Floating production storage and offloading (FPSO)

www.kamps.com.my
Tweet

USAN World Largest FPSO

A floating production, storage and offloading (FPSO) unit is a floating vessel used by the offshore oil and gas industry for the processing of hydrocarbons and for storage of oil. An FPSO vessel is designed to receive hydrocarbons produced from nearby platforms or subseatemplate, process them, and store oil until it can be offloaded onto a tanker or, less frequently, transported through a pipeline. FPSOs are preferred in frontier offshore regions as they are easy to install, and do not require a local pipeline infrastructure to export oil. FPSOs can be a conversion of an oil tanker or can be a vessel built specially for the application. A vessel used only to store oil (without processing it) is referred to as a floating storage and offloading vessel (FSO).

FPSO Diagram

Mechanisms
Oil produced from offshore production platforms can be transported to themainland either by pipeline or by tanker. When a tanker is chosen to transport the oil, it is necessary to accumulate oil in some form of storage tank such that the oil tanker is not continuously occupied during oil production, and is only needed once sufficient oil has been produced to fill the tanker. At this point the transport tanker connects to the stern of the storage unit and offloads oil.

FPSO Mooring Lines & Risers

In the early days, the storage units consisted of decommissioned oil tankers, which were stripped down and equipped with process/production facilities (becoming therefore FPSOs), and were connected to a permanent mooring point. Today, there are two main types of FPSOs, those built converting an existing oil tanker, and those that are purpose-built. The FPSO design will depend on the area of operation. In benign waters the FPSO may have a simple box shape or it may be a converted tanker. Generally (but not always) the production lines (risers) are connected to a major component of the vessel, called a Turret, which allows the vessel to rotate in order to head into the wind and reduce environmental forces on the moorings.  In relatively calm waters, such as in West Africa, turrets can be located externally to the ship structure, hanging off the bow of the FPSO. For harsher environments like the North Sea, the turret is generally located internally. The turrets, mooring lines and risers can be designed to be permanently connected (i.e. to remain on location for long periods of time), or disconnectable (i.e. capable of "quick disconnection" through a procedure lasting just a few hours). Most ship-shaped FPSOs in the North Sea are purpose-built and are permanently moored.

FPSO Diagram

Gas recovered/separated during production may be used as fuel on Marine energy resource units (MRU) fitted on board. As continuous flaring is discouraged or disallowed in many areas of the world, the excess gas is generally exported through subsea pipelines. Water separation may be carried out using Dehydrators or Hydro Cyclones.

Advantages

Floating production, storage and offloading vessels are particularly effective in remote or deepwater locations where seabed pipelines are not cost effective. FPSOs eliminate the need to lay expensive long-distance pipelines from the processing facility to an onshore terminal. This can provide an economically attractive solution for smaller oil fields which can be exhausted in a few years and do not justify the expense of installing a pipeline. Furthermore, once the field is depleted, the FPSO can be moved to a new location. In areas of the world subject to cyclones (northwestern Australia) or icebergs (Canada), some FPSOs are able to release their mooring/riser turret and steam away to safety in an emergency. The turret sinks beneath the waves and can be reconnected later.

FSO Unit

Specific types
A floating storage and offloading unit (FSO) is essentially a simplified FPSO without the capability for oil or gas processing. Most FSOs are converted single hull supertankers. An example is Knock Nevis, ex Seawise Giant, for many years the world's largest ship, which has been converted to an FSO for use offshore Qatar.

LNG floating storage and regasification unit

At the other end of the LNG logistics chain, 
where the natural gas is brought back to 
ambient temperature and pressure, specially modified ships may also be used as floating storage and regasification units (FSRUs). A LNG floating storage and regasification unit receives liquefied natural gas (LNG) from offloading LNG carriers, and the onboard regasification system provides natural gas exported to shore through risers and pipelines.

Mooring systems for FSO, FPSO & FSU units are available in market which allow the vessel to be moored on a ice sheet.
Article from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Contact us:

E-mail: enquiry@kamps.com.my

Website: www.kamps.com.my

Notice: Photos are used for illustrations purposes only and does not in any way express ownership or any title to the same.

Disclaimer

"All images are sourced from the internet and are in the public domain. We claim no credit for any images or videos featured on this site unless otherwise noted. All visual content is copyright to it's respectful owners. If you own rights to any of the images or videos, and do not wish them to appear on this site, please contact us via e-mail and they will be promptly removed. We are not responsible for content on any external website, and a link to such site does not signify endorsement. Information on this site may contain errors or inaccuracies; the site's proprietors do not make warranty as to the correctness or reliability of the site's content."

