Foam Pumping Skid to protect Hi-Spec FPU (Floating Production Unit)
Developing an oil field in the harsh environment offshore from the Republic of the Congo meant our client required leading-edge innovative design to create a Foam Pumping Skid to be installed on the Hull deck of the FPU.
The new FPU will have a capacity to process equivalent to 100,000 barrels of oil per day. The output will be exported to the onshore Djeno Terminal via a new pipe line. The project also involves a tie-in to the existing shallow-water N’Kossa platform for gas exchange. Located around 75km off the coast of Pointe Noire, it is the first deep water offshore project in Congo at water depths ranging between 650m and 1,100m.
The skid was intended to provide foam concentrate storage and pumping capability to supply remote mounted proportioning units via a ringmain. Our client was looking for a fire protection company that could combine complex engineering with the manufacturing ability to use alloy materials congestive to the offshore environment. The skid design had to take account of the very limited space allocated for the skid during FEED design as well as the tropical nature of the project environment which included blast calculations and ensuring continued operation under maximum roll conditions of 25 degrees. The Angus Fire solution was to design the foam skid with dual triple screw pumps mounted in the vertical position and a rectangular storage tank in order to minimise the skid envelope, using the highest quality materials and components. The first fill of foam concentrate was also supplied by Angus, using our Multipurpose AR-AFFF type concentrate Tridol ATF. A key consideration in the design layout was offering accessibility to the entire skid for maintenance and operation. Therefore extensive structural and stress calculations were performed to marry with node points on the hull.
Angus Fire designed, manufactured and tested all aspects of the new system within the customers required production schedule.
