Upgrade minimises disruption for gas terminal
The St Fergus Gas Termina l60 km north of Aberdeen in Scotland receives and processes gas from over 20 North Sea fields accounting for 15 per cent of the UK’s daily gas requirements. It is responsible for transporting offshore gas to shore; receiving the gas onshore; processing the gas to National Grid specification; delivering the gas to shippers; and ensuring a balance between supply and demand.
Gas transported through the terminal consists mainly of methane together with heavier natural gas liquids such as butane and propane.
Operated by Total E&P UK Limitedthe facility has operated an ABB MOD 300 for its automation needs for the past 17 years.
Neil BaldwinABB project manager for the St. Fergus projectsays: "The MOD 300 has served Total well over the years - it has never let them down. But now they want to take advantage of the additional facilities offered by the 800xA."
Total needed to upgrade the system in the easiest possible way. This was done by upgrading the control system with AC 460 controllerswhich can transfer existing CCF and TCL language applications directly and intact.This means there is no need to retrain engineersso reducing disruption and the possibility of errors.
Says Baldwin: "Nobody else could offer this. With other systemsthe cost would be higher for the customer as it would take longer to install because of the need to migrate the software onto another platform. We are conducting a hot changeoverintroducing another backbone while the system is still working and then transfer control from one to the other."o
For more informationvisit www.abb.com
"