Aker BP, Lundin and NOV have signed an agreement with Norway's Fuglesangs Subsea to develop and test a full scale prototype of what has been called "the worlds most autonomous boosting system."
The system will be qualified as part of The Research Council of Norway’s Demo2000 program and is suited for applications such as water treatment and water injection and possibly other “singlephase” liquid pumping applications. A future version will be developed for boosting of liquid hydrocarbons.
The fully modular Omnirise Boosting system aims to be the industry’s most flexible, low cost and reliable solution of its kind.
The most important features are that it shall not need barrier fluid and have integrated variable speed functionality. This can reduce the need for topside equipment on platforms and rigs with 200 to 500-ton, compared to conventional seabed boosting systems.
This functionality is enabled by the Hydromag Drive Unit, which is developed in a separate development program with NOV and Innovation Norway.
The Hydromag Drive Unit is a unique and patented combination of a high performance magnetic coupling, a hydrodynamic torque converter a (fixed) low-speed induction motor and an embedded cooling and control system.
The combined value of the Omnirise and Hydromag development programs is north of US$10 million , with contributions of more than $2 million from The Research Council and Innovation Norway.
Fuglesangs Subsea's (FSubsea) vision is to commoditize boosting systems for offshore field development, and enable cost effective deployment to both subsea wells as well as unmanned platforms.
The company was created as a subsea technology spin-off from Fuglesangs (est. 1916), and builds on the former parent’s more than 35 years’ experience working with challenging pumping and dynamic sealing applications in the subsea, mining, offshore, naval submarine and specialty process markets.
The core strategy of the company is to develop, assemble, tests and offer the world’s most autonomous and reliable boosting systems to the global marketplace.
Fuglesangs Subsea has supplied more than 30 pumps that have been deployed for operation in the deep seas, including the world’s first seal-less subsea process pump, and has world-wide patents covering core technology areas such as barrier fluid-less pumps with and without embedded variable speed drive.
The team of Fuglesangs Subsea has more than 80 years combined experience designing and qualifying high-end subsea boosting systems mostly up to 3MW capacities.