Facilities Design & Construction
Canadian engineers are highly skilled in the design and construction of oil and gas facilities. Engineers work to integrate processing technologies and techniques, often into advanced customized designs, to ensure efficient operations, environmental compliance and that market requirements are met, computerized methods, 3-D modelling, advanced engineering, and good project management are prominent in Canadian companies. Contractors either take on full projects, or work in consortiums with local or international companies.
Sour wet natural gas has been an important part of Canada's gas supply for over 60 years. Many of the first applications of new gas processing technology began in large Canadian plants.
A Canadian project recently completed in Tierra del Fuego, Argentina, featured an eight million cubic metre per day Cryogenic Turbo Expander Plant, expandable to 12 million cubic metres per day. It was designed to operate at -80°C and recovers liquefied petroleum gases (LPGs) at 98% propane recovery.
Heavy Oil and Bitumen
Western Canada has some of the largest heavy oil and bitumen deposits in the world. Over the last 20 years a number of in-situ techniques have been developed to extract production from these deposits. Two of the most commonly used techniques are Cyclic Steam Stimulation and Steam Assisted Gravity Drainage (SAGD). Canadian engineering companies have specific and unique technical expertise in the development of SAGD projects such as:
- re-use and treatment of produced water, including zero liquid discharge facilities
- steam generation and injection facilities including co-generation facilities
- overall heat integration of the inlet bitumen emulsion, oil treating, water treating and steam generation facilities
Offshore
Offshore production facilities must perform under formidable environmental conditions. Off the East Coast, platforms must be designed to resist the impact of sea ice and icebergs.
- The Hibernia platform is the only platform in the world that is structurally designed to withstand the direct impact of an iceberg. Every spring, icebergs drifting from the north pass by the coast of Newfoundland and the Hibernia oilfield. The platform is equipped with advanced radar to detect these icebergs and provide early warning signals of a potential collision.
- The Floating Production, Storage and Offloading vessel at Terra Nova, the first used in North America, is designed to withstand the impact of a 100 000 tonne iceberg without moving off location. However, the modular vessel is rigged with a mooring system designed for rapid release if an approaching iceberg is deemed too large.
