Hamworthy’s success with electric-driven deepwell pump installations for FPSOs continues with delivery of a shipset of pumps for the 750,000 bbl Stybarrow Venture MV16.
Hamworthy has completed delivery of 12 electric-driven deepwell cargo pumps for MODEC’s new FPSO, Stybarrow Venture MV16, after commissioning them in early July. Eight of the Hamworthy CKL 200 cargo pumps were run simultaneously as part of the commissioning test, and the discharge capacity was tested by pumping seawater through the aft offloading hose at almost 4,000 m3/hr.
The 750,000 barrel storage capacity Stybarrow Venture MV16 is being built by Samsung Heavy Industries Co Ltd in South Korea for the Japanese company MODEC, which is leasing the FPSO out to Australian oil company BHP Billiton for use at the Stybarrow oilfield 65km off the north west Australian coast.
Hamworthy also supplied two DL 125 slop pumps which, like the cargo pumps, feature 22m-long drive shafts. The pump contract was placed in late 2005, and included full-length tests carried out at Hamworthy’s 30m-high string test tower at the company’s fabrication site in Denmark.
For the same project, Hamworthy delivered three DW 250 seawater lift pumps installed in caissons on the FPSO’s hullside.
Hamworthy has won numerous orders for electric-driven deepwell pumps for FPSOs, highlighting the success of the electric drive’s challenge to the hydraulic pumping systems traditionally dominant in the offshore sector. FPSO deepwell pumps featuring electric drives made a breakthrough in 2004 when Hamworthy was chosen to supply the cargo handling system for the 900,000-barrel storage capacity FPSO Nganhurra, also built by Samsung for the Australian oil company Woodside, which is now operating at the Enfield oilfield in Australia.
