Siemens predicts more electric power needed on seabed (OE 2009)

Offshore staff

ABERDEEN, UK -- Seabed installations will need more electrical power as the demands exceed the service capacities of hydraulics according to Tom Blades, CEO of Siemens Energy Sector´s Oil & Gas Division.

In an interview with Offshore, Blades predicted that the demand for seabed power will go from 4 MW at the single well level to 100 MW across a complete field within a number of years. Managing that power will require a field-wide “subsea smart” grid, he added.

Siemens also sees electrical drive benefits in more efficient mid- and downstream operations compared to gas turbine drives. Production and transportation using gas turbine drive are inefficient relative to electric motor drives which can yield up to 50% cost reduction and a reduced carbon footprint.

Continuing ‘downstream’ Blades also mentioned that Siemens XHQ (extended headquarters), KPI dashboard software, is seeing increasing demand because of its ability to provide operations management with upstream, midstream, and downstream data in a concise real-time user interface.

Blades summed up with his division’s ability to draw on the entire 430,000 employee company for technology and expertise as a major benefit, much of which has hitherto been untapped for oil and gas applications. As an example, Siemens medical imaging business faces similar data integration challenges as do geologist and reservoir engineers, for which Siemens has developed real-time algorithms that could benefit the petroleum operations, concluding that its early days yet for Siemens Oil & Gas.

9/9/2009