Chemistry and Technology of Fuels and Oils, Vol. 40, No. 2, 2004
THE SAKHALIN PROJECT G. V. Rubinshtein
UDC 622:665.62
VNIPIneft has been involved in several Sakhalin projects for extraction of crude oil and gas in different stages of their development at different times. The Institute most actively participated in implementation of the Sakhalin-1 project. This project provides for construction of a large complex for extraction, preparation, and pipeline transport of crude oil and gas on the shelf in the northwestern part of Sakhalin Island with output of 12 million tons/year in crude and 22 million m 3 /day in gas. Construction was conducted by a consortium of companies: Exxon Mobil (USA), SODECO (Japan), ONGC (India), and Rosneft (Russia) according to an agreement on separation of production. Exxon Neftegas Limited (ENL) a branch of Exxon Mobil, is the administrator of the project. The entire complex consists of three divisions: extraction of crude oil and gas in Chaivo and Odoptu fields using the Orlan offshore platform and construction of drilling rigs with slanting wells on the offshore edge; preparation (dehydration, stabilization, compression, pumping into pipelines) of crude and gas on offshore equipment; transport of crude oil in a pipeline to the west coast of Sakhalin Island and then along the bottom of the Tatar Strait to the De-Kastri terminal in the continental part with subsequent unloading in pipelines and ships. In the first stage of implementation of the project, only exportation of crude oil is provided for. The associated gas extracted will be pumped back into the stratum until the gas complex is started up. The beginning of exportation of crude is set for 2006. The Institute became familiar with the Sakhalin-1 project for the first time five years ago. In the autumn of 1998, it was selected by ENL Co. A long presentation, inspections, and prequalifications conducted by ENL among the basic Russian design organizations in the field preceded this choice. ENLs initial doubts concerning the correctness of the choice, because VNIPIneft is not specialized in extraction of crude and gas but in oil refining and petroleum engineering, were quickly dispersed. Of the entire Sakhalin-1 project, the Institute agreed to participate in designing the off-shore production complex (OPC) for preparation of crude and gas based on processes similar to those use in oil refineries, i.e., in the area where it is the leading Russian design organization. In addition, the Institute is relatively deeply integrated in the system of western engineering companies. At the same time, a western quality system was already operating at VNIPIneft, and the Institute had almost forty years of experience in working together with the leading Western firms on design of oil refining and petrochemical facilities both in the USSR and abroad. The fact that VNIPIneft was the author or coauthor of many active Russian safety and environmental standards, had a comparatively high degree (for that time) of computerization and software, an efficient data-processing technology service, and Western methods of calculating labor costs, project management, progress, and efficiency in all stages of the design work had a large effect on this choice. ____________________________________________________________________________________________________ VNIPIneft Open Joint-Stock Company. Translated from Khimiya i Tekhnologiya Topliv i Masel, No. 2, pp. 50 51, March April, 2004. 118
0009-3092/04/40020118Ó2004Plenum Publishing Corporation
Association with the leading Institute specialists in different disciplines and high estimation of their qualifications also positively affected ENLs choice. An important role was also played by the fact that the well-known Western company ABB Lummus Global (ABB LG) is a co-owner of VNIPIneft, which ensured technical re-equipping of the Institute, bringing it to the level of a modern engineering company. Several projects on modernizing Russian oil refineries were successfully implemented together with this company at the time. VNIPIneft was initially assigned a broad spectrum of work which can arbitrarily be called predesign development: review and compilation of commentaries on the conceptual design executed by Kvaerner Co. and ENL for correspondence to the requirements of Russian standards and Russian practice; analysis of the possibility and expediency of constructing OPC using modules; examination and comparison of the technical and economic indexes of potential Russian manufacturers of equipment and modules and Far Eastern construction and assembly organizations; compilation of proposals and analysis of different versions of module shipment, etc. The Institute has compiled clear, timely, and professional reports in these directions, which strengthened customer contacts. We especially note the compilation of technical specifications (TU) on design of OPC, i.e., development of a standards base for the design based on the requirements of Russian safety, environmental protection, and occupational health standards and its own practices. This document was designed as the basic instrument used in designing the complex by both Western and Russian specialists. The TU were examined in detail by ENL and ABB LG Cos. and amendments and additions reflecting advanced world experience and the requirements