Offshore staff
VLAARDINGEN, The Netherlands –Sea of Solutions has developed what it calls a low cost concept for developing stranded gas fields. The concept involves feeding the gas directly into a long pipeline coiled inside a production ship rather than laid on the seabed.
According to the company, the continuous pipe CNG carrier can accommodate unprocessed gas directly from the well without large, complex pressure vessels. The gas can then be delivered ashore by the ship, bypassing the need for a seabed pipeline.
The proposed vessel would be 240 m (787 ft) long, carrying a coiled pipeline around 218 km (135 mi) long, with a transit speed of 15 knots. Typically, one load would equate to around 515 MMcf. Optimal storage conditions would involve a cargo pressure of around 130 bar (13 MPa), with temperatures maintained as low as possible without additional cooling equipment other than sea water.
According to Sea of Solutions sales engineer Nick Wessels, "the advantage of this concept is that investment is in the vessel itself and is not related to a specific offshore field. It is an attractive means to develop fields for which the production rate or total volume cannot be easily predicted."
09/05/2007
