DOHA, Qatar– Honeywell today announced that it is working with Dolphin Energy in Qatar to upgrade its existing Experion Process Knowledge System (PKS) servers, stations and software online at its gas processing plant at Ras Laffan to further improve the facility’s efficiency and reduce maintenance costs.
The upgrade will enable the enhancement of production processes at the plant located in Ras Laffan Industrial City, which is the largest single build plant in the world and central to Dolphin’s operations in the region. Dolphin Energy, one of the largest energy ventures in the Middle East, was set up to produce and process natural gas from Qatar's offshore North Field. The processed gas is then transported to the UAE via an undersea pipeline.
As part of the project, Honeywell will upgrade nine Experion servers and 45 Experion stations to Honeywell certified Experion system hardware platforms, allowing Dolphin to optimize their integrated control system performance and sustain their automation investments. The project also includes an upgrade of the facility's system software to the latest release, including its operating system.
The offline development system will be a small-scale replica of the gas processing plant's existing integrated control system and will allow Dolphin Energy to test various migration scenarios without affecting the plant's productivity. In addition to supporting a safe and incident-free migration of the facility's systems, the development system will also facilitate the training of engineers on the Experion platform.
"This migration of our Experion system is part of our strategic, long-term automation roadmap, which aims to enhance efficiencies at Dolphin's Ras Laffan plant," said Mr. Adel Ahmed Albuainain, General Manager, Dolphin Energy, Qatar. "In addition to addressing operating system obsolescence and its associated hardware compatibility issues, the software upgrades will deliver operational and maintenance enhancements such as advanced diagnostics. It will also facilitate future systems expansions on the latest platforms."
