Subsea pumping systems and stations are now commonly used subsea, 50+ subsea pumps have been deployed. Subsea compression stations are more complex and novel. A pilot has been built and operated for a year in a test pit on land for the Ormen Lange filed (15 MW Compressor), and a subsea installation of 2 x 8 MW compressors is now being built for the Asgard field in Norway. Such systems with rotating equipment will NOT operate for 25 years without service (which is commonly demanded from a subsea well head system). Typical lifetime for a subsea pump or compressor is in the range 5 – 10 years, depending on how hard it is operated. Knowing that some maintenance will be required, how do we optimize this in order to maximize the uptime and revenue stream? For subsea equipment, service is typically done by swapping a process module with a new one when necessary. Such a module can weigh 50 tons for a pump module, and 150 tons for a compressor module.
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