Machinist

Tweet
www.kamps.com.my

Machinist at Work

A machinist is a person who uses machine tools to make or modify parts, primarily metal parts, a process known as machining. This is accomplished by using machine tools to cut away excess material much as a woodcarver cuts away excess wood to produce his work. In addition to metal, the parts may be made of many other kinds of materials, such as plastic or wood products. The goal of these cutting operations is to produce a part that conforms to a set of specifications, or tolerances, usually in the form of engineering drawings commonly known as blueprints.

Injection Mold

Related occupational titles.

Within the title machinist are other specialty titles that refer to specific skills that may be more highly developed to meet the needs of a particular job position. Some examples of these specialty titles are fitter, turning hand, mill hand, and grinder. Also, there are titles that are related but actually are a further development of machinist skills such as tool and die maker, tool maker, trim die maker, die sinker,patternmaker and mold maker. These latter titles are also more commonly found in specialized areas of industry.

A fitter and turner refers to a person who manufactures mechanical parts (turner) and assembles (fitter) those parts together to manufacture a mechanical device.

The role of the machinist in manufacturing

A machinist is usually called upon when a part needs to be produced from a material by cutting. Such a part may be unique or may be needed in the thousands. This could include a machinery part for a production line or anything that can be made from metal or plastic. Producing a part will often require several steps and more than one machine tool. Each machine tool plays a specific role in cutting away excess material. When large numbers of parts are needed, production planning is required to plan the most logical route using primarily computer numerically controlled (CNC) machines.

CNC Plasma Cutter

CNC machines are becoming the standard due to their speed, precision, flexibility, and reduced downtime while changing jobs. Production runs consisting of large numbers of parts are more cost effective (in a local and narrow sense) and commonly referred to as production work in the trade. Conversely, small production runs are sometimes referred to as prototype or jobbing work.

Production engineers use blueprints and engineering drawings to produce detailed specifications of the part, especially its geometry (shape), then decide on a strategy to make it. Machine tools are then configured by the machinist or toolsetter and production commences. The machinist works with the quality department to ensure the specifications are maintained in the finished product.

Materials commonly encountered by machinist.

Inconel Round Bar

A machinist is to metal as a woodcarver is to wood. The most common materials that machinists make parts from are steel, aluminum,brass, copper, and various alloys of these materials. Other less common materials such as vanadium, zinc, lead, or manganese are often used as alloying elements for the most common materials. Materials that machinists work with occasionally are plastics, rubber,glass, and wood products. Rarely, machinists also work with exotic and refractory metals. The term exotic metals is a general term describing out of the ordinary, rare or special purpose metals. A synonym might be space-age. A list of exotic metals might include, but is not limited to, titanium, beryllium, vanadium, chromium, molybdenum and tungsten, as well as special high-temperature metal alloys like Inconel or Hastelloy (sometimes called superalloys). Very often the meaning of the term suggests the need for specialized handling and/or tooling to machine them effectively.

Tungsten Carbide Cutter Tips

While the foregoing were primarily the materials that a machinist would be cutting, the cutters that the machinist uses must be harder and tougher than the materials to be cut. The materials in the cutters a machinist uses are most commonly high speed steel, tungsten carbide, ceramics, Borazon, and diamond.

Milling Process

Machinists usually work to very small tolerances, usually within 0.010" or 0.25 mm (more commonly expressed as ±0.010"(Plus or minus ten-thousands of an inch) or ±0.13 mm), and sometimes at tolerances as low as 0.0001" ((plus or minus one tenth of an thousand of an inch)0.0025 mm) for specialty operations. A machinist deals with all facets of shaping, cutting and some aspects of forming metal, except for welding, which is typically a separate trade. The operations most commonly performed by machinists are milling, drilling, turning, and grinding. There are other more specialized operations that a machinist will less frequently be called upon to perform such as honing, keyseating, lapping, and polishing, to name a few.

Tools of the machinist.

