Battery systems selected for oilfield backup

A Saft Industrial Batteries product story
Edited by the Engineeringtalk editorial team Dec 5, 2003

CEG Elettronica Industriale has installed 50 Saft rechargeable industrial nickel-cadmium battery systems to provide backup power for critical electrical systems at the Wafa oilfield project in Libya.

CEG Elettronica Industriale has installed 50 Saft rechargeable industrial nickel-cadmium battery systems worth a total of around Eur 1 million to provide backup power for critical electrical substation and energy distribution systems at the Wafa oilfield project in Libya.

The Wafa gas, oil and condensate fields are in a desert area, close to Libya's border with Algeria and 520km south west of the capital, Tripoli.

They are being developed by Eni and National Oil Corporation (NOC), the Libyan state oil company, and the first production from Wafa is expected in 2004 at an initial level of 39,000 barrels of oil equivalent per day.

The production from the 38 wells at Wafa will be transported over 520km pipelines to a processing plant at Mellitah, on the coast.

A JGC-Technimont-Sofregaz consortium was awarded a Eur 1.2 billion engineering procurement and construction contract for the hydrocarbon plants at Wafa and Mellitah.

CEG Elettronica Industriale, the Italian contractor responsible for the electrical power supply systems for the Wafa project, required 50 batteries of varying capacities to support the critical 110V DC and 110/220V AC UPS power supplies for the substations and power distribution systems.

CEG's previous experience with Saft nickel-cadmium batteries in Middle East oil and gas projects prompted their selection for this application in order to ensure a 20 year service life, greater reliability - with no risk of the "sudden-death" failure which can affect lead-acid batteries, and reduced maintenance requirements.

For the 110V DC power back up batteries Saft has supplied SBM cells in a variety of capacities and configurations to suit the specific duty required - four of the batteries, each comprising a parallel string of 92 SBM 369-2 cells, are capable of providing up to three hours of autonomy.

For the 110/220 V AC UPS systems Saft has supplied SBM, SLM or SBL cells according to the specific requirement - two of the batteries, each comprising a parallel string of 92 SBM 625-1 cells, are capable of supporting 40kVA for 30min followed by 30kVA for a further 90min.

The batteries are mounted on Saft's custom designed racks in special air-conditioned battery rooms which maintain them at an optimum temperature of +20C.

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