Powering the Oil and Gas Industry

It is a market that Wärtsilä knows well. As it stands, about one-fifth of the company’s sales come from the oil and gas industry. “We enable more than five million barrels per day of the oil that is brought to the market,” points out Tomas Rönn, Director, Oil and Gas Business. This equates to about 6% of global daily oil production.

“One trend is that new finds are in harder-to-reach places, such as deepwater offshore and the arctic,” he adds. Companies are also looking to produce more from each field, so they need more power per barrel recovered.

“Our company is renowned for high energy efficiency and good fuel flexibility. We are the leading provider in solutions that can handle complex fuels,” Rönn adds. Wärtsilä also has a solid reputation in environmental efficiency and in designing solutions that take health and safety into account.

“These elements form the basis of our strengths in this dynamic market.”

One good way to see what Wärtsilä can provide is to look at recent references.

Fuel flexibility and gas

In May 2010, it signed a contract with the Brazilian industrial group QUIP to supply three main power modules for a new P-63 Floating Production Storage and Offloading vessel. The floating production unit will produce 140,000 barrels of oil and 35 million standard cubic feet of gas per day from the Papa Terra oilfield, located off the Brazilian coast.

“The floater has its first oil-milestone date set for mid-2013,” says Magnus Miemois, Vice President, Offshore. “Wärtsilä is supplying a 100 MW fuel-flexible topside power-module solution, engineered and fabricated by Wärtsilä. The EPC model mitigates completion risks of the project and allows QUIP to focus on the process modules. The gas-fired power solution is estimated to reduce the levels of carbon-dioxide emissions by as much as 93,000 tons per year, compared to conventional technologies.”

Preventing the unexpected

Tomas Rönn, Director, Oil and Gas Business points to the Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan (BTC) pipeline project in Turkey as an example of a pumping application. Wärtsilä pump sets are helping to move one million barrels a day across Turkey to the port of Ceyhan. Wärtsilä also has an extensive maintenance agreement for this project.

“The BTC pipeline connecting the Caspian oilfields to loading terminals in the Mediterranean begins in Baku, Azerbaijan and continues through Georgia to the Mediterranean port of Ceyhan. The pipeline is 1,790 kilometres long, of which over 1000 km is in Turkey. Reliability is critical in a project like this, and our equipment has proven to be the right choice,” says Rönn.

Waste becomes energy

As for fuel flexibility, Tage Klockars, General Manager, Marine Agreements, points to Wärtsilä’s agreement to convert the Eden Yuturi Block 15 power plant in Ecuador from crude oil to a combination of associated gas and crude oil operation. The Petroamazonas plant has used Wärtsilä engines since 2002.

The conversion of the power plant will allow use of gases that are a by-product of crude oil production. “With Wärtsilä’s multi-fuel technology, the plant can convert the associated gas to electricity instead of continuously flaring it into the atmosphere,” explains Klockars.