The tools that a machinist is expected to be proficient with fall into 6 broad categories:

Measuring Kit

• Measuring tools: The measuring tools come several basic varieties:
  • Comparison tools such as adjustable parallels and plain calipers,
  • Direct reading tools such as rules, scales, and vernier calipers,
  • Micrometer tools based on screw threads,
  • Indicator tools based on clockwork gear movements,
  • Electronic measuring tools based on tranducers. Many of these are digital versions of their mechanical predecessors, as with a digital caliper.
• Hand tools: The hand tools are the usual complement of tools found in a complete auto mechanic's set except that auto specialty tools would be absent and some outsized tools would likely be present, such as 1 1/2" (38 mm) open end wrench.
• Machine tools: The machine tools have undergone a dramatic shift in the last 20 years. Manual machines have given way to computer numerically controlled machines (CNCs). For clarity's sake a categorization based on the historical groupings will be offered. Each of these groupings has been altered by the advent of CNCs and the CNCs meld some groups and blur the lines between others. In the past, the most common machine tools fall into 4 categories:

  

  Vertical Turret Lathe

  • Drilling machines, bench, floor, radial, and horizontal
  • Milling machines, horizontal, vertical, and boring mills
  • Turning machines, engine lathe, turret lathe, vertical turret lathe, vertical boring mill
  • Grinding machines, surface, cylindrical, centerless, universal
• Workholders: The workholders may include vises, chucks, indexing accessories, pallets, specialty jigs or fixtures, and faceplates
• Toolholders: The toolholders may include chucks, cutter adapters, cutter extension, tool posts, indexable turrets, box tools, quick change adapters, arbors, and collets.
• Cutting tools: Cutting tools include various milling cutters such as face mills, shell mills, endmills, and form cutters; various drills,reamers, taps, countersinks, counterbores, and core drills; various turning tools, form tools, and threading tools; various grinding wheels distinguished by their geometry, bond, grit size, and compound.

Hand Tool Kit

Article from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Contact us:

E-mail: enquiry@kamps.com.my

Website: www.kamps.com.my

Notice: Photos are used for illustrations purposes only and does not in any way express ownership or any title to the same.

Disclaimer

"All images are sourced from the internet and are in the public domain. We claim no credit for any images or videos featured on this site unless otherwise noted. All visual content is copyright to it's respectful owners. If you own rights to any of the images or videos, and do not wish them to appear on this site, please contact us via e-mail and they will be promptly removed. We are not responsible for content on any external website, and a link to such site does not signify endorsement. Information on this site may contain errors or inaccuracies; the site's proprietors do not make warranty as to the correctness or reliability of the site's content."

Derrickman

Tweet
www.kamps.com.my

Derrickman position varies greatly from one drilling rig to another. He almost always reports directly to the driller. The name derrickman comes from the position that he normally occupies, which is at the top of the derrick. From this position he guides the stands of drill pipe, typically 90 ft (27 meters) long, into the fingers at the top of the derrick while tripping (removing the drill string) out of the hole. When tripping into the hole (aka Running In) he will pull the pipe out of the fingers and guide it into the elevators suspended from the top drive. Traditionally the derrickman also works closely with the mud engineer (see drilling fluid) when not tripping pipe since he is not needed in the derrick. In this capacity it is his responsibility for monitoring the ph level, level of Calcium, viscosity and the mud weight (density), adding sacks of chemicals (25-100 lb each) to the mud or oil to maintain the desired properties, and monitor the mud level in the mud pits to aid in the well control. He is also responsible for the shale shakers and the mud pumps (making sure it runs good and fixing it when a fault occurs). The derrickman is also responsible for the transfer of additional fluids or chemicals (eg: Barite or Bentonite or oil-based fluids) from bulk silos or tanks (tank farm) to the mud system.

Article from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Contact us:

E-mail: enquiry@kamps.com.my

Website: www.kamps.com.my

Notice: Photos are used for illustrations purposes only and does not in any way express ownership or any title to the same.

Disclaimer

"All images are sourced from the internet and are in the public domain. We claim no credit for any images or videos featured on this site unless otherwise noted. All visual content is copyright to it's respectful owners. If you own rights to any of the images or videos, and do not wish them to appear on this site, please contact us via e-mail and they will be promptly removed. We are not responsible for content on any external website, and a link to such site does not signify endorsement. Information on this site may contain errors or inaccuracies; the site's proprietors do not make warranty as to the correctness or reliability of the site's content."

