System 800xA Full-scale simulation for Full Gas

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System 800xA

Full-scale simulation for “Full Gas”

Project Report

The Ormen Lange project commenced production on 1 October 2007. It will be able to supply 20 percent of Britain’s gas needs for up to 40 years. The project start-up was very successful thanks to the use of System 800xA based process simulation.

The island community at Aukra in the exposed north west of Norway has undergone major changes this century. After the decision that Nyhamna should be developed into an onshore terminal for the Ormen Lange field, a temporary village providing accommodation for up to 4,000 people was built. Now that the facility has been commissioned the village has disappeared and an ultramodern terminal with associated buildings for the operating personnel awaits us as we arrive from Molde.

The gas field was discovered by Hydro in 1997. It covers an area about 40 km long and eight to ten km wide, situated approximately 3,000 m below sea level. The Ormen Lange field has the second largest gas reserves on the Norwegian continental shelf.

The contractor for construction of the facility was Aker Kvaerner, and StatoilHydro was the responsible operator. Following the start of production in September 2007, responsibility for operation was taken over by Norske Shell. ABB supplied automation, electrification, telecommunications and operator training systems.

The facility is designed to bring ashore, and process gas and condensates from 16 wellheads. Three wells are in operation at present and daily gas production is running at 40 million standard cubic metres. This corresponds to revenue of approximately NOK 150 million (USD 23 million) per day for the facility.

Engineering and operator training simulators

Since the start of the project at Lysaker in 2004, all the process areas of the Ormen Lange field have been analyzed and simulated. One engineering simulator and two operator training simulators (one leased) were supplied by ABB together with Kongsberg Maritime. As a result logic errors in the architecture of the system were detected and remedied at an early stage of the project, and operators were trained before production start. The simulator project team consisted of representatives from Hydro, Shell, Aker Kvaerner, Kongsberg Maritime and ABB. The simulators were used in the project from the beginning with great success and benefits, resulting in shortened startup time and high uptime.

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System 800xA at the Ormen Lange natural gas plant

– the largest ever industrial project in Norway

The gas from Ormen Lange is blended with gas from other fields at the Sleipner platform and then transported to Easington in UK via the 1,155 km long Langeled pipeline. The picture above shows the construction of the Langeled pipeline at Sleipner by help of the Acergy Piper vessel, one of the world’s most efficient semi-submersible pipelay barges. The Ormen Lange gas field is Norway’s first deep-water offshore development (below). The field sits roughly 3,000 meters under the surface of the Norweigan Sea about 120 kilometers north west of Kristiansund. The reservoir covers an area about 40 kilometers long and 8 to 10 kilometers wide.

Ormen Lange

Nyhamna

Sleipner

Easington

Illustration: from StatoilHydro Photo: from StatoilHydro

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ABB Process Automation | Project Report Ormen Lange 3

From simulation to production

The simulator facility is situated close to the operations centre at Ormen Lange. This permits optimum utilization and training of operators in the room alongside the Real Time process. The simulator is constructed using ABB’s IndustrialIT_Training

Simulator (ITS) product connected to the process model delivered by Kongsberg Maritime. ITS is a simulator adapted version of ABB’s 800xA automation system. The ITS system uses the process graphics and control logic directly from the automation system for the real process to get identical operator environment and process control. Hardware controllers are replaced with software based controllers running on standard computer hardware. The high fidelity process model uses OLGA to emulate the dynamic behavior of wells and pipelines. From the beginning of the project, special attention was paid to operator training and final testing of control logic in the facility in parallel with construction on the north west cost of Norway. The process involves numerous sequences and these are controlled from within separate process sections. These process sections were thoroughly tested in the simulator facility before the start of production. Three simulator systems were used in parallel with the result that the facility could be commissioned according to the set plan and the operators had already received satisfactory training in the facility.

A modern control room with good functionality for the operator. Simulator training of operators.

