Saipem and Siemens Cooperate on Subsea Technology

Italian oil and gas company Saipem has signed an agreement with Siemens aimed at qualifying and promoting an open standard subsea control system for Saipem’s Subsea electric power distribution “bus” architecture based on Siemens Subsea DigiGrid.

Subsea processing equipment can enhance oil and gas production and reduces the need for topside processing facilities. The technologies involve subsea production systems of increased complexity because of the integration of processing equipment such as pumps, separators, compressors, scrubbers and heat exchangers. Therefore, an open standard, which calls for a system independent of any proprietary products and exclusive interfaces, could help simplify and optimize such systems. This could reduce risk and costs and optimize on-going maintenance.

Siemens’ Subsea DigiGrid digitalization, control and communication portfolio is one of the key enabling elements of Saipem’s technology platform for subsea oil and gas processing systems, and it will be the first control system in the market promoting a modularized and standardized subsea system through open framework architecture, says Saipem.

The Saipem Subsea Bus is an extendable open framework platform of software and hardware components, including development and debugging tools, designed to ensure full support for and integration into all subsea applications.

The combined system will be able to control an “all-electric” configuration, ideally suited for subsea fields with long distances between wells and host facility, thereby avoiding expensive hydraulic umbilical cables. It will leverage distributed architectures with high performing control units to support the most demanding and innovative subsea technology applications, such as seawater treatment and separation, says Saipem.