Control System World

Yokogawa Australia has won a supply bid from Bechtel for integrated control and safety systems for the Chevron-operated Wheatstone Project west of Onslow, Western Australia. The contract, which is worth approximately AUD $20 million, will see the majority of the manufacturing work completed at Yokogawa facilities in Australia.

Yokogawa will be supplying the CENTUM® VP integrated production control system, the ProSafe®-RS safety instrumented system, and the Plant Resource Manager (PRM) plant asset management system for two LNG trains that will have a combined capacity of 8.9 million tons per annum.

This supply win follows Yokogawa's involvement in the upstream portion of the Wheatstone Project, where Yokogawa was awarded the supply of control systems for the control and safety systems for the subsea controllers and the topside offshore infrastructure.

Yokogawa Australia's Managing Director, John Hewitt, comments as follows on how the latest Bechtel supply win underscores the recognized competence and experience of Yokogawa Australia in major LNG projects:

"Yokogawa Australia has a dedicated team of highly skilled process and IT engineers and support staff (57 of whom are based in Perth) providing the enabling technology to a number of key projects in Western Australia, notably in the oil and gas and minerals processing industries. Yokogawa opened a new Perth office in 2010 after 21 years in WA, and is currently doubling its office space to support these projects and provide training in our systems. Yokogawa Australia is developing into a center of excellence for LNG projects as measured by total gas train capacity which will be controlled by Yokogawa's VigilantPlant system. Each project comes with its individual challenges and Yokogawa has responded by tailoring solutions including involvement in the front end engineering and design of these key installations and supply of engineering design, fully integrated control systems, and precision instrumentation. We are also an active participant in the Australian Industry Participation Plan and have both involved and enabled local product and service suppliers to work with Yokogawa on these major projects, utilizing the services of the Industry Capability Network (ICN) network around Australia. Yokogawa has an enviable reputation as a provider of ultra-reliable control systems and instrumentation and is ideally placed to meet the demand for state-of-the-art control systems for these landmark Australian projects which will supply energy to the world for decades to come."

Foster Wheeler AG (Nasdaq: FWLT) announced today that a joint venture of a subsidiary of its Global Engineering and Construction Group (Foster Wheeler Canada Ltd.) and Three Streams Engineering Ltd. has been awarded the front-end engineering design (FEED) for the proposed Cenovus Energy Inc. Telephone Lake SAGD (steam-assisted gravity drainage) central processing facility phase A development.

The project, located in northern Alberta, is expected to have an initial production capacity of 90,000 barrels per day (bbls/d) over two phases and an estimated project life of up to 40 years. The project is currently under review by regulators.

The contract value for this project was not disclosed. The booking will be included in the company's fourth-quarter 2012 bookings.

“Our joint venture with Three Streams Engineering Ltd. was formed specifically for the Telephone Lake Project and brings together Three Streams Engineering's familiarity with Cenovus projects and our extensive experience in modularization and execution of engineering projects,” said Umberto della Sala, Chief Operating Officer of Foster Wheeler AG. “Our emphasis on efficient project implementation through modularization is expected to be an important component in the design. This joint venture expands upon our current and growing market focus in Canada.”

The International Society of Automation (ISA) today released the dates, locations and Call-for-Papers deadlines for ISA’s Division Symposia taking place between April–September 2013 in various locations across the USA.

ISA Division Symposia offer outstanding learning, personal development, networking and social opportunities. Attendees meet face to face with renowned experts and presenters, and gain the high-value, peer-reviewed technical content needed to stay on the cutting edge.

Click to see the Divisions Symposia 2013 details

National Instruments extends the PXI platform with the NI RMC-8355 rack-mount controller and the NI PXIe-PCIe8381 PXI Express remote controller. The RMC-8355 1U rugged rack-mount controller for PXI and PXI Express systems features up to two high-performance quad-core Intel® Xeon® E5620 processors, making it ideal for high-performance test and measurement applications, and mission critical test and control. The NI PXIe-PCIe8381 PXI Express remote controller is a high-performance MXI link featuring a x8 Gen 2 cabled PCI Express link to connect a PXI Express chassis to desktop PCs with a fully transparent, high-bandwidth link.

Product Features
NI RMC-8355

· Up to two quad-core Intel Xeon E5620 processors for eight cores of computing performance, with 2.4 GHz base clock frequency and 2.66 GHz single-core turbo frequency
· High availability features, such as hot-swappable fans and redundant hard-drives and power supplies, maximize system uptime

NI PXIe-PCIe8381

· Sustained throughput of 3.2 GB/s per direction and 5 m maximum cable length with rugged latching connectors
· NI MXI-Express BIOS Compatibility Software ensures easy connection with a variety of PCs for direct control of PXI Express systems

KBR has announced that it has been selected as BP’s preferred Engineering and Project Management Services (EPMS) provider for the Select Stage activities of their Project 20KTM program.

