Consortium to upgrade natural gas field

Edited by the Engineeringtalk editorial team Jan 13, 2003

Yokogawa is taking part in a contract estimated to be worth more than Eur 60 million for a gas renovation project being undertaken by the Nederlandse Aardolie Maatschappij (NAM).

Yokogawa is taking part in a contract estimated to be worth more than Eur 60 million for a gas renovation project being undertaken by the Nederlandse Aardolie Maatschappij (NAM).

The contract was awarded to the Stork-GLT consortium, of which Yokogawa is a member.

The installation is located in the province of Groningen, Netherlands.

Stork GLT is a consortium consisting of Stork Industry Services (construction and maintenance management), Jacobs Engineering Group (design), Siemens Demag Delaval Turbomachinery (compressors), Siemens (Compressor Motors) and Yokogawa (instrumentation and automation).

This order is for the further renovation of the giant Groningen gas field, including upgrading the existing facilities and adding compression and additional automation.

The total order has a value of Eur 800-900 million, and the project will secure Groningen gas production for another 40 years.

Yokogawa, as a member of the Stork-GLT consortium, provides design, supply, installation and maintenance of the entire gas-field wide automation system for this newly renovated heart of the Dutch gas industry.

Yokogawa joined the consortium in 1996, and, together with NAM, developed a fieldwide control system to ensure the objectives of innovative technology, best-in-class performance and highest possible quality.

The fieldwide control system will provide fully automated, unmanned control operation of all 29 clusters and 296 gas wells from a single central control room.

"Gas markets in Europe are now commercialised, and it is quite important for us to respond rapidly to market demands.

Therefore, high availability and a high level of integrity together with minimum total cost of ownership are the expectations of NAM for the control system", said Henk Niezen, Project Manager of NAM: "We know Yokogawa's products are reliable and robust, as proven on the first phase of the project, and I am sure that Yokogawa, as a strategic business partner, can meet our expectation for the second phase as well", he said.

"This project is very challenging to Yokogawa since the system may grow to be the largest unmanned, remotely operated system in the world", said Akira Nagashima, Executive Vice-President of Yokogawa's System Business Unit: "This is the system concept that Yokogawa is targeting as our future, and it is very exciting for us to work for this prestigious project as the main instrument vendor as part of the Stork-GLT consortium.

We will be securing the future gas supply for The Netherlands and Europe".

Yokogawa was selected on the basis of several factors including best-in-class performance demonstrated during the first phase of the project as well as superior product quality, leadership and professional performance.

The gas clusters Tjuchem, Bierum, de Paauwen and Siddeburen have been renovated, and are fully automated with Yokogawa systems.

Currently, Stork-GLT is working on six more gas clusters.

The second phase will take another eight years (out of the project's 25-year total), and will require about 2500 man-years of additional work.