Submersible Motor Pumps Meet the World’s Most Stringent Certification Standards

The project is the result of the company’s activities to pool its competences in the offshore sector:

The Andritz pump experts have been offering solutions for the demanding offshore sector for years - and now the competences and experience have been combined in the new strategic business unit for offshore services. Thomas Wagner, head of business development, explains the thinking behind this move: "Given our experience in fitting over 30 drilling and wellhead platforms around the world, we want to drive our growth in the offshore sector and show our customers all over the world that we re capable of delivering the insight and first-rate technical solutions they need." Among the Andritz Ritz reference customers are such well-known names as Chevron, Petrobras, Schlumberger, and Total.

Downtime costs hundreds of thousands of Euros a day

For Petrovietnam, Andritz Ritz will install three SU 16-500 four-pole submersible motor pumps in order to convey service water to the oil platform. The sea water is primarily used to cool the machines and equipment on the deck. Installed in the platform’s columns, each of these submersible motor pumps transports a volume of 500 m3/h x 67 m at its operating point using underwater technology that has been successfully proven since 1948. The submersible motors are specially designed for offshore environments and deliver 145 kW at 1,755 rpm.

To help the motors cope with the high thermal and mechanical demands, the winding is insulated with PE2/PA, which can withstand much higher temperature extremes than conventional PVC. The casing material also needs to be especially sturdy - and 100% waterproof when in the ocean. This is why Andritz Ritz places its trust in nickel-aluminum bronze (NiAl bronze), a tried-and-tested aluminum bronze alloy known for its especially long service life in ocean environments.

The aim of these efforts is to achieve the highest possible reliability. "When customers ask about the advantages of our products, we say Lower it, switch it on, and forget it even there! Simply because our maintenance-free submersible motor pumps run without a hitch", explains Günther Reichl, area manager for Andritz Ritz in Southeast Asia. "This is an important factor for the platform operators because pumps are especially important when building a platform. If the pumps fail, all the machines and equipment on the platform come to a standstill - and no value is generated. "Depending on the platform concerned, costs caused by downtime can quickly amount to hundreds of thousands of Euros a day," continues Reichl.

Andritz Ritz solutions create valuable space

Thanks to their design, the Andritz Ritz pumps create space on the platforms. "Space on the deck is the most valuable thing you can have on a drilling or wellhead platform," Günther Reichl explains. "Our submersible motor pumps are designed with all the technology submerged in the water, so we can pump the water upwards without taking up space on deck."

Electricity is supplied to the motors by means of incredibly resilient 130 m long submersible cables. These are connected to the motors using new subsea cable connector plugs that are flexible and absolutely watertight. This allows users to separate the motor from its power supply quickly and easily, simply by unplugging it. On deck, the cable only needs to be hooked up to the electricity supply. Unlike other pump technologies where the motor is installed above water on the platform, Andritz Ritz pumps do not require a pumping station so the free space can be used for other processes.