Bangkok--12 Feb--Hill & Knowlton
Rolls-Royce will supply Petrofac an additional industrial RB211 gas turbine package for the In Salah Gas (ISG) project at Krechba in the central Sahara area of Algeria, continuing the long-standing relationship between the two companies.
Krechba is officially the hottest continuously inhabited place on earth, with temperature extremes ranging from 50C in the summer to —4C in the winter. The 27,840kW RB211-G62 electrical generating set will join two other RB211 generator sets, installed in 2002, to provide additional electrical energy to power the facility. This includes power for new electric motor driven compressors being installed to maintain gas production.
The RB211 gas turbine package has been designed to operate in the extreme heat of Krechba and to withstand the violent sand storms experienced in the region. It will also be fitted with a Dry Low Emissions (DLE) combustion system to suppress harmful NOx emissions. The fuel efficient aeroderivative gas turbine supports ISG’s efforts to reduce greenhouse gas emissions in the Sahara region.
ISG, an association between Sonatrach, BP and StatoilHydro, already has a pioneering project at Krechba for the underground storage of up to one million tonnes of CO2 each year that would otherwise be released into the atmosphere.
The CO2 is extracted from the gas, then re-injected into underground reservoirs a mile beneath the Sahara desert through large compressors. The benefit to the environment is the equivalent of taking 250,000 cars off the road.
Rolls-Royce will manufacture the industrial RB211 at its Montreal, Canada facility with assembly of the complete gas turbine package at its Mount Vernon, Ohio factory in the US. Delivery is scheduled for the fourth quarter of 2009 with operation of the unit in the Sahara beginning in 2010.
In the Gulf of Thailand, PTT has 22 Rolls-Royce RB211’s operating as gas compression and electrical power generation units on offshore platforms.
NOTE TO EDITORS:
The In Salah Gas project is based on the development of seven core gas fields, with three fields, Krechba, REG and TEG initially developed and starting production in 2004. The project is located approx 1,200 kilometres south of Algiers in District 3 in the central Sahara region of In Salah.
Krechba is at the centre of the In Salah gas project and is known as the ‘jewel in the desert’. It is geographically remote -- 150 kilometres from the nearest settlement.
Rolls-Royce received an order from MEDGAZ in 2007 for three RB211 gas turbine packages to power a new Mediterranean sub-sea pipeline to transport natural gas from Algeria to Spain.
4. Seven RB211 gas compressor sets are already installed on the Europe Maghreb gas pipeline at two compressor stations along a line that exits North Africa near Tangier before it goes under the Straits of Gibraltar and into Spain on the outskirts of Tarifa.
Total operating hours of Rolls-Royce industrial gas turbines worldwide is over 160 million hours.
Petrofac is an international provider of facilities solutions to the oil and gas production and processing industries employing over 9,500 personnel in 24 offices worldwide.
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