Photo: Einar Bråthen Photo: Einar Bråthen

After the facility had been commissioned critical changes in the process control is entered first into the engineering simulator before being transferred into the real control system.

The planned start date for production was October 1, 2007 but this was brought forward by 3 weeks. According to Bjørnar Lia, Operations Engineer with Norske Shell, a central factor in this was the active and specific training of operators on the simulator throughout the construction phase. The simulator played a central role in the engineering project from day one, continuing through the testing and start-up period. This resulted in the Ormen Lange facility being commissioned earlier than planned. The facility has in 2008 achieved an uptime of 95%.

Optimization of the process

ABB, the automation system supplier, has a long-term service contract for the supplied scope although the operations centre is managed by Norske Shell. The operators receive thorough training on the training simulator before being admitted to the process.

The real process must be operated with two operators in the control room and three operators out in the field. In the current phase of the project, the process is being fine tuned for optimum process performance and alarm reporting.

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Gas production

An anti-freeze fluid (MEG) is added to the natural gas at a depth of 800 to 1,100m before the gas flows up to the well-heads. The gas is brought ashore directly from the wellheads in two 30 inch pipelines. The distance from the wells to the shore is 120 km. On arrival at the Nyhamna facility, the gas is led into a slugcatcher to separate out mud, anti-freeze fluid and water. A filtration process separates condensate in a stripper and this is returned to an inlet heater and is then led to a shipping terminal. The refined gas is dried and cooled in a heat exchanger.

The cooled gas is transported from the heat exchangers to a cold separator, where precipitated condensate is separated and conveyed to an inlet heater. The gas from the cold separator is heated in the gas/gas heat exchanger and is recompressed.

The finished refined gas is then transported in the world’s longest transport pipeline via the Sleipner field and onwards to Easington in England. At Sleipner, gas from Ormen Lange is blended with gas products from other fields on the shelf before continuing on its way to England. The pipeline extends for a distance of 1,155 km and is known as Langeled. The condensate that is separated out at Nyhamna is stored for transport by sea. The anti-freeze fluid is cleaned and returned to the process for reuse. The whole process from the wellheads to the refining facility and the onward transport to Sleipner is monitored and controlled from the operations centre.

Gassco has responsibility for ensuring that the gas reaches the consumer and is the operator responsible for the transport system from Ormen Lange. Langeled is operated and super-vised by Gassco from its control centre at Bygnes in Rogaland. More details of Ormen Lange can be found at:

http://www.tecpress.no/art.asp?id=297

Photo: Peter Tubaas

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A redundant PPS (Pipeline Protection System), which monitors the pressures in Langeled, communicates with the process automation system facility at Nyhamna via a Modbus protocol. The simulator system covers most areas of the Process Control, Process and Emergency Shutdown, some Fire&Gas areas, Power Distribution Control System, Subsea Control Units, Anti Surge and simplified metering.

Production of control cabinets was carried out from the sum-mer of 2004 to the autumn of 2005, and control logic pro-gramming was finished the summer of 2006.

ABB’s comprehensive automation, safety and information management solution includes applications for:

• Daily operation

• Maintenance

• Planning and reporting, including: - Shift reports

- Trends

- Production planning and reporting - Environmental reports

- Health, environment and security reporting - Emergency and process shutdown verification

OPC interface:

An OPC interface has also been developed for serving third-party solutions as metering, valve monitoring, vibration monitoring, SAP and customer reporting tools.

Photo: Peter Tubaas

The daily gas production at Ormen Lange

is at present running at 40 million standard cubic metres

Automation and monitoring

The process is monitored from a modern control room at the control centre in Nyhamna. A curved wall with a large screen display provides the operators with a good overview of the process facility. Camera monitoring of process sections is also integrated into the safety and automation system. The system is a huge 800xA system with 28 operator work-places and eight engineering stations, requiring 42 servers in six cabinets for the process automation and information management system. Control room, “collaboration” consoles and equipment and the large screen is also supplied.

