Wärtsilä topside power modules chosenfor North Sea FPSO project

Helsinki - Wärtsilä will supply a 62 MW topside power module solution for a Floating Production, Storage and Offloading (FPSO) vessel to be deployed at the Kraken oilfield located in the U.K. sector of the North Sea.

Such EPC (engineering, procurement and construction) award has been given in December 2013 by Armada Kraken Pte.Ltd, a wholly owned subsidiary of the Malaysia based international offshore oilfield services provider, Bumi Armada.

The project will comprise the EPC delivery of two identical power generation modules, each housing two 16-cylinder Wärtsilä 50DF multi-fuel engines with generators, waste heat recovery units and all related fuel, oil and air and other utility systems.

Engines are capable of being operated on a variety of fuel types, including treated well gas, heavy crude oil, and marine diesel oil (MDO). The ability to utilise produced gas and crude means that little or no MDO will need to be shipped to the FPSO. This will notably reduce operating costs. Furthermore, the efficient gas-fired power solution will have significantly lower levels of CO2 emissions compared to conventional technologies. Bumi Armada will be using a recently built Suezmax tanker for the FPSO conversion, which will have a storage capacity of 600,000 barrels. The Wärtsilä equipment will be delivered in mid 2015, and the FPSO is scheduled to start the production at the Kraken field in 2016.

The Kraken oilfield development is one of the largest new oilfields in the U.K. sector of the North Sea, and among the largest investments announced for this sector in 2013. Approximately 140 million barrels of heavy oil are expected to be extracted from the Kraken field over the coming 25 years.