The StatoilHydro Ormen Lange natural gas processing plant in Aukra, Norway, has been selected by the Hart Communication Foundation (HCF) as recipient of the 2007 Hart Plant of the Year Award. The award is given annually to recognize the people, companies and plant sites around the globe that are using the advanced capabilities of Hart Communication in real-time applications to improve operations, lower costs and increase availability. The StatoilHydro Ormen Lange facility produces natural gas that will provide up to 20 percent of the natural gas for the United Kingdom. The natural gas is shipped via the Langled Pipeline, one of the world’s longest subsea gas pipelines—1,200 kilometers from the coast of Norway to the United Kingdom. The Ormen Lange project consists of 24 subsea wells in four seabed templates with an onshore processing facility to clean up the gas before pushing it into the pipeline to the United Kingdom. Reliability key According to StatoilHydro automation lead engineer Erling Ramberg, predictive diagnostics and the need for absolutely reliable operations were critical factors in design of the Ormen Lange automation and safety systems. “We selected Hart Communication as the core technology for our intelligent instrumentation and automation systems because of its proven performance, reliability, support from key suppliers and availability of products for all applications,” says Ramberg. “The Hart-enabled intelligent instrumentation and automation infrastructure is central to our predictive and condition-based maintenance strategy for reliable operations at Ormen Lange.” StatoilHydro designed the Ormen Lange automation systems to take full advantage of Hart Communication and the advanced capabilities and diagnostics of Hart-enabled intelligent instrumentation. The Hart-enabled intelligent instrumentation and automation infrastructure at Ormen Lange includes 1400-plus intelligent process measurement devices and modulating control valve actuators, connected through Hart-enabled remote input/output (I/O) systems to Hart-enabled Process Automation and Asset Management systems. Forward-thinking “Ormen Lange is an impressive project and a tremendous engineering accomplishment. We congratulate StatoilHydro for their foresight, planning and vision in building the plant infrastructure at Ormen Lange to fully utilize the intelligent capabilities of Hart-enabled instrumentation,” says HCF Executive Director Ron Helson. “Their forward thinking and proactive approach serves as a powerful model for industry users worldwide on the benefits of using Hart Communication with intelligent field instrumentation, process automation and asset management systems.” The Hart Plant of the Year is the only public award presented to end-user companies to recognize ingenuity in the application of Hart Communication technology. The award showcases end-user companies and their suppliers who have demonstrated creativity in using the full capabilities of Hart Communication technology. The HCF encourages nominations for Hart Plant of the Year from all world areas. Nominations are accepted through May of each year. Previous recipients are BP Canada Energy; Sasol Solvents (South Africa); Clariant, (Germany); BP Cooper River, Detroit Water and Sewerage Department, and DuPont (USA). Hart Communication Foundationwww.hartcomm.org
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