The safety and automation system supply to Ormen Lange:

The process has 15,000 I/Os in total, and the I/O communi-cations protocols at field level are mainly on HART and Profibus.

The process is monitored and controlled by 67 AC 800M controllers (43 Single AC 800M, 12 single AC 800M HI and 12 redundant AC 800M HI), controlling Process Control, Process Shutdown, Fire&Gas, HVAC, Power Distribution Control System, Subsea Control Units and Fire Water Pumps. In addition, there is supplied two Safe Guard systems for Emergency Shutdown and three Anti Surge systems.

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The Ormen Lange natural gas terminal at Aukra, Norway. Great potential of simulator facilities

Documented experience gained from the Ormen Lange facility has demonstrated considerable potential for savings in oil and gas facilities. The Norwegian Petroleum Safety Authority (Petroleumstilsynet) imposes no absolute requirements on the use of simulators. The document “Prinsipper for utforming av Alarmsystemer” (principles for the design of alarm systems) issued by the Norwegian Petroleum Directorate (Oljedirektoratet) states: “The use of the alarm system during a major incident will typically be very different from the use of the system under normal operating conditions. Accordingly regular and realistic training, such as simulator training, should be carried out to ensure that the operators are in a position to use the alarm system in the various situations.”

Bjørnar Lia, Operations Engineer with Norske Shell says “There is no absolute requirement for a simulator facility.

S im u la to r C o n to l ro o m P ro c e ss M o d e l In st ru c to r st a ti o n Soft Contoller Automatic conversion ITS LINK PC Process Control Cabinets

Simulator Control

But our documented experience from the Ormen Lange project provides evidence that the use of the simulator facility has provided us with good safety routines in the process, as well as significant savings in the start-up period of the facility.” He also says “We have consistently been able to identify logic errors at an early stage before the sequences were implemented in the control system. Operators who have access to the control room receive the best possible training on the simulator, as we consistently incorporate all changes in the process facility into the simulator.”

Operations Engineer Bjørnar Lia of Norske Shell and Site Lead Arne-Ivar Iversen of ABB can look back over a successful automation project with a good structure for the entire construction phase.

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Ormen Lange honoured with a prize

The facility was recently honoured with the prize “2007 HART Plant of the Year” by the foundation behind the technology. The HART Communication Foundation Prize is awarded annually in recognition of people, companies or process facilities which utilize the opportunities offered by HART in real time applications in order to optimize the operations and reduce costs.

The facility will ensure growth at Aukra

The activities at Nyhamna will continue to grow for many years, after more wells have been brought on-stream and production at the facility increases significantly. Each individual well has an estimated life of 15 years at current production rates.

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For more information please contact:

ABB A/S

Open Control Systems

Oslo, Norway Phone: +47 22 87 20 00 Fax: +47 22 87 29 00 E-Mail: eit@no.abb.com www.abb.no/controlsystems ABB AB

Västerås, Sweden Phone: +46 (0) 21 32 50 00 Fax: +46 (0) 21 13 78 45 E-Mail: processautomation@se.abb.com www.abb.com/controlsystems ABB Inc.

Wickliffe, Ohio, USA Phone: +1 440 585 8500 Fax: + 1 440 585 8756

E-Mail: industrialitsolutions@us.abb.com

www.abb.com/controlsystems ABB Industry Pte Ltd

Singapore Phone: +65 6776 5711 Fax: +65 6778 0222 E-Mail: processautomation@sg.abb.com www.abb.com/controlsystems ABB Automation GmbH Open Control Systems

Mannheim, Germany Phone: +49 1805 26 67 76 Fax: +49 1805 77 63 29 E-Mail: marketing.control-products@de.abb.com www.abb.de/controlsystems ABB Automation LLC Open Control Systems

Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates Phone: +971 (0) 2 417 1333 Fax: +971 (0) 2 626 3230 E-Mail: processautomation@ae.abb.com www.abb.com/controlsystems 3BSE055727 en A / Ellens Byrålåda 2010.03