Innovation of subsea valve technology
Mokveld Valves BV based in Gouda, the Netherlands, has been an innovative supplier of engineered valve systems since the 1950’s. With the axial flow valve concept they have gained a unique position in the severe service market. Axial refers to the streamlined symmetrical and unrestricted flow path between the valve inner and outer body. The subsea Oil & Gas industry is working hard towards the implementation of subsea processing.
One of the technology gaps to be addressed is large size and fast-acting subsea control valves. Several operators acknowledged the unique advantages of Mokveld’s axial flow design in topside severe service control applications and approached Mokveld to discuss the possibility to use the axial flow concept as basis for a subsea control valve. In close cooperation with the well known subsea integrators Oceaneering, FMC and Aker Solutions, Mokveld has developed and successfully qualified an 8” / API 5.000 subsea axial control valve. The qualification program included an API 6A PR2 test, endurance testing with 500.000 cycles and hyperbaric testing simulating seabed conditions. Two valves have been delivered now for the Ormen Lange Subsea Compression and the Åsgard Minimum Flow Qualification Projects for severe service anti-surge control applications. The qualified axial valve design is suitable for subsea anti-surge and separator control applications. In addition the valve design can be used for subsea HIPPS applications as per API RP170.
