Odfjell Drilling will retrofit its newest deepwater, semi-submersible drilling rigs in the North Sea’s Norwegian sector with the Siemens Energy BlueDrive DC-Grid system.
The solution consists of DC/DC converters connected to the existing four drilling drive DC buses from one side and to DC/DC converters connected to energy-storage systems.
This allows platform operators to conduct peak shaving of drilling loads, so fewer generator sets can run at higher and steadier loads – reducing fuel consumption and carbon emissions, improving sustainability, and minimising a rig’s carbon footprint.
Further, the solution will increase the power plant’s reliability by reducing blackouts, which will prevent downtime and boost asset utilisation, Siemens said.
The upgrades will be carried out on offshore rigs Deepsea Atlantic and Deepsea Nordkapp, with the opportunity to include Deepsea Stavanger (pictured), Deepsea Aberdeen, and Deepsea Yantai at a later stage.
With these upgrades, the rigs will push the boundaries for conventionally powered offshore rigs and set a new technological standard in Odfjell Drilling’s strategy towards zero-emission drilling.
Odfjell Drilling chief technology officer and executive vice president for technology & sustainability Per Lund said: “These projects are the result of asking a simple yet challenging question ‘What would be the most efficient technological approach to minimize emissions from a rig in the short term?’
“The resulting ideas were very well received by Odfjell Drilling’s customers and will contribute to their long-term emission targets, so this is business and low-emission targets working hand-in-hand.”
Siemens Energy senior vice president for industrial applications solutions Jennifer Hooper added: “Our agreement with Odfjell Drilling affirms our ability to understand and deliver complete, innovative, and cutting-edge solutions in line with our customers’ expectations, which include design, engineering services, interfacing with third parties and fabrication of state-of-the-art power electronics, as well as financial advice and support.”