Odfjell Drilling To Retrofit Rigs With Siemens Energy BlueDrive DC-Grid Technology To Reduce Emissions

Odfjell Drilling will retrofit its newest deepwater, semi-submersible drilling rigs in the North Sea’s Norwegian sector with the Siemens Energy BlueDrive DC-Grid system.

The upgrades will be carried out on Deepsea Atlantic and Deepsea Nordkapp, with the opportunity to include Deepsea Stavanger, Deepsea Aberdeen, and Deepsea Yantai at a later stage.

With these upgrades, the rigs will set a new technological standard in Odfjell Drilling’s strategy towards zero-emission drilling.

Siemens Energy’s BlueDrive DC-Grid technology — which was developed and refined over many years to meet the offshore industry’s demanding energy distribution requirements, especially for propulsion and drilling systems — is an efficient and environmentally friendly solution that provides reliability, availability, and ease of service, with low emissions.

The Siemens Energy BlueDrive DC-Grid solution — which consists of DC/DC converters connected to the existing four drilling drive DC buses from one side and to DC/DC converters connected to energy-storage systems — allows platform operators to conduct peak shaving of drilling loads, so fewer generator sets can run at higher and steadier loads, thereby reducing fuel consumption and carbon emissions, improving sustainability, as well as minimizing a rig’s carbon footprint. Further, the solution will increase the power plant's reliability by reducing blackouts, which will prevent downtime and boost asset utilization.

In drilling applications, the Siemens Energy BlueDrive system will be an integral part of the entire drilling process, enhancing the drill string's performance when applying high torque during drilling operations.

The Siemens Energy BlueDrive DC Grid system meets the five focus areas (E-RAMS) of the offshore industry: environmentally friendly, lowering carbon footprint; reliable solution with a high return on investment (ROI); available power supply with no blackouts; maintenance predictable and at a low cost; and safe operations that are supporting zero-harm goals.

The scope awarded to Siemens Energy results from several months of technical and operational clarifications to ensure the rigs' optimal functional profile.

The long-term relationship and technology cooperation between Odfjell Drilling and Siemens Energy also includes several R&D initiatives related to power from shore or nearby platforms and floating offshore windmills to fixed platforms or rigs.