Production • Processing • Handling
North Sea gas production platform upgrades vibration monitoring control
T
he Marathon East Brae production platform is a hub for Marathon’s North Sea gas production. Low pressure operation projects are helping to maximise gas
recovery and maintain high gas deliverability rates into the UK market. Keeping the platform running at optimum capacity in the harsh North Sea environment is a constant challenge. So when Marathon started to experience technical challenges with the ageing vibration monitoring equipment on the platform, electrical and instrument facilities engineer Paul Stewart decided it was time to look at a strategy to upgrade the system. Marathon Oil Corporation , which is based in Houston, Texas, has been
producing oil and natural gas in the United Kingdom for more than 25 years. The Company currently operates the Brae Alpha, Brae Bravo and East Brae platforms in the North Sea. All the main processing equipment on the East Brae platform has a vibration
monitoring system which monitors and reports on the condition of the equipment from its frequency output; it then triggers an alarm if there is a problem and can shut down a piece of equipment if necessary. “However, the system was
ageing and rapidly becoming obsolete,” said Paul. “Reactive maintenance requirements were increasing, we could no longer buy certain spares for the existing system and repairing faulty items was becoming increasingly difficult due to obsolescence of electronic components.” Marathon decided it needed
an upgraded system that could meet its requirements. The
company wanted a cost effective solution that would be compatible with the existing vibration probes on the machinery; if new probes were required it would significantly increase the cost of the upgrade and the amount of time that the equipment was out of service. It was also critical that the new system could interface with the platform’s existing Distributed Control System (DCS), so that the system could be managed from the central control room. The first phase of the work was to replace the vibration systems on the 3 gas
export compressors. Work on the first compressor was completed on time, within two weeks, by two engineers from the Rockwell Automation Oil and Gas Specialist team, who also designed and documented the project. To meet the requirements of this application, the team installed modules from
the Allen-Bradley XM Series of intelligent I/O modules. These modules process, in real-time, the critical parameters used to assess the current health of the rotating machinery on board the platform and will also predict the future health of the machines, providing machinery protection where needed. The monitoring system was connected to the Allen-Bradley PanelView Plus
electronic operator interface from Rockwell Automation. Programmed with RSView Studio Machine Edition, PanelView Plus monitors and displays information graphically, allowing operators to understand the status of their machinery more quickly. The team also installed an Allen-Bradley CompactLogix PAC to provide an effective communication interface to the DCS. ●
For more information, visit
www.rockwellautomation.co.uk Circle 35 or ✔ at
www.engineerlive.com/iog MA101585_ADV_ADRESWIJZIGING.indd 1 20-12-10 09:50
De Amer 24 | P.O. Box 348 | 8253 RC Dronten | The Netherlands T +31 321 38 66 77 | F +31 321 31 41 65
info@magnatech-international.com
WWW.MAGNATECH-INTERNATIONAL.COM
‘ALL-ROUND’ PARTNER IN AUTOMATIC PIPE
WELDING
YOUR
Page 1 |
Page 2 |
Page 3 |
Page 4 |
Page 5 |
Page 6 |
Page 7 |
Page 8 |
Page 9 |
Page 10 |
Page 11 |
Page 12 |
Page 13 |
Page 14 |
Page 15 |
Page 16 |
Page 17 |
Page 18 |
Page 19 |
Page 20 |
Page 21 |
Page 22 |
Page 23 |
Page 24 |
Page 25 |
Page 26 |
Page 27 |
Page 28 |
Page 29 |
Page 30 |
Page 31 |
Page 32 |
Page 33 |
Page 34 |
Page 35 |
Page 36 |
Page 37 |
Page 38 |
Page 39 |
Page 40 |
Page 41 |
Page 42 |
Page 43 |
Page 44 |
Page 45 |
Page 46 |
Page 47 |
Page 48 |
Page 49 |
Page 50 |
Page 51 |
Page 52 |
Page 53 |
Page 54 |
Page 55 |
Page 56