of current Western standards, primarily Exxon Mobil standards. These additions and amendments were intended for consideration of Russian inspection organizations to obtain their approval when required. The direct participation of VNIPIneft in designing began in 2001 based on a contract with ABB LG Co., selected by ENL as the basic subcontractor in designing the OPC. This participation initially consisted of consultations with the foreign specialists who developed the preliminary design. The Institute participated in development of the detailed design (working drawings) in 2002. A fundamental customer requirement was to execute the design using a three-dimensional model PDMS. Since VNIPIneft had little experience in working with PDMS at that time, it was decided to train Institute engineers to work in PDMS at the ABB LG office in Houston (USA) on a theoretical level and in executing small pilot projects. Approximately 30 engineers were trained in all. Management representatives and leading specialists in the basic disciplines were simultaneously brought to Houston to become familiar with the design, participate in its development in the initial stage, and to study and analyze the technical specifications developed by ENL as a function of all basic directions of the design. Gradual transfer of the design work to Moscow began at the end of 2002. The most important customer requirement was implementation of the project by the efforts of a unified, comprehensive team consisting of engineers from different disciplines from both VNIPIneft and ENL and ABB LG. All team members had to be located in the same area and be in direct contact with each other. This method is widely used by Western engineering companies. It was the first experience for VNIPIneft. It was decided to make major changes in the existing system for implementation of the Sakhalin-1 project. The Institutes management was assigned a separate building to house the comprehensive team including foreign specialists involving major revamping, equipping with modern computers (including computers operating in PDMS), office equipment and facilities, copying machines, and ensuring comfortable working conditions. The direct participants in the work from both VNIPIneft and ENL and ABB LG were housed together or in adjacent rooms, which promoted rapid integration and creation of a unified team in practice. This method of organization required developing additional quality control system elements for the given design (procedures, practices, standards). Key documents on organization of the project that took into consideration all of these features were developed: a plan for execution of the project, a quality plan, a coordination plan, etc. 119
The procedure for careful documentation of all stages and elements of the work was introduced in the comprehensive team. The following were conducted: initial meetings dedicated to beginning the work with respect to individual structures; once every two weeks meetings to examine the progression of the work for each specialty; weekly meetings of project management and project control services. Progress and project efficiency reports are drawn up twice a month. The initially different approach to solving the same engineering problems, the different methods of graphic representation, and finally, the different culture and language barrier which gradually played a smaller and smaller role caused some difficulties in mutual comprehension. Our specialists had to learn to work parallelly with acquisition of initial data from equipment suppliers, make changes and additions to documents as they occurred, become accustomed to the fact that bids for selection of equipment suppliers and construction subcontractor had not been issued when designing began, and information had to be obtained not in the form of the usual jobs but in the computer network through a specially created system of iDOCs and many other features. The foreign partners in turn had to become aware of: nonrigorous observation of the requirements in Russian safety and environmental standards and the impossibility of deviating from them without the approval of inspection organizations; the role of the preliminary design stage technical and economic substantiation for which all fundamental agreements with expert, inspection, and regional organizations are conducted, many other design and construction characteristics and regulations are determined with consideration of the standards requirements and work practices in Russia. Joint designing is continuing and mutual comprehension and integration of the participants in the project are becoming deeper in all conditions. More than 150 people VNIPIneft and approximately 100 from ENL and ABB LG are directly involved in developing plans and specifications. The experience in working on the Sakhalin-1 project is difficult to overestimate. Institute specialists have mastered modern design methods and conditions used in the leading Western engineering companies, have become familiar with the typical requirements of these companies, have learned to implement them, and many other things. In addition, they became aware that the level of their knowledge, especially of the senior members, is no lower but is even frequently higher than for foreign specialists.
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