Nexen, a Calgary-based oil and gas company, has selected Wärtsilä to supply a baseload power plant for an installation at the company’s Bashair Al Khair-A oil field in Yemen.
Wärtsilä will supply three Wärtsilä 18V32GD generator sets with a total output of more than 15 MW for the 35,000 barrels per day (bpd) central processing facility. The engines will run on both crude oil and natural gas at the high ambient temperatures and arid conditions typical of the region. Production from the completed facility is expected to begin in mid 2005.
“Wärtsilä has an excellent track record with a previous successful installation in Yemen for Nexen back in 1992, so they have shown that they are dedicated to serving customers in this region for the long term,” said Harry Groten, Senior Project Engineer of Nexen. “The engine’s dual-fuel capability, using crude oil and natural gas, and to vary the percentage of each fuel, gives us the flexibility we wanted in our fuel requirements.”
“The challenging conditions in Yemen underscore the advantages of Wärtsilä’s engine technology over turbines,” said Frank Donnelly, Vice President of Wärtsilä North America Inc., Power Plants. “Specifically, the engines are designed to function at maximum efficiency in hot, dry and high-altitude conditions that would be problematic for other types of generators.”
Notes to the editor:
Wärtsilä is The Ship Power Supplier for builders, owners and operators of vessels and offshore installations. We are the only company with a global service network to take complete care of customers’ ship machinery at every lifecycle stage. Wärtsilä is a leading provider of power plants, operation and lifetime care services in decentralized power generation. The company provides power plants for baseload, peaking, and combined heat and power applications. Wärtsilä also supplies complete solutions for mechanical drive applications onshore and offshore. The product range comprises gas- and oil-fired power plants with outputs from 1 MW to 300 MW, biopower plants with outputs from 1 to 5 MWe and biothermal plants for 3–17 MWth.
The company supplied more than 1,100 MW of power generation equipment for power plants around the world in 2003.
Wärtsilä is headquartered in Helsinki with representatives in more than 60 countries.
For more information on Wärtsilä, visit the website at www.wartsila.com
For further information, please contact:
Yvonne Rönn
Public Relations Manager, Power Plants
Wärtsilä Finland Oy
Direct tel: +358 10 709 1456
Direct fax: +358 10 709 1425
e-mail: yvonne.ronn@wartsila.com
Internet: www.wartsila.com
John Goss
Ceejay International Communications
Tel: +852 2609 0691
Fax: +852 2609 1351
e-mail: john@ceejay.com.hk
