Shell E&P contracts Yokogawa as sole-source provider

Offshore staff

HOUSTON --Shell E&P has contracted Yokogawa Corp. of America as the sole-source provider of monitoring and control systems for five years in the Gulf of Mexico.

John Bowron, vice president, Yokogawa America made the announcement at the Offshore Technology Conference.

Yokogawa will deliver systems to enhance all of Shell's platforms and rigs in the GoM, according to Bowron. Under the terms of the contract, Yokogawa will supply CENTUM CS 3000 monitoring and control systems and ProSafe-RS safety systems for Shell's existing production platforms.

Bowron also noted the company's push for fiber optic use offshore. "The combination of wireless sensors and fiber optics is the direction Yokogawa is moving in the future," Bowron said.

The company is a member of the joint industry consortium SEAFOM, which promotes the growth of fiber optics in susbea applications.

Yokogawa is providing BP with automation systems for its 'field of the future' program which involves communicating data from offshore platforms to an onshore monitoring center through fiber optics.

"Our goal is to be the number one automation company worldwide by 2010," Bowron said.

5/1/2007