Tracerco's technology plays central role in Pazflor project

Leading subsea separator measurement and control specialist Tracerco, part of the Johnson Matthey Group, has been awarded a major contract for the supply of its state-of-the-art Profiler instruments to FMC Technologies. The Profilers will be part of FMC’s delivery to the Pazflor project, offshore Angola.

The order follows the successful installation and commissioning of The TRACERCO Profiler™ units for the StatoilHydro Tordis Improved Oil Recovery (IOR) system, the world’s first full field subsea separation boosting and injection system (SSBI) in the North Sea.

In the year in which Tracerco celebrates its 50th anniversary developing specialist measurement solutions for some of the most challenging applications in the world, The TRACERCO Profiler™, has been shortlisted for an ONS Innovation award. The Profiler is qualified to ISO13628 with a design life in excess of 20 years, providing accurate and highly reliable subsea density mapping and interface visualisation to allow real-time measurement and control of the subsea separation and is at the heart of the improved hydrocarbon recovery process.

The company’s award winning instrument is the only separator liquid level, oil/water interface level and process control measurement system qualified for subsea use. Tracerco used elements of its proprietary technology used in many upstream three-phase oil and gas separation processes.

The Pazflor project headed by Total E&P Angola is located in Block 17, in deepwater offshore Angola. The development area is located approximately 40km east of the existing Dalia FPSO and 150km from shore. The Pazflor project targets development of hydrocarbons in water depths between 2,000 feet (600 meters) and 4,000 feet (1,200 meters) and consists currently of 49 subsea wells connected via subsea production, injection lines and risers to a spread moored FPSO. Tracerco’s evolutionary technology for the three gas/liquid subsea separators is scheduled for delivery to FMC Technologies mid 2009. The topside control system is designed to accommodate a further 21 wells and a fourth gas/liquid subsea separation unit.

Andy Hurst, Tracerco’s managing director said: “We are delighted to have won this contract following the success of the Tordis project. The collaboration with FMC has resulted in an impressive subsea separation monitoring system that combines FMC Technologies’ knowledge of subsea process design and project execution with Tracerco’s separator measurement and control expertise and we look forward to working together once again”.

“The TRACERCO Profiler™ will play a central role to the Pazflor project, contributing to the recovery of the heavy Miocene oil enabled by the three subsea gas/liquid separation units. The complete marinisation and design of the Profiler to exacting standards of the customer, guarantees accurate and extremely reliable signal transmission to cope with the unique subsea environment”.