Process Systems News

Electrical systems integrator Alewijnse has delivered its newest dredge control solutions to Great Lakes Dredge & Dock Co, the largest provider of dredging services in the U.S.The systems were installed on board the Liberty Island, a large trailing suction hopper dredger, which was deployed immediately after completion for a beach replenishment project in Buxton, N.C."Our proven systems for suction tube monitoring and hopper loading deliver maximum added value to our customers," said Johan van Rikxoort, solutions manager at Alewijnse.

Shuttle tankers are an alternative to subsea pipelines. Typically for large water depths. For harsh weather operation the use of shuttle tankers is a necessity. DNV GL has incorporated the latest findings related to their design, operation and safety in an updated shuttle tanker paper. Shuttle tankers transport crude oil from offshore oil fields to terminals where use of subsea pipelines are not feasible. Major deployment areas include the North Sea and the Brazilian offshore fields. The global fleet has been growing steadily for decades, comprising 88 ships by the end of 2016. Two owners, Teekay Corporation and Knutsen NYK, account for 62 per cent of the fleet, and 64 per cent of all shuttle tankers are DNV GL-classed.

Parat Halvorsen AS said it recently secured a contract to design and fabricate a complete, turnkey steam boiler module for the Floating Production & Storage Offshore (FPSO) vessel Aoka Mizu owned by Bluewater Energy Services BV. The FPSO is being decommissioned for the Lancaster project which is owned and operated by Hurricane Energy UK. The module will include 2 x 3200kW electric steam boilers based on the PARAT MEL design and will provide an additional 9,600kg/hr of saturated steam for the FPSO marine and process systems.

Teekay informs that the FPSO Pioneiro de Libra arrived May 17 in Brazilian territorial waters. The FPSO unit, owned through a 50/50 joint venture between Odebrecht Oil & Gas and Teekay Offshore, will be the first to produce oil in the Libra Block which covers more than 1,500 square kilometers in the Santos Basin and has estimated reserves of 8-12 billion barrels of recoverable oil. The first oil is scheduled for July. The unit can operate at water depths of up to 2,400 meters…

Hess Denmark ApS has awarded a contract to DNV GL to provide asset integrity inspection management of its South Arne field including Risked Based Inspection (RBI) services and Non-Destructive Testing (NDT) inspection services. The contract continues an 18-year partnership between Hess and the leading technical advisor to the oil and gas industry. Oil export pipeline and offloading buoy. “DNV GL has been contracted to provide integrity inspection on the South Arne field since 1998. The renewal of this partnership demonstrates the importance of high-quality service delivery in a cost-pressured market. Further, the contract shows Hess’s confidence in DNV GL’s ability to deliver efficient solutions which can help manage operation costs for the South Arne field…

Fjords Processing, headquartered in Norway (Fornebu), has won three contracts for the deliveries of process systems for the Johan Sverdrup development in the North Sea. The contracts were signed with Statoil on behalf of the Johan Sverdrup license. The contracts were awarded in tough competition with several larger international companies. Rune Fantoft, CEO of Fjords Processing comments: "The contracts are strategically important for Fjords Processing, being a recently established, Norwegian supplier ."(independent company since the separation from Aker Solutions in September 2014). Fantoft continues: "Taking part in the Johan Sverdrup development and cooperating with Statoil and Aker Solutions is of huge importance for us and for the Norwegian oil service industry.

After four months of preliminary work alongside, FPSO Petrojarl I moved on April 16, 2015 into Damen Shiprepair Rotterdam’s 307m long x 47 m wide dry dock no 8 for work to the hull. In all, the vessel will spend a year at DSR before heading off to the South Atlantic. The Teekay managed FPSO arrived at Damen Shiprepair Rotterdam in January 2015. DSR was awarded an EPC contract by Teekay Petrojarl LLC for the upgrade, on completion of which the vessel will be redeployed at the Atlanta field in Brazil.

