Safeguarding Against Over-pressure

Hima-Sella wins contract to design and supply three High Integrity Pressure Protection Systems for a complex subsea gas field development in Indonesia.

Specialist safety instrumentation systems provider Hima-Sella has been awarded a contract to develop and supply three High Integrity Pressure Protection Systems (HIPPS) to protect against over-pressure on a subsea gas field development in Indonesia. (Read More)

Between them, the three HIPPS will protect the product pipes and downstream equipment for almost a dozen subsea wellheads.

Eddy Turnock, Hima-Sella’s Sales & Marketing Director, comments: “This is a complex subsea development with several production flow lines, umbilicals, a tethered processing barge close to the field and export pipes for processed gas and condensates. It is essential to protect all equipment downstream of the wellheads against high pressures, and we’re delighted that the operator has turned to Hima-Sella to engineer a high-integrity, fail-safe solution.”

The overall solution is to meet Safety Integrity Level (SIL) 3, as defined under functional safety standard IEC-61508, and Hima-Sella is building each HIPPS around a HIMA Planar 4 fail-safe solid-state logic solver. Turnock adds: “As a solid-state logic solver there’s no software with which to contend and the Planar 4, which can even be used in SIL 4 applications, offers extremely high reliability and availability.”

Each of the three HIPPS will be mounted in a stainless steel cabinet on the processing barge and will interface with a number of actuator-controlled valves and pressure sensors. Each cabinet will have a tile mimic containing lamps, switches and pushbuttons. Information from the HIPPS - including system status, pressure readings and valve closure times – will be made available to other systems via a Modbus communications facility.

The three HIPPS cabinets are currently under construction at Hima-Sella’s premises in Stockport, and installation and commissioning of the equipment is scheduled for Q3 of this year.

About Hima-Sella

Established in 1974 as Sella Controls, the company was appointed agent for HIMA Paul Hildebrandt for safety system products in 1983; and became Hima-Sella Ltd in 1994. In 2001, Hima-Sella received the first ever CASS certificate - awarded for functional safety management in accordance with IEC 61508.

Today, Hima-Sella is recognised as a market leader in ‘engineered solutions’ for safety, control and automation applications in the oil & gas, petrochemical, rail, steel and power industries. Current services include completely integrated systems, panel building, sub assemblies, product development and on-site support.

The company is an active member of First Point Assessment Limited (FPAL, the industry database from which those operating in the oil and gas industries select their contractors and suppliers); Link-Up – the standard database from which companies in the rail sector select their contractors and suppliers; and the Joint Qualification Scheme (JQS, the prerequisite for suppliers to the oil industry in Norway and Denmark, as used by the top 20 oil companies in those countries). Hima-Sella is also a member of several associations and industry-based councils, including the Energy Industries Council, the Institute of Measurement & Control, the Nuclear Industry Association and the Railway Industries Association, keeping the company up to date with the changes in legislation and standards.

Hima-Sella Ltd, Carrington Field St, Stockport, Cheshire. SK1 3JN. UK.
Tel: +44 (0) 161 429 4500.
www.hima-sella.co.uk