Statoil using ABB devices on world’s most northerly LNG plant

London - Statoil is employing over 1,000 resistant thermometer devices (RTDs) from ABB on its Snohvit project - the first offshore development in the Barents Sea and the world’s most northerly liquefied natural gas facility. The devices will be used to measure process temperatures, loading and offloading monitoring, spill detection and environmental protection.

Built at ABB’s plant in Workington in the UK, the full assembly thermometers feature solid drilled flanged thermowells and transmitters with HART communications and display. Accordign to the vendor, Statoil required an all HART site to enable enhanced communication with the measuring units for tasks such as range changing. The thermometers, it added, incorporate stainless steel heads, providing an uncoated corrosion-resistant enclosure, with a window for the display.

The contract also covered the supply of 25-metre long probes as part of a system designed to prevent freezing of bedrock under the four main storage tanks at the Melkøya LNG facility. Two of the tanks are used to store LNG, which is cooled with refrigerated gases. The probes will monitor the temperature of the bedrock under the tanks to ensure that its temperature remains above 0°C and so prevent the cold temperatures in the tanks penetrating and fracturing the bedrock, which could in turn compromise the tank foundations.

According to ABB, the equipment for Statoil also features surface mounted assemblies which are in intimate contact with the pipe outer wall. This saves installation costs as there is no need to penetrate the pipeline to mount the thermometer.