Aker Solutions and Fjords Processing have formed an alliance to develop technology and capabilities for advanced, cost-effective wellstream separation and treatment solutions for the subsea and topside oil and gas industry. The WellSep alliance will apply Aker Solutions' subsea processing experience and testing facilities and Fjords' topside and onshore separation technologies to provide complete solutions. "This is a great opportunity to further develop our key technologies with one of our most important partners, Aker Solutions," said Rune Fantoft, chief executive officer of Fjords Processing. "The alliance will further strengthen our wellstream separation technology portfolio, testing and in-house capabilities," said Alan Brunnen, head of subsea at Aker Solutions.

Damen Shiprepair Rotterdam (DSR), part of Damen Shiprepair & Conversion (DSC), has been awarded an EPC contract by Petrojarl I LLC for the upgrade of its FPSO Petrojarl I. The Petrojarl I is a Teekay Petrojarl managed FPSO built in 1986 which has been active in the North Sea. Its redeployment will be at the Atlanta field in Brazil. The Petrojarl I is contracted by Queiroz Galvão Exploração e Produção (QGEP) for deployment at the Atlanta post-salt oil field in the Santos Basin offshore Brazil to produce heavy crude oil in a water depth of 1,535m.

Birkenhead-based shipyard and engineering services company Cammell Laird is ramping up its activity in the energy sector by investing more than £1.5 million in its facilities and appointing a leading nuclear sector engineer. John Eldridge has joined Cammell Laird from Sellafield Ltd. which operates the nuclear reprocessing plant in West Cumbria. He has a track record of more than 40 years working on the design, construction, commissioning and operation of nuclear facilities. Cammell…

Aker Solutions reports its second-quarter 2014 earnings ahead of its plan to split into two companies at the end of September 2014. One company will keep the current name and be comprised of the Subsea, Umbilicals, Engineering, and Maintenance, Modifications and Operations (MMO) areas. Aker adds that pro-forma second-quarter revenue for the new Aker Solutions rose to NOK 8.1 billion from NOK 7.5 billion a year earlier, helped by a 13 percent increase in sales of subsea equipment and services. The new company's pro forma earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization (EBITDA) increased to NOK 592 million in the quarter from NOK 481 million a year earlier.

The board of directors of Aker Solutions ASA has in accordance with the strategy disclosed April 30 resolved to propose to the company's shareholders that Aker Solutions be split into two companies. The board has also determined to write down the value of some assets in the Aker Oilfield Services unit of Akastor, one of two companies that will emerge from the separation. Aker Solutions Holding ASA - a subsidiary of Aker Solutions ASA established for the purposes of the demerger…

Aker Solutions release Q1 2014 financial results and separately inform they will split into two companies to speed up a streamlining process that will reduce costs and better position all parts of the group to meet the needs of customers in an increasingly competitive global energy industry. Sales rose to NOK 11.2 billion in the first quarter of 2014 from NOK 10.3 billion in the first quarter of 2013. Earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortization (EBITDA) gained to NOK 1.05 billion in the quarter from NOK 767 million in the year-earlier period when earnings were impacted by losses in the umbilicals and OMA business areas and increased costs at the Ekofisk Zulu project. The EBITDA margin improved to 9.3 percent in the quarter from 7.4 percent a year earlier.

Maritime CCS "feasible, and can reduce emissions by 65%", says DNV and PSE. Det Norske Veritas (DNV), a leading classification society, and Process Systems Enterprise Ltd. (PSE), a global provider of advanced process modelling technology, today have released the results of the Maritime CCS (carbon capture and storage) research and development project. The project has successfully developed a concept design for on-board chemical CO2 capture. The system consists of a chemical absorption plant that separates CO2 from flue gases…

Aker Solutions is buying Separation Specialists Inc., a California-based provider of produced water de-oiling products and field services, which strengthens the international oil services company's position in the produced water de-oiling segment. "With the acquisition of Separation Specialists, we are able to offer a complete produced water de-oiling solution from one vendor. There is also an excellent cultural fit between the two entities, which we look forward to further developing," says David Merle, head of Aker Solutions' process systems business. Aker Solutions will immediately be able to offer Separation Specialists' products, such as nutshell filters (NSF), mechanical induced gas flotation (IGF) and field services, through its global distribution and execution network.

