ConocoPhillips has become the latest addition to a Joint Industry Project (JIP) set to revolutionize pumps for seabed and unmanned platforms.
The operator joins Equinor, Aker BP, Lundin, and National Oilwell Varco in the JIP, which is also supported with NOK 14 million by the Research Council of Norway’s “Demo2000” program.
The project aims to bring FSubsea’s Omnirise single-phase booster to market by mid 2019.
The Omnirise boosting system is an “Increased Oil Recovery” (IOR) tool that is said to have the potential to deliver improvements in all three areas: cost, weight, and reliability.
“Traditional subsea pump solutions are costly, add tremendous weight to a platform and their reliability record is not stellar,” says Alexander Fuglesang . “This is why they are not in wider use, even though booster pumps can add 10-30 per cent to recovery rates. One percent increased recovery equals more than NOK 200 billion at 60 dollars per barrel – in Norway alone.”
Conventional pump systems require not only mechanical shaft seals which fail all too frequently, they also require a constant flow of so-called barrier fluid, supplied by topside hydraulic equipment and delivered through umbilical lines that can stretch over many kilometres. Traditional variable speed drives also add considerable weight and volume topside, with projected subsea versions looking equally as bulky. The Omnirise system gets rid of all these elements by employing a patented Hydromag Drive Unit, the company explains.
In CAPEX alone, Rystad Energy has estimated that Omnirise can provide savings of NOK 150 million on a single-well boosting installation, compared to conventional boosting systems.