Automated offshore drilling? I didn’t know we were working on this, but it looks like it’s here, and any idea that gets people off these floating Kenny Loggins songs is OK by me.
Honeywell (News - Alert) Process Solutions (HPS) has announced it will provide advanced automation and safety solutions to enable remote onshore operation for an unmanned offshore platform in the North Sea, reducing overall production costs and improving safety.
When drilling operations are completed, Statoil’s Valemon platform, located on the Norwegian Continental Shelf, will become a periodically-manned installation and Statoil’s first platform that will be operated from shore. Control operations will be located in Bergen, about 100 miles away from the platform itself. Moving personnel off the facility will improve the safety of operations while boosting efficiency by centralizing the controls.
“This project is a great example of how Honeywell is able to use its technology and experience to help Statoil remotely control operations at an important gas production facility,” said Pieter Krynauw, VP and GM, Projects and Automation Solutions, HPS. “As companies move oil platforms farther offshore and into other remote, challenging locations to find oil and gas, managing those operations efficiently while reducing risk to workers will become increasingly important.”
Honeywell will serve as the engineering, procurement and construction automation contractor for the project and will provide a range of control and safety technologies for the project including new operator stations and critical alarm panels at the Bergen operations center that will communicate with the systems on Valemon.
The Valemon platform sits in about 440 feet of water and will produce natural gas and condensate from one of the biggest undeveloped natural gas fields in the North Sea with an estimated 192 million barrels of oil equivalent. Once drilling is complete in 2017, the platform will have 10 production wells.
Among the technologies Honeywell will provide are its Experion Process Knowledge System, integrated protective solutions, Critical Alarm Panel with Safety Manager, integrated fire and gas and emergency shutdown solutions, and closed circuit TV software.
Drill, robot baby, drill.