Aker Solutions buys California-based Separation Specialists Inc., provider of produced water de-oiling products & field services. Aker consider that the acquisition will strengthen the international oil services company's position in the produced water de-oiling segment. "With the acquisition of Separation Specialists, we are able to offer a complete produced water de-oiling solution from one vendor. There is also an excellent cultural fit between the two entities, which we look forward to further developing," says David Merle, head of Aker Solutions' process systems business. Aker Solutions will immediately be able to offer Separation Specialists' products…

Aker Solutions has won a contract to supply a complete drilling equipment package for a deepwater drillship Jurong Shipyard is building for the Brazilian market. The contract value is undisclosed. Earlier this year Aker Solutions announced a contract to supply six drilling equipment packages to Jurong Shipyard. The contract included an option for an additional drilling package, which the customer now has exercised. The contract includes complete topside and subsea equipment (drilling riser and blow-out preventer). The equipment will be delivered from Aker Solutions in Norway, Germany and Brazil. Aker Solutions is building a new $100m service and manufacturing facility in Macaé, Brazil's offshore capital, in order to meet expected growth.

More than $335 billion worth of expenditure is expected over the next five years on offshore oil & gas operations & maintenance (O&M), according to a new report, The World Offshore Operations & Maintenance Market Forecast 2012-2016, by Douglas-Westwood (DW). Growth of 8% in expenditure is forecast annually 2012-2016, with O&M markets considerably less vulnerable to downturn than their capital-led counterparts. The underlying driver for all activity, both onshore and offshore, is the growth in global energy demand which…

Wison Offshore & Marine Announces Award for construction of World’s First Floating LNG Liquefaction Unit. Shanghai-based Wison Offshore & Marine Ltd., a subsidiary of the Wison Group, announced today the successful award of a contract by the Exmar group for engineering, procurement, construction, installation and commissioning (EPCIC) of the world’s first Floating LNG Liquefaction, Regasification and Storage Unit (FLRSU). The facility will be used by Exmar under a Build, Own, and Operate contract with Pacific Rubiales Energy Corporation, and located on the Caribbean coast offshore Colombia.

The development of systems for the onboard treatment of ballast water has been under way since the late 90’s. By water treatment process equipment standards, the market may no longer be embryonic, but it is still in its infancy. The initial offerings involved the obvious process migration from other high flow treatment applications in the industrial and municipal markets such as UV, electrochlorination, other chlorine compounds, and ozone. This was followed soon after with integrated process systems combining these and other techniques. Due to the unique operating environment onboard, other methods soon evolved that utilized process equipment from other ship applications such as inert gas and oxygen stripping systems.

Aker Solutions' operating revenues in the second quarter of 2011 were NOK 7.8 billion. Earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation amounted to NOK 636 million. Order intake in the quarter was NOK 14.3 billion. "We have a strong order intake which reflects high tendering and activity levels across all business segments. In fact, our order backlog has increased 19 percent since the beginning of the year. This is in line with our long term growth plan. However, this quarter has also provided us with some reminders about the importance of further improving our operational performance," says Øyvind Eriksen, executive chairman of Aker Solutions. Second quarter consolidated revenues was NOK 7 809 million, compared with NOK 8 096 million in the same period in 2010.

Evac, the leading supplier of advanced wastewater collection and treatment solutions introduces the ORCA III small footprint physicochemical advanced wastewater treatment unit. The ORCA III is the ideal wastewater treatment system for merchant vessels, navy and patrol vessels, ferries, offshore supply vessels, service vessels and platforms, and for mega-yachts, requiring a compact design, small volume and footprint and fully automated operation. The ORCA III comes in six different sizes, with a hydraulic loading capacity ranging from 20cu.m./day down to 1.5cu.m./day. It is ideally suited for efficient wastewater treatment for vessels which stay idle part of the time, thanks to its physicochemical treatment technology.

SSP Offshore Inc. of Houston, TX has entered into an agreement with Dubai-based Global Process Systems Inc. (GPS) to form Global SSP, a 50/50 joint venture. The new JV, based in Singapore, will focus on commercializing the proprietary SSP platform, a round floater designed to provide the deck space required for storage, processing, offloading and drilling. Global SSP will have exclusive rights under license to market, build, lease, and sell the SSP platform in Southeast Asia, the Middle East, Australia and New Zealand, and the Caspian offshore areas.