KBR will provide technical design studies and management plans for new technologies, develop program execution plans, conduct risk assessments, determine capital cost estimates and schedule estimates across four main 20KTM systems: drilling, well design and completions, subsea production systems and well interventions and containment.

KBR will act as the central point for ensuring the 20KTM program is administered using standard processes and global quality assurance guidelines that incorporate BP requirements. KBR will also serve as the repository for program documentation and as the clearinghouse for supply chain management and procurement services. The project will be managed from KBR’s Houston Operating Center, utilizing the company’s growing high pressure, high temperature engineering and management capability spread between KBR’s subsidiary, Granherne and KBR resources in its Houston and London offices.

"We are excited about being selected to provide the EPMS resources to help BP deliver this critical program,” said Roy Oelking, KBR Group President, Hydrocarbons. “KBR will leverage its extensive experience in managing the various interfaces among BP, industry suppliers, OEMs, engineering contractors, and design houses to successfully complete the project.”

National Instruments today announced six new C Series modules designed for NI CompactRIO embedded control systems and NI CompactDAQ modular data acquisition systems. By expanding the C Series platform, NI provides engineers and scientists with new and improved options for a wide variety of embedded control, monitoring and data acquisition applications. Channel counts on the individual modules range from three to 32 channels to accommodate a wide range of system requirements, and the majority of C Series modules work in both the NI CompactDAQ and CompactRIO measurement platforms with no modification.

Quotes
“We rely on National Instruments hardware and software to provide the rugged, distributed control we need for our wind turbine system,” said Jonathan C. Berg, mechanical engineer at Sandia National Laboratories. “The site-wide architecture uses NI VeriStand and the NI 9467 GPS module to choreograph all of the data acquisition and control operations.”

“This is the largest C Series module release in several years, reflecting our ongoing commitment to expanding the NI LabVIEW RIO architecture,” said Jamie Smith, director of industrial embedded marketing at National Instruments. “At NI, we constantly innovate and build upon our systems to help engineers simplify development.”

New C Series Module List

· NI 9467 GPS synchronization module – Accurately synchronize a large-scale CompactRIO system with features such as data timestamping and system clock setting.
· NI 9469 chassis synchronization module – Create high-channel-count, distributed systems with custom timing and triggering by linking chassis with a standard Ethernet cable.
· NI 9381 multifunction I/O module – Fit more functionality into a single system with analog input, analog output and digital I/O all in the same module.
· NI 9229 and NI 9239 analog input modules with BNC connectivity – Use the industry-standard BNC connection for applications such as video and RF.
· NI 9220 analog input module with screw terminal or BNC connectivity – Build high-channel-count systems in smaller chassis with 16 channels of simultaneous I/O.

Engineering and project services company Clough Limited (ASX:CLO) today announced that the Clough AMEC Joint Venture (Clough AMEC) has been awarded a contract extension worth more than $20 million for the provision of engineering services to Chevron Australia’s oil facilities off the north west coast of Australia.

Clough AMEC has been providing engineering services to Chevron under contract since 2008.  Contracted work scope includes conceptual studies, front end engineering design, detailed engineering, procurement support, development of construction work packs and construction planning. Work will be performed out of Clough AMEC’s offices in Perth.

“We are pleased to extend our long-term relationship with Chevron to support their Western Australian oil operations” said Clough’s Executive Vice President of Commissioning and Asset Support, Max Bergomi.

“This is an important contract for our Commissioning and Asset Support business and we will continue to work closely to help achieve operational excellence for these facilities”.

“This contract extension is testament to Clough AMEC’s collaborative strength in the provision of Brownfield services and we look forward to working with Chevron to achieve their long-term objectives, safely and sustainably” said AMEC’s Executive Vice President, Asia Pacific, Garry Dryburgh.

Omron have introduced Connector-Terminal Block Conversion Units XW2R. Omron claims that Connecting to Controllers, Is Now Even Smarter.

For PLCs

• Wiring patterns that are specifically designed for PLCs reduce the work required to check signal layout.
• Terminal block signal labels give the PLC addresses.
• Push-in terminals simplify wiring and make the Terminal Blocks even easier to use. (In comparison to the OMRON XW2F.)
• The terminal arrangement enables smoother wiring work.
• Mount to DIN Track or with screws.
• Common design that can also be customized.
• Specialized wiring pattern for PLC
• Minimized size with required number of poles

General-purpose devices

• Wide variation of poles