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The pumping systems at Perdido are designed to boost up to 125,000 barrels of fluid per day. Baker Hughes was awarded the contract for five enhanced run life systems, engineering design and qualification and testing services for Perdido in 2007. The remaining three ESP systems are scheduled for installation later this year.

Perdido, which began producing in March, is the world’s deepest application of a full-scale seabed separating and boosting system. The 1600-horsepower ESP systems – designed to overcome the challenge of lifting liquids 8,000 feet from the seafloor to the production platform – are installed in five, 350-foot caissons connected directly to the platform’s production risers. The caissons are located near the spar production facility. Each caisson also is equipped with cylindrical-cyclonic gas separation systems to separate natural gas entrained in the fluids before the fluids enter the ESP system. The boosting systems handle production from three subsea satellite fields tied back to the Perdido spar (Great White, Silvertip and Tobago).

Each system at Perdido features industry-leading pumping technology as well as Baker Hughes’ SURELIFT™ sensors and monitoring instrumentation - for remote, real-time monitoring and control of the ESP systems - and an ESP cable / control line cutting tool in the event the tubing inside a production riser must be cut and retrieved.

“Baker Hughes has made a major contribution to achieving first production at two of Shell’s top deepwater projects. Reliable ESP performance is critical to the overall success of Perdido in the Gulf of Mexico and BC-10 offshore Brazil,” says Ernst den Hartigh, vice president of technical support, Shell Deepwater. “Baker Hughes has consistently demonstrated a commitment to project success that began with a full-scale technology qualification and demonstration effort in 2006 and has continued through installation and startup. Baker Hughes’ perseverance, commitment to quality and excellence in engineering design and application were major factors in helping us achieve this success," he notes.

Richard Williams, president of Gulf of Mexico operations for Baker Hughes, adds “Perdido is a major milestone for Baker Hughes in the Gulf of Mexico. This was an extremely complex project, requiring years of joint research and development with Shell to design reliable seabed boosting systems capable of handling the production challenges at ultra-deepwater fields. We look forward to a long relationship with Shell over the life of the Perdido Field.”

Shell designed and operates the Perdido development on behalf of partners Chevron and BP.