Remotely Operated Vehicle (ROV)

Tweet
www.kamps.com.my

ROV working on subsea structure

Remote control & monitors

A remotely operated vehicle (ROV) is a tethered underwater vehicle. They are common in deepwater industries such as offshore hydrocarbon extraction. An ROV may sometimes be called a remotely operated underwater vehicle to distinguish it from remote control vehicles operating on land or in the air. ROVs are unoccupied, highly maneuverable and operated by a person aboard a vessel. They are linked to the ship by a tether (sometimes referred to as an umbilical cable), a group of cables that carry electrical power, video and data signals back and forth between the operator and the vehicle. High power applications will often use hydraulics in addition to electrical cabling. Most ROVs are equipped with at least a video camera and lights. Additional equipment is commonly added to expand the vehicle’s capabilities. These may include sonars, magnetometers, a still camera, a manipulator or cutting arm, water samplers, and instruments that measure water clarity, light penetration and temperature.
While the oil & gas industry uses the majority of ROVs; other applications include science, military and salvage. Science usage is discussed below, the military uses ROV for tasks such as mine clearing and inspection.

ROV at work

Construction

Conventional R.O.V.s are built with a large flotation pack on top of an aluminium chassis, to provide the necessary buoyancy. Syntactic foam is often used for the flotation. A tool sled may be fitted at the bottom of the system and can accommodate a variety of sensors. By placing the light components on the top and the heavy components on the bottom, the overall system has a large separation between the center of buoyancy and the center of gravity: this provides stability and the stiffness to do work underwater.

ROV Ship Hull Inspection

Electrical cables may be run inside oil-filled tubing to protect them from corrosion in seawater. Thrusters are usually in all three axes to provide full control. Cameras, lights and manipulators are on the front of the ROV or occasionally in the rear to help in maneuvering.

The majority of the work class ROVs are built as described above; however, this is not the only style in ROV building. Specifically, the smaller ROVs can have very different designs, each geared towards its own task.

Classification

Submersible ROVs are normally classified into categories based on their size, weight, ability or power. Some common ratings are:

Micro ROV

• Micro - typically Micro class ROVs are very small in size and weight. Today’s Micro Class ROVs can weigh less than 3 kg. These ROVs are used as an alternative to a diver, specifically in places where a diver might not be able to physically enter such as a sewer, pipeline or small cavity.
• Mini - typically Mini Class ROVs weigh in around 15 kg. Mini Class ROVs are also used as a diver alternative. One person may be able to transport the complete ROV system out with them on a small boat, deploy it and complete the job without outside help. Occasionally both Micro and Mini classes are referred to as "eyeball" class to differentiate them from ROVs that may be able to perform intervention tasks.
• General - typically less than 5 HP (propulsion); occasionally small three finger manipulators grippers have been installed, such as on the very early RCV 225. These ROVUs may be able to carry a sonar unit and are usually used on light survey applications. Typically the maximum working depth is less than 1,000 metres though one has been developed to go as deep as 7,000 m.
• Light Workclass - typically less than 50 hp (propulsion). These ROVs may be able to carry some manipulators. Their chassis may be made from polymers such as polyethylene rather than the conventional stainless steel or aluminium alloys. They typically have a maximum working depth less than 2000 m.

Heavy workclass ROV

• Heavy Workclass - typically less than 220 hp (propulsion) with an ability to carry at least two manipulators. They have a working depth up to 3500 m.
• Trenching/Burial - typically more than 200 hp (propulsion) and not usually greater than 500 hp (while some do exceed that) with an ability to carry a cable laying sled and work at depths up to 6000 m in some cases.

Cable burial/trenching

Submersible ROVs may be "free swimming" where they operate neutrally buoyant on a tether from the launch ship or platform, or they may be "garaged" where they operate from a submersible "garage" or "tophat" on a tether attached to the heavy garage that is lowered from the ship or platform. Both techniques have their pros and cons; however very deep work is normally done with a garage.

Submersible ROV

Article from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Contact us:

E-mail: enquiry@kamps.com.my

Website: www.kamps.com.my

Notice: Photos are used for illustrations purposes only and does not in any way express ownership or any title to the same.

Disclaimer

"All images are sourced from the internet and are in the public domain. We claim no credit for any images or videos featured on this site unless otherwise noted. All visual content is copyright to it's respectful owners. If you own rights to any of the images or videos, and do not wish them to appear on this site, please contact us via e-mail and they will be promptly removed. We are not responsible for content on any external website, and a link to such site does not signify endorsement. Information on this site may contain errors or inaccuracies; the site's proprietors do not make warranty as to the correctness or reliability of the site's content."