North Sea Accommodation Module Sealed with Roxtec

Global safety seal manufacturer Roxtec has completed a project supplying cable and pipe seals to a six level accommodation module on the Golden Eagle development.

The living quarters houses 70 self-contained cabins for up to 140 people. It also includes a gymnasium, dining room, offices and a medical suite.

The Nexen-operated Golden Eagle development lies about 70km northeast of Aberdeen. The oilfield is due to become operational later this year.

Roxtec UK managing director Graham O’Hare said the work underlines Roxtec’s ability to provide robust safety seal solutions to the oil and gas sector.

“Golden Eagle is the largest North Sea oil discovery since Buzzard in 2001 and we were delighted to win work on this massive project,” he said. “Our multi cable transit seals are being used in the platform accommodation module to protect assets from serious hazards such as fire, blast and water ingress. Specifically we supplied standard and electromagnetic compatibility (EMC) stainless steel cable seals to protect the platform’s electrical systems from airborne interference.”

O’Hare said for the accommodation module Roxtec was also required to supply a special sealing system for copper nickel pipes.

“The copper nickel pipes are really important and are designed to be highly resistant to seawater corrosion,” he said. “This meant we had to gain certification from Det Norske Veritas (DNV) for our waterproof seals to be used for H-30 rated applications.”

“A further benefit of our sealing systems is that maintenance is quick, flexible and easy, which saves valuable engineering time when adding cables or making changes,” he said. “So in this instance when designs for the accommodation module were amended our seals could be opened up and refitted with minimum disruption.”

 O’Hare said Roxtec has recently been involved in a number of North Sea offshore projects. Additionally, Roxtec has seen its seals used to protect every cable entry point on both the wellhead and riser platforms. Power and instrumentation cables on these platforms have also been sealed in the blast walls, bulk heads, floor entries and the process plant.