OEEC: Subsea Processing and Infrastructure Technical Session

This year’s Offshore Energy Exhibition and Conference (OEEC) being held in Amsterdam has provided another successful technical session on Subsea Processing.

The session, moderated by Pieter Swart, Subsea Pipeline Principal, Shell Projects & Technology, discussed the latest developments in subsea and covered multiple subtopics within, such as subsea processing and infrastructure.

Subsea processing provides an alternative to production equipment located on a fixed or floating platform.

During today’s session, several experts from the industry provided their insights into the topic of subsea processing.

At the beginning of the session, Mac McKee, Intecsea’s strategic development manager, looked back on the integration of subsea processing in the projects across the industry. He pointed out that in the long view on upside of subsea processing it can provide an improving return on investment for offshore hydrocarbon developments.

“In the end it’s all about increasing overall recovery.” McKee said:

The main question for the integration and development of subsea processing is can operators afford to move forward with concept developments without considering subsea processing in a competitive industry like the subsea industry?

“If subsea processing is not part of your project, concept phase should be,” McKee noted.

Eric van der Meer, the CEO of Airborne Oil & Gas, followed with presentation of views on the integration of thermoplastic composite pipes as a competitive pipe alternative to reduce the cost in the oil and gas.

He said: “In terms of the business case our customers, the likes of Statoil, Shell, Total, Petronas have seen some 30-40 percent CAPEX reduction, which basically comes from installation speeds, and installation benefits, simpler vessels, less vessel days. In the case of spools, no need for waiting on metrology, you can basically install the spool substantially quicker than the rigid spool.”

He also looked back on the slow adoption of the TCP in the industry despite apparent commitment from all parts of the supply chain, and what needs to be done to change that.

Subsea processing is being proven by the industry as the route to increased production efficiency.

The topic that was discussed the most during this year’s session is how innovation in compact subsea infrastructure can be used as an enabler for brownfield development and longer distance tie-backs.

To support this cost-effective subsea field development, Royal IHC and Frames have teamed up to develop a compact subsea separation system utilizing Frames’ SwirlSep inline separator.

The representatives of Royal IHC, Daan Uiterwaal, market analyst Royal IHC, and Andy Eaton, business unit director, IHC Concept LTD, together with Raoul Liew, R&D engineer, Frames Group, have explained how the SwirlSep technology reduces the size of separator units with redundancy and easy intervention in mind.

While the market is challenging and operators focus on finding new, lower cost solutions, Paul Yeats, a division director for Subsea 7’s Life of Field business – i-Tech Services, has presented how the company’s IMR teams are adding value through innovation.

He demonstrated how the teams are combining services, products and technologies to optimize field architecture design, extend field life and product re-use, reduce vessel dependency and lower cost.

Paul Yeats said: “We are comitted to working with our partners to drive the costs down and take a lot of costs out of the IRM business, especially in times like these. For us driving costs down starts internally to make you more competitive.”