Motors find oil and gas duties in Brazil

Edited by the Engineeringtalk editorial team Dec 20, 2004

WEG has received an order from Rolls Royce Power Engineering to supply eleven 31,250kVA four-pole 1120 frame generators for use on to two of the world's largest oil platforms.

WEG's booming generator business has received another major boost with an order from Rolls Royce Power Engineering for the supply of eleven 31,250kVA, four-pole 1120 frame generators for use on to two of the world's largest oil platforms - Petrobras 51 and 52 (P51 and P52).

The WEG generators will be coupled to RB-211 Rolls-Royce turbines - the same type of engines used on Boeing 747 jumbo jets.

The package of the 31,250kVA (13.8kV) WEG generators and natural gas-driven RB-211 engines provides each of the Petrobras floating platform units (FPU) with an extremely cost effective power generation system that delivers high efficiency, and offers considerable space saving and an unmatched power to weight ratio when compared with other generation media.

In addition to supplying its RB 211 turbines, Rolls Royce is also contracted to supply all integration and installation engineering for the power generation systems on both P51 and P52 floating platforms.

P51, the latest of the two rigs, is set to operate off the Rio de Janeiro state coast in the Marlim Sul field of the Campos Basin, which accounts for more than 80% of Brazil's total oil output.

It is destined to be one of the largest offshore facilities in Brazil to extract oil and gas at a water depth of approximately 2km.

Production levels for the FPU are estimated at approximately 180,000 barrels of oil per day, or 10% of the total national production, plus six million standard cubic metres per day of associated gas.

Costing US $923 million, P51's sister platform is currently being assembled in Brazil in a massive project requiring 2500 direct employees.

The project deadline is 2006, when the P52 platform is due to commence operation in the "Roncador" oil reservoir near Campos - Rio de Janeiro; replacing Petrobras's P-36 platform, which was damaged there three years ago.

When fully operational, P52 is expected to produce 180,000 barrels of oil per day, and nine million cubic metres per day of gas.

In addition to large generators, Petrobras has recently placed another major order with WEG for five 1.1MW M-Line motors; WEG's cornerstone product for the oil and gas market.

These high voltage motors are required to drive injection pumps in the Platform P35, in the town of Campos - Rio de Janeiro.

An additional package includes two 1070kW, eight-pole, 13.2kV, MGF630 motors, which are also intended as pump drives for a project located in the town of Macae, state of Bahia - Brazil.

The industry-proven M-Line range of motors is used in a wide range of oil and gas applications, including water injection, multistage gas compression and oil pipeline duties.

Designed for larger applications in the output range up to 20MW, the range uses a box frame construction that is ideally suited to Ex.p and pre-start purged Ex.n applications for zone 1 and zone 2 areas having low leakage rates.

The internal dispersement pipes within the box frame ensure an efficient and quick purge cycle, thus keeping the cost of providing purging air/inert gas to a minimum and, more importantly, providing quick startup times for operators.