TOTAL E&P Consideration of new Technologies in Rotating Machines to Respond to the Requirements of Future O&G Developments

To respond to ever more demanding and critical requirements dictated by the current and future developments of O&G fields, combined with harsher environmental conditions, TOTAL consider that innovation and introduction of new technologies are today unavoidable, and this is particularly true for rotating machines. Some examples to illustrate this tendency can be listed, such as: • Reinjection pressures in the reservoir ever increasing, reaching 700 bar and more, • Gas flows increasing and thus requiring more and more power, • Ever increasing water depth: Today, it is almost ordinary to install multiphase pumps and soon high boost multiphase pumps and compressors at minus 1,500 meters of water depth and soon deeper, • Less complex compression shaft lines (high speed motors, oil free, Active Magnetic Bearings, sealless), no HC emissions, for upstream applications, • Remote Monitoring and Diagnosis, • Harsher environment conditions (Artic, large ambient temperature range, offshore, corrosive contaminants, salts, sand, harmattan, etc.), isolated production sites, • Wet gas with CO2 and H2S with selection of appropriate metallurgy, • More viscous fluids to be pumped in multiphase conditions from the sea bed, • Very large gas turbines for future all electric FPSOs and floating production facilities (LNG). And of course all these new technologies are developed with the requirement of limiting CO2 and NOx emissions, increasing energy efficiency, and improving equipment reliability, while preserving safety of the people and the machines. The famous “two machines two years” criterion which uses to be the golden rule in the past among most of the Majors is no longer applicable and thus superseded as conditions of new O&G developments, whether climatic, environmental, reservoirs, technological, are changing very rapidly. Therefore, TOTAL, have implemented a thorough qualification process to introduce innovations, allowing thus to lead the required technological evolution, to cope with the rapid market changes, to be able to respond to more and more complex projects, to be ready to implement these new technologies whenever required, reducing costs and increasing energy efficiency, while minimizing the associated risks. The paper provides some examples of implementation of such new technologies in rotating equipment and describes the qualification process that is followed to declare these technologies fit for purpose.