Orders in the pipeline support Colombia’s increased flow of oil

Rotork EH electro-hydraulic actuators have been selected as a reliable solution for fail-safe valve control on a pivotal new oil pipeline under construction in Colombia.

The Colombian Bicentennial Pipeline will improve the country’s crude oil transportation infrastructure and keep pace with burgeoning production. The three-stage project will run for nearly 1000 kilometres from the Llanos region of the country to the port of Coveñas on the Pacific coast. The pipeline will encompass 42 and 36 inch pipe diameters and have a capacity of up to 600,000 bbl/d of crude oil when completed in early 2016.

The first phase of the project includes the laying of a 226 kilometre pipeline from Araguaney to Banadia, for which Rotork EH actuators have been ordered for the control of 42 inch Class 900 pipeline ball valves. Situated at strategic locations along the route of the pipeline, these valves perform vital safety functions.

Designed specifically for critical safety applications such as emergency shutdown (ESD) valves, Rotork EH actuators combine the simplicity of electrical operation with the precision of hydraulic positional control and a programmable fail-safe function. Fail-safe operation for the actuators on this project is secured with stored energy provided by custom-built Rotork HPU hydraulic power units.

EH actuators utilise Rotork’s non-intrusive setting, commissioning and data communication technologies. A hand held, intrinsically safe, setting tool enables safe and rapid non-intrusive commissioning by means of easy to follow ‘point and shoot’ menus. The same setting tool also enables actuator configuration and data logger files to be transferred from the field to the office for diagnostics, analysis and storage. In combination with Rotork Insight2 software, this data can help to maximise plant utilisation by identifying potential valve wear problems and facilitating predictive maintenance.

EH actuators are certified to the requirements of IEC61508-2:2010 for use in safety systems performing safety functions up to SIL2 and SIL3 and also capable of partial stroke testing, enabling isolating valves to be tested without interrupting the process. This is of particular importance to minimise process shut downs when testing safety critical valves. All key components within the actuator including the hydraulic pressure and movement are tested to confirm availability for shutdown on demand. The test can be initiated either remotely or locally with the setting tool.

Find out more about EH electro-hydraulic actuators.