Australian supplier Osmoflo has begun despatching desalination equipment to the Gorgon gas field project located 130-200km off the north-west coast of Western Australia.
The first of four reverse-osmosis (RO) desalination plants has been designed, constructed and despatched by Osmoflo along with a microfiltration pretreatment system. Final design details are still in process, but the plants do include the latest clean technology.
On arrival at the Barrow Island site, the containers will be linked together to enable final commissioning. This plant is a bridging facility and will service construction needs, including drinking water, over a period of approximately 30 months.
The other three plants are:
Fly Camp plant – A temporary plant to provide potable water for the construction camps as well as for use in infrastructure construction (the airport, for example). Also containerised for ease of later removal, this is a seawater RO plant.
Permanent plant – Provides potable water to workers as well as high purity water for process use. Skid-mounted in a permanent structure, this is also a seawater RO plant.
Demineralisation plant – Further purifies water from the permanent plant for use in cooling processes, such as cooling gas compressors, using RO and electro- deionisation.
Because of its location, the permanent plant will have a cyclone rating and will include technology which minimises energy consumption, yet maximises the percentage of treated water that can be recovered from the saline raw water source.
Barrow Island is a class A nature reserve, so strict environmental controls will need to be satisfied during the construction and operation of both plants. Every item of equipment requires fumigation prior to transportation to the island.
The Gorgon Project is operated by the Australian subsidiary of Chevron (approximately 47%) in joint venture with the Australian subsidiaries of ExxonMobil (25%) and Shell (25%), Osaka Gas (1.25%), Tokyo Gas (1%) and Chubu Electric (0.417%).