Shell Petroleum Nigeria

Project: Crude Oil Line Refurbishment – Sea Eagle FPSO
Location: EA/EJA Oil Field, Nigeria
Products: Clamp-on Ultrasonic Flowmeters

EA/EJA is a producing conventional oil field located in shallow water in Nigeria and is operated by Shell Petroleum Development Company of Nigeria. According to GlobalData, who tracks more than 34,000 active and developing oil and gas fields worldwide, the field is located in block OML 79, with water depth of 95 feet.

The Sea Eagle FPSO is situated in the EA Field, offshore Nigeria, some 8nm SW of the Dodo River. The FPSO is permanently moored in a water depth of 26.5m. Crude oil is transferred by floating hose while an export tanker is moored in tandem to the FPSO with a Safety Exclusion Zone of 5km in force. The Sea Eagle FSPO facilities can accommodate a total of 170,000 barrels of well fluids and 100 million standard cubic feet of gas per day. The vessel hull has an oil storage capacity of 1.4 million barrels.

An expansion project is associated with the EA/EJA, namely the EA Further Development. This project is currently in the construction stage.

Shell Petroleum contacted ABLE with a view to replacing aged Siemens Clamp-On Ultrasonic Flow Meters with like for like instruments on 3 off crude oil lines. However, ABLE had to inform Shell that the Siemens product was now obsolete and propose a comparative new alternative, the Model ABLE U5000.

The requirement was for:

• Run Down Cooler Line – 12”/ 1 Bar
• LP Separator Crude Oil Outlet – 18” / 3 Bar
• HP Separator Crude Oil Outlet – 12” / 7 bar
• Line temperatures were all quoted at 70°C with relatively high flow rates in each case.

Construction materials were to a standard 316 St. St. offshore specification.

Cable lengths between meter and control room based 19” rack mounted electronics are up to 240m.

Shell proceeded with ABLE’s recommendations and both parties are now finalising the details of commissioning contract.