GE Leads New Decade of Reliable Oil and Gas Innovation
Leaders from some of the world’s largest oil and gas exploration and production companies, including BP, Chevron, Petronas, Saudi Aramco and Woodside, are among the 1,000 industry representatives gathered in Florence, Italy to attend the 12th GE Oil & Gas Annual Meeting. The two-day event addresses the complex technology challenges facing the oil and gas industry as it adjusts to a reset global economy, a changing regulatory environment following the Macondo-well Gulf of Mexico oil spill, and to the huge rise in demand for hydrocarbons that is projected in the decade ahead.
To offset the depletion of oil and gas reserves and meet demand to 2020, additional resources equivalent to approximately five (5) times the oil capacity currently produced by Saudia Arabia and four (4) times the gas capacity currently produced by Russia will be required.
Claudi Santiago, President and CEO, GE Oil & Gas said: “Unlocking new hydrocarbon resources is essential to global economic recovery and growth. But the age of ‘easy oil’ is truly over. New technology solutions are required to monetize stranded resources, enhance oil recovery and access unconventional, complex reservoirs. Opening up new exploration and production frontiers means, for example, operating in ultra-deep waters, handling sour and acid gas, and developing electrification solutions to support gas storage projects that help reduce emissions and maintain energy security. These are all areas where GE Oil & Gas has existing technologies in place, backed by R&D spending to keep reliable innovation flowing.”
“Safety and reliability are crucial to tackling all of these challenges”, continued Santiago, “Collectively, the oil and gas industry is working extremely hard to learn the lessons post-Macondo and to proactively seek to address stringent new regulatory requirements worldwide.”
“Success in the decade ahead,” he concluded “must be underpinned by reliable innovation that helps to minimize risk and drive production efficiencies. GE Oil & Gas applies GE’s experience of operating in the heavily regulated aviation and nuclear industries through our deeply embedded ‘Aviation Mindset’. This approach underpins our safety culture, as well as increased rigor in the design engineering, manufacturing, testing, installation and servicing of our entire portfolio of advanced oil and gas equipment. Finally, this decade requires continued collaboration and partnership across the oil and gas industry.”
GE Oil & Gas also applies its ‘Aviation Mindset’ approach by exploiting GE aero-derivative gas turbine and material science technologies, providing remote monitoring and diagnostics (RM&D) capabilities on all key oil and gas equipment product lines and through the rotation of senior engineers through GE Aviation.
This 2011 Annual Meeting program includes technology sessions and a ‘Solutions Fair’ showcasing GE’s advanced technologies across key segments of the global oil and gas value-chain, including the Blue-C™ Subsea Compressor - the world’s first subsea compressor.
Based on GE’s proven CO2 emissions avoiding Integrated Compressor Line (ICL) technology, the Blue-C™ Subsea Compressor is capable of unattended operation at up to 2,950 feet below sea level with power up to 15MW. The technology completed successful testing between March - October 2010 and the first unit was shipped to Statoil’s Egersund, Norway facility in December 2010 in preparation for deployment in the Ormen Lange natural gas fields’ development.
GE Oil & Gas also announced a number of project awards, including:
- The supply of four ICL units to Storengy for underground gas storage projects in France and the UK, reducing emissions and improving the security of energy supply. This brings to 20 the total number of ICL units supplied across Europe since the technology was introduced in 2007;
- A $120M contract to overhaul nine gas turbines located at four compression stations along the Trans Europa Naturgas Pipeline (TENP) which runs across Germany from the Dutch to the Swiss border. Converting the nine GE MS3002 gas turbines, including three new units and six fully over-hauled units, to Dry Low NOx technology will lower NOx and CO2 emissions to meet the stringent future German legal requirements;
- $50M in contracts to supply a total of 171 subsea wellhead and installation tooling systems to Petrobras. The equipment will be deployed in Petrobras’ Campos and Santos basins projects offshore Brazil;
- The GE ecomagination qualification of the ‘Integrated CO2 Compressor and Pump System’ which can avoid up to 3,800 metric tons of CO2 emissions (around 1,900 European cars) or 9,000 metric tons (around 4,700 EU cars) when used respectively for carbon capture & storage and enhanced oil recovery applications.
The Annual Meeting program also includes tours of GE’s state-of-the-art facilities in Florence and Massa, Italy where some of the world’s largest and most advanced oil and gas equipment is manufactured and tested.
