All-electric subsea production system

Offentlig prosjektsammendrag

Today, control of subsea oil and gas wells are achieved by opening and closing valves with hydraulics provided through umbilicals. In case of a shutdown the hydraulic pressure is bled off and mechanical springs are forcing the valve to a failsafe state. The “hydraulics and spring” system has served the industry well for decades, however, it has some limitations. It leaks to sea, it is costly in CAPEX and OPEX, it provides no platform for digitalization, it cannot control valves independently, it has low flexibility when tying in new wells, and it becomes prohibitively heavy / big when deployed in deep waters. Therefore, many Oil Companies have been pushing for all-electric solutions for some time and many suppliers have started all-electric development programs. The solutions that have emerged so far focuses on using el-motors to open and close the valves, but still keeping the mechanical spring to provide the failsafe shutdown function. This solves the hydraulics problem; however, keeping the mechanical spring still adds cost, becomes too big in deep waters, will not give the digitalization benefits, and will not allow the flexibility to expand and attach new equipment. This technology development program aims at developing and qualifying an all-electric subsea production system removing the need for hydraulics and replacing the mechanical springs used for safe shutdown of subsea valves with a battery solution.