EFLA experiencing rapid growth in the oil industry
EFLA engineering consultancy has recently grown rapidly in the oil industry in Norway. Annual revenue from the oil industry in Norway is now 200 million or about 17% of the total expected revenue of all its projects in Norway in 2012. The projects are on six oil drilling platforms across the coast of Norway.
EFLA´s engineers are working with the Norwegian company Advanced Control on projects in Reykjavik, Stavanger and on the platforms. Customers are large companies in Norway, including Aker Solutions, which is a major service provider to the oil industry, with about 20 thousand employees.
EFLA has primarily been involved in projects facing four different challenges in the field of automation.
EFLA has undertaken programming and commissioning of the control system that handles and monitors the situation of the mud that is pumped down with the drill and a separation system that processes the content when it comes up again. The control system and a geologist continuously monitor the material condition. The mud plays an important role in drilling. Its role is to cool the drill bit, transfer abrasive slurry, provide information about chemical composition of natural strata and keep the pressure on the hole to prevent it from collapsing on itself.
Other projects are programming and commissioning of an emergency shutdown system on a platform. The system monitors statuses of all fire and gas sensors and intervenes in case hazardous situation arises in order to ensure safety on the platform. For example, the intervention may involve isolating particular sections or to shut down all power on the platform.
The third challenge is a joint project with Aker involving programming of a drilling equipment simulator that mimics drilling system on the Brage platform. Representatives from Statoil in Norway, who own and operate Brage have expressed their satisfaction with the product. The simulator recently underwent through audits and examinations by the owner and passed all the tests work without comments.
Furthermore, EFLA has been providing automation and consulting services for various other smaller oil platform projects.
The upper picture shows the Brage platform, photo by Hagen – Statoil
The small picture shows a SCADA screen that is a part of the simulator user interface
