Offshore staff
HOUSTON-- Baker Hughes has installed two Centrilift XP electrical submersible pump (ESP) systems in two vertical subsea boosting stations on the seafloor at Shell’s Perdido Field development in theGulf of Mexico.
The pumping systems are designed to boost up to 125,000 b/d of fluid. Baker Hughes was contracted for the five enhanced run life systems, engineering design and qualification and testing services in 2007. The remaining three ESP systems are scheduled for installation later this year.
Perdido, which came on line in March, is currently the world’s deepest-water application of a full-scale seabed separating and boosting system. The 1,600-HP ESP systems are designed to transfer liquids 8,000 ft (2,438 m) from the seabed to the spar production platform. They will each be installed in five, 350-ft (107-m) caissons connected directly to the platform’s production risers.
The caissons are located near the spar. Each caisson also is equipped with cylindrical-cyclonic gas separation systems to separate entrained natural gas before the fluids enter the ESP system. The boosting systems handle production from three subsea satellite fields - Great White, Silvertip andTobago - all tied back to the Perdido spar.
Other features of the package are Baker Hughes’ Surelift sensors and monitoring instrumentation for remote, real-time monitoring and control of the ESP systems; and an ESP cable / control line cutting tool, in case tubing inside a production riser has to be cut and retrieved.
05/04/2010
