield off Western Australia.