Page 95 - Industrial Plants 2014

ithin the development pumping stop at the typical North Sea temperatures,
program of the Greater with the possibility to reach up to 2584 m at 3564
Stella oil & gas field, Ithaca rpm with a flow rate reduced to 120 m /h.
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Energy awarded Petrofac The 2 export oil pumps are coupled with two OH2-
the refurbishment of the type pumps (figure 2) (Termomeccanica 100AP50
W FPF1 platform which will be model) working as booster. Both the main and
carried out at Remontowa Shipyard, Gdanz, in booster pumps are provided with double pressurized
Poland. mechanical seals with API Plan 53/b.
The refurbished platform will be assigned to the On top of the typical design issues that usually mark
offshore processing and export of hydrocarbons offshore projects, additional requirements from
extracted from the Greater Stella field, located in the Petrofac Engineering, such as the installation on
UK’s Central North Sea continental shelf; the end three-point baseplates and the blast load resistance
user is a joint venture between Ithaca Energy, Dyas
and Petrofac itself.
Termomeccanica Pompe scope of works is the
design and supply of the 14 centrifugal pumps to be
installed on the PFP1 platform, comprising 2 export
oils pumps with their booster pumps, 3 circulation
pumps and 7 utility pumps.
The installation of the pumps was completed last
March and the start of operations with the pumping
of oil for within the end of 2014.

Main oil export pumps & booster
pumps

The export of oil is carried out by two BB5-type
pumps (figure 1) (Termomeccanica MESB 150.11
model), each coupled with a 1.5 MW electric motor
working under inverter. The use of the inverter is
necessary so as to guarantee the pump working design for both the main and booster pumps, have Fig. 2 - Export
range under the various conditions expected during increased the contract design complexity (figure 3 pipeline booster
the development of the oil field, for a flow rate of 170 and figure 4). pump (OH2)
m /h with the head ranging from 1350 m to 2073 m, It is also important to remember that this project
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obtained by increasing speed from 2720 rpm up to stems from the refurbishment of an existing platform,
3280 rpm. with already defined spaces and a pre-existing hull,
The use of the inverter has also proven necessary to which will moreover operate in rough sea conditions.
increase the pumping pressure so as to remove the The combination of these additional project-specific
wax obstructions that may be generated during factors entailed a further increase of the supply’s

Fig. 3 – Base plate,
general arrangement:
bottom

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