EVENDALE, OH - GE Industrial AeroDerivatives (GE-IAD) is currently providing maintenance for the five LM2500 aeroderivative gas turbines on the $5.8 billion (Canadian) Hibernia Oil Platform offshore St. John's, Newfoundland, Canada. GE-IAD began the maintenance work in late 1997 under an eight-year contract with platform operator Hibernia Management and Development Company Ltd., St. John's.
Under the contract, GE-IAD provides maintenance for the four LM2500 gas turbines and one spare LM2500, including all labor, materials and technical representative services. GE-IAD performs scheduled inspections, unscheduled maintenance, hot section overhauls and major overhaul of all gas generators and power turbine components. GE is also responsible for all equipment removals and replacements, and supervision and management of all equipment maintenance activities.
GE-IAD provided LM2500 familiarization instruction courses to appropriate platform personnel at its training center in Cincinnati, OH. In order to service the gas turbines on the platform, GE-IAD field reps received basic marine emergency training such as fire fighting and survival instruction including life raft and helicopter abandonment.
The Hibernia Oil production facilities sit atop a concrete gravity base, and operate in approximately 80 meters of water some 315 kilometers east of St. John's. The platform has a permanent staff of approximately 185 personnel, and the field is estimated to contain 3.0 billion barrels of crude oil in-place. Over the life of the field, approximately 80 wells will be drilled, and plateau production will average 135,000 BOPD.
The four gas turbines on the platform were sold and packaged by Dresser-Rand, Olean, NY. Two of the gas turbines are used to compress natural gas which is extracted with the oil for re-injection back into the oil field to increase oil production. The other two gas turbines provide electricity for the platform. The gas turbines were delivered in pairs in 1992 and 1996, respectively, the latter two following assembly in Canada. First oil was produced in November 1997, and the spare LM2500 was delivered to the site in December 1997.
GE-IAD has a strong presence in Canada: To date, there are more than 150 LM aeroderivative gas turbines on order or in service throughout the country in a variety of power generation and mechanical drive applications.
GE-IAD is part of GE Power Systems, and is headquartered in Evendale, OH. GE-IAD is the world's largest designer, developer and manufacturer of aeroderivative gas turbines for a variety of power generation and gas compression applications.