Offshore/subsea systems

Profit Increase With New Subsea Boosting Products

Emphasis on identifying more-efficient subsea boosting solutions has led to a number of initiatives in the industry.

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Emphasis on identifying more-efficient subsea boosting solutions has led to a number of initiatives in the industry. A new multiphase-pump technology has been developed that will expand the operation envelope for subsea boosting and create better opportunities for more-effective offshore-field development. A parallel, and equally important, advance has been the development of a new heavy-duty 6-MW subsea motor.

Introduction

In 2011, a decision was made to abandon twin-screw technology because of the low sand-handling resistance and limited differential-pressure generation with multiphase fluids that these pumps had demonstrated during in-house testing. Thus, a development project was initiated.

Multiphase-Pump-Development Project

For this development project, the main target was to increase pump performance in the following ways:

  • From 4,000 to 6,000 rev/min
  • From 3 to 6 MW
  • From 500 to 1,000 actual m3/h
  • From 50- to 150-bar differential pressure at 70% gas-volume fraction (GVF)

Reaching these targets would require design of a new motor to operate at higher speeds at twice the power.

Multiphase-Pump Technology

It was evident from recent experience that the pump design had to use the rotodynamic principle (dynamic energy transfer to the liquid) and not the ­positive-displacement principle.

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