ABB’s power and automation solutions for Eni’s field off Angola

ABB, a power and automation technology group, has won an order from offshore services provider Bumi Armada Berhad to supply electrification and automation systems for Eni’s floating production, storage and offloading (FPSO) vessel for a recently discovered oilfield off the coast of Angola.

ABB says that Bumi Armada is building the FPSO by reconfiguring the former Armada Ali supertanker (now renamed the Armada Olombendo FPSO), which has a storage capacity of 1.8 million barrels. The Italian energy company Eni is chartering the vessel.

According to the press release, the FPSO will be positioned over the Cabaça North and Cabaça Southeast fields, about 350 kilometers north of Luanda, and producing up to 80,000 barrels a day by the end of 2016. The vessel will control the entire extraction process, storing oil and gas until they can be offloaded to shuttle tankers.

ABB will deliver complete e-house solutions which house medium voltage and low voltage switchgear and systems for integrated electrical distribution, control, safety and power management, including ABB’s 800xA distributed control system.

“FPSO vessels offer a competitive solution for the development of deep water and remote oil and gas fields, such as those in the West of Africa. We are pleased to contribute to Bumi Armada Berhad’s latest FPSO project to ensure safe and reliable floating production,” said Stein Guldbrandsoy, ABB’s Global Market Segment Manager for Floating Production Units.

“We aim for long-term partnerships with customers through successful project execution, innovative offshore technology and an extensive service footprint,” said Per Erik Holsten, Managing Director for ABB’s Oil, Gas and Chemicals business.

ABB says that its systems will distribute and manage power necessary to inject 120,000 barrels of water a day into the reservoir and to compress up to 120,000 million cubic feet of natural gas.

Eni is the operator of the Cabaça fields, which were discovered in 2009, and are estimated to have a capacity of some 230 million barrels.

As said in ABB’s press release, the order was booked in the first quarter, and the total value of the contract to supply, operate and maintain the FPSO is about $2.9 billion.

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