2008-06-30 - A 120-megawatt ABB power generation barge is powering operations at "the most important oil discovery since 1968" – the giant Kashagan oilfield in the Caspian Sea, where drilling complexity and hostile conditions require exceptional power reliability.
By ABB Communications
The custom-designed power generation barge was successfully delivered to D Island in the Kashagan oilfield in April 2007. D Island is the larger of two drilling complexes from which oil and gas will be recovered when Kashagan goes onstream in 2011.
D Island. Given its size and other factors, the development of the Kashagan field represents one of the greatest challenges in the petroleum industry.
ABB was selected by the oilfield operator Agip KCO to design, construct and deliver a self-contained power generation barge to generate, control and manage electric power for D Island operations.
ABB was responsible for the overall project management, engineering, procurement, construction, commissioning and startup of the barge. ABB’s turnkey scope of supply includes high, medium and low voltage electrical equipment, instrumentation and control systems, topside buildings, HVAC (heating, ventilation and air conditioning) and fire fighting systems.
The barges four 30 MW gas turbine generators were supplied by Rolls-Royce. The barge weighs about 1,000 tons, is 95 meters long, 16 meters wide, 5.5 meters high and complies with all major international marine, safety and environmental standards.
Temperatures can range from -40°C in winter to +40°C in summer. Ice forms quickly in winter, and the sea is frozen from four to five months of the year. There are also rapid fluctuations in sea level of up to one meter due to storm surges and strong winds.
Kashagan is the largest oilfield discovery in the past 40 years. I t covers a surface area of some 3,400 square kilometers and contains an estimated 38 billion barrels of oil, of which 13 billion are potentially recoverable.
Production is scheduled to commence in 2011 at an initial 75,000 barrels per day (bpd), rising to a peak of 1.2 million bpd after a few years.
According to Agip KCO the combination of technical complexity – including a reservoir depth of 5,000 meters, high reservoir pressure and high sulfur dioxide content – as well as hostile conditions combine to “make Kashagan one of the greatest challenges of the petroleum industry worldwide.”
The field is operated by Agip KCO, a subsidiary of Eni, on behalf of a consortium of seven companies which includes Eni, ExxonMobil, Shell, Total and ConocoPhillips.
Click here to read an in-depth article on ABB’s power generation barge published in ABB Review (pdf, 0.47 MB)