Tackling harsh conditions with innovation: INTECH helped save millions of dollars on a project

INTECH Process Automation designed RTUs for an End User in Pakistan that can operate in extremely hot weather conditions while keeping their controllers within reference temperatures without resorting to any power-hungry cooling methods – effectively saving a large amount of expenditure on the project.

An End User in Pakistan operates one of its gas production facilities in the harsh desert environments of interior Sindh. At the time of this project, the facility had Remote-I/Os (RIOs) on existing wellheads but all their controllers were kept in cooled LER buildings away from the fields, since they couldn’t endure the harsh conditions out there (≥70° C). A 40+ Km fiber optic (FO) network linked all 20+ wellheads and LERs to facilitate data flow from RIOs to controllers in addition to all regular communication back to the plant. In this setup, the FO network was operating near full capacity.

When the end user carried out an expansion plan, they asked INTECH for the commissioning of 8 new wellheads. The scope was to incorporate these new wells into the existing 20+ wells following the same method as before i.e. RIOs in the field and controllers in cooled LER buildings, but here the project faced a major roadblock. The existing FO network could not possibly handle all the extra communication.

The obvious solution was to install a new 30+ Km FO network replicating the existing system that could then handle RIOs and other data from new wells back to the plant without overloading the existing system. The controllers were rated for operation under 70° C and could not be conventionally placed in the field, but installing another FO network would increase project expenditure by millions.

INTECH devised an efficient alternative and designed RTUs specifically for the harsh conditions that could house both the controllers and RIOs in the field. INTECH’s engineers used fans and an innovative panel design that would help regulate controller temperature within reference values without resorting to air conditioning, thus enabling low cost operation. This panel design removed the requirement for a new FO network since the controllers now only needed a fraction of the original bandwidth for SCADA communication, which the existing network could easily support.

This new design helped the end user save the otherwise necessary cost of installing a 30+ Km FO network, while INTECH achieved a significant milestone in RTU design.

About INTECH Wellhead Solutions

INTECH’s Wellhead Automation Solutions cover design, manufacturing, installation, commissioning and operation & maintenance of Wellhead Systems in any location worldwide. Our wellhead products cover generic and custom built vendor-neutral solutions which range from hydraulic control panels and subsea master control stations to artificial lift optimization solutions, pump-off controllers, wellhead RTUs and injection skids. INTECH’s dedicated panel shops in USA and UAE help deliver UL certified panels in record times without compromising standards and quality.

For more information on INTECH Wellhead Solutions, click here: https://www.intechww.com/skids-packages/

About INTECH

INTECH Process Automation Inc. is an international Control Systems engineering and Systems Integration company delivering reliable automation solutions to the Oil & Gas sector since 1991. INTECH has done projects in 31 countries across 6 continents with regional offices in 13 countries, equipping it with 2000+ engineering man-years of experience. INTECH’s vendor-neutral approach and extensive experience help serve both regional and global customers with the highest standards of quality and reliability.

INTECH covers all traditional asset classes (upstream, midstream & downstream) as well as shale and buoy automation. Its wide range of solutions covers traditional control system automation as well as hydraulic (surface and sub-surface) control system automation and advanced software solutions for operations and asset management. Customers benefit from INTECH’s lump-sum turnkey solutions to save costs and increase plant productivity.

For more Information, visit: www.intechww.com