Amarinth gets order of API 610 pumps for another North Sea project

With the renewed interest in the exploitation of the remaining North Sea oil and gas reserves, Amarinth has secured another major order, this time for API 610 12th Edition OH2 horizontal centrifugal pumps. The produced water pumps are destined for an expansion project in the Brodger field. This order follows a busy period for Amarinth as operators look to quickly access further North Sea reserves, with the company securing numerous diverse orders from multiple projects, including:

• skimming pumps for the Catcher Floating Production Storage and Offloading vessel,
• dimensionally interchangeable produced water pumps replacing Girdlestone pumps on the Dan Fox platform, and
• dimensionally interchangeable water cooling pumps on an ultra-short lead time for the Gullfaks Subsea Compression project.

The Brodgar gas condensate field, where this latest order of pumps is destined for, lies 89 miles north-east of Aberdeen, Scotland, in the North Sea, in water depths of about 146m (460 feet). The field has been developed as a subsea satellite with a tie-back to the Britannia Bridge Linked Platform. Due to the offshore location of the pumps, space and access for installation is at a premium and so Amarinth was approached for a solution following previous successful projects undertaken at this field, and the many other challenging offshore requirements the company has delivered against.

The bespoke pumps will incorporate Plan 53B seal support systems and noise attenuation enclosures to keep levels below 77 dB. They will also be certified for ATEX Zone 2 hazardous areas. Due to the weight of the large motors, drive train adjustment screws will also be incorporated. These pumps are some of the first to be specified to the new API 610 12^th Edition which was released last year following nearly 11 years of pumps being designed to the previous API 610 11^th Edition. To conform with API 610 12^th Edition, requirements for the design, manufacture and testing now include:

• Piping connections gusseted in two orthogonal planes, and which meet the pressure-temperature requirements of the casing rather than, as previously, the piping.
• New performance and NPSH test procedures with additional test points and tolerance.
• New mechanical run test procedure as greater clarity is now given to what is considered oil temperature stabilization.
• A set of head vs NPSHA curves, one set for each test point taken.

Oliver Brigginshaw, Managing Director of Amarinth, commented: “We are delighted with this latest order which underlines our commitment to helping operators cost-effectively exploit the remaining North Sea oil and gas assets. In addition, it is important to see API 610 12^th Edition now being specified, which is the specification that all our API 610 pumps are now designed to.”

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