Petromet Builds Western Canada's First Grassroots "FOUNDATION
fieldbus" Gas Processing Plant
In late 2000, Petromet Resources Limited, a Junior Oil and
Gas company based in Calgary, Alberta started up Western Canada's
first grassroots natural gas processing plant utilizing FOUNDATION
fieldbus technology. The Wild River Gas Plant is situated
in the rugged Alberta foothills, approximately 250 kilometers
west of Edmonton. The plant processes 40 MMscfd of sweet natural
gas. The process includes inlet and sales gas compression,
natural gas liquids extraction and a deethanizer train.
Second DeltaV for Petromet
Engineered and commissioned by Petromet's engineering partner,
DPH Engineering Inc., the Wild River Plant is their second
facility in 18 months to utilize the DeltaV system as the digital automation
platform. The original plant, Bigstone, was a huge success.
Built in the early-1990's, it was originally operated with
a PLC for plant control and shutdown with a separate HMI /
SCADA system to manage the field production wells. In conjunction
with a plant expansion in 1998, Petromet decided to purchase
DeltaV systems for both plant and field control, eliminating the SCADA
/ HMI and moving the plant process control off the PLC.
Start-up of the Bigstone facility was exceptionally smooth
and the ongoing operation of plant and field on the DeltaV system has
allowed Petromet to be more responsive in reacting to market
opportunities. For example, adding a new well onto the original
SCADA system used to take 6-8 hours of engineering time. Wells
are now brought onto the DeltaV system in less than one hour.
Why FOUNDATION fieldbus?
Because of the recent success at Bigstone with the DeltaV system, it
made sense for Petromet to select the DeltaV system for Wild River. The
decision to go with fieldbus technology was based on several
factors. Petromet was interested in taking advantage of the
reduction in wiring, terminations, and panel footprint. More
importantly, they were interested in the long-term potential
of running the facility with intelligent technology, improving
plant flexibility and plant up-time.
With today's aggressive natural gas marketplace, many small
gas plants are living, growing entities. By utilizing fieldbus
at Wild River, plant process expansions will be simplified,
utilizing less wire and taking up less panel space. Two-way
digital communication with the plant's transmitters and valves
will help Petromet diagnose equipment problems more quickly,
reducing downtime and lost revenue.
Results
Project Engineering, although on a fairly aggressive timetable,
ran smoothly. Emerson Process Management's local representative, Spartan
Controls, provided up front training to support DPH in the
execution of the work. DPH ran the project in a traditional
fashion with the exception of moving the wiring design forward
in the project execution process. In applying this new technology,
DPH utilized "segment drawings" (wiring terminations
modules) instead of traditional "loop drawings".
Plant wiring was reduced from the traditional 64 sets of
wires running back to the control room, to ten. Terminations
were equally reduced and a smaller wiring cable tray was used.
The most dramatic impact occurred during plant commissioning.
The time to "ring" out the wires was dramatically
reduced, with the whole process taking less than a day. DPH
Instrumentation specialist, Stu Constance, indicated that
in typical start-ups it would take several days to ring out
the same number of loops. At Wild River, with the reduced
terminations and the bus technology, absolutely no wiring
problems were experienced.
Commissioning the transmitters and valves was also simplified.
The DeltaV system auto-recognizes the end devices and as a result, DPH
was able to commission 10 devices every ½ hour.
Overall instrument commissioning was shortened to the point
that it was no longer on the start-up critical path. DPH instrumentation
was able to devote this extra time to other aspects of the
plant start-up.
What's next?
When asked if DPH would do anything different in their next
FOUNDATION fieldbus project, Stu Constance suggests that they
would look for opportunities to try Control in the Field,
PID at the device level. "When working with new technology
we prefer to introduce new innovations a step at a time, however
we wouldn't hesitate to try that next time."
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