Aquaterra designs renewable-powered offshore platform for DeNovo

Offshore engineering solutions provider Aquaterra Energy has completed the engineering design for a renewable-powered Sea Swift offshore platform for DeNovo Energy.

Aquaterra said on Thursday that the offshore platform was part of the development activity for the Zandolie field, located in the Gulf of Paria, off the west coast of Trinidad. It is scheduled to be installed in the fourth quarter of 2021.

The unmanned minimum facilities platform will be installed in water depths of 20 metres and will tie back to the Iguana field. The Sea Swift offshore platform will be self-powered by a wind turbine and a solar bank.

By using a dual-energy resource, the design reduces intermittency risk and will include a battery to store excess power. Aquaterra added that the solution eliminated the need for traditional diesel generators for power, significantly reducing emissions including those associated with the maintenance and logistics for refuelling visits to the platform.

The platform will also be equipped with monitoring technology which, according to Aquaterra, reduces maintenance trips by only requiring personnel to visit when alerted via onshore systems.

Engineered to withstand seismic activity, the minimum facilities platform will be designed for drilling and installation via a jack-up rig to reduce project costs – removing the need to mobilise a heavy lift vessel.

The Sea Swift platform’s reduced steel requirement and focus on using available in-region infrastructure offers a low-emission, low-risk, and low-cost route to reduce time to first oil or gas production. 

 Stewart Maxwell, technical director at Aquaterra Energy, said: “Intelligent engineering is at the heart of what we do, so this renewable-powered solution is a testament to our ethos. We are committed to delivering solutions that support our client’s decarbonisation efforts across all aspects of our work – whether that’s reducing interfaces, indirect emissions or enabling more in-country fabrication. All of these actions add up and that’s why we’re focused on more efficient operations across every aspect of the value chain”.

Bryan Ramsumair, managing director at DeNovo, added: “DeNovo is committed to securing Trinidad and Tobago’s energy future – in a cleaner way. The Zandolie platform will be 100 per cent powered by renewable energy. This is proof of our commitment to develop hydrocarbon resources in a way that minimises the carbon footprint of our operations. 

“We have built off our existing infrastructure for our Iguana field, which has enabled a smaller platform for our second field development. We are confident that this will enable the Zandolie platform to be fabricated in Trinidad and Tobago – maximising the use of local expertise and further emphasising DeNovo’s local content commitment”. 

It is worth noting that Aquaterra Energy was awarded a FEED (Front End Engineering and Design) contract by DeNovo Energy for the Sea Swift platform back in May 2020.