Tuesday 25 February 2014

Targeting the booming upstream oil & gas industries!

The enhanced version of the FCN-RTU (field control node remote terminal unit) low-power autonomous controller for the STARDOM(TM) network-based control system has been announced by Yokogawa. This new version of the FCN-RTU has been developed to meet the requirements of customers in the high-growth upstream oil & gas industries.

Development background
Until recently, gas wells were drilled at multiple sites spread out over a wide area, and each individual well head had its own controller for monitoring and control. With the advent of unconventional horizontal gas drilling techniques, multiple wells can now be drilled from a single well pad, enabling a reduction in the number of controllers needed to monitor and control the well heads. For such applications, the controllers need to be able to handle more input/output (I/O) signals. Also, as wells are often drilled in remote locations where temperatures can be extreme, these controllers must be ruggedly built to withstand those conditions. The new version of the STARDOM(TM) FCN-RTU has been developed to address these challenges.

Product features
1. Increased number of I/O modules
The enhanced FCN-RTU can now accommodate eight I/O modules, up from the previous three, and can thus handle up to 256 input/output signals. This is well within the requirements of the latest unconventional natural gas well monitoring and control applications.

2. Improved environmental resistance
An additional ten STARDOM FCN-RTU I/O modules are now rated for use in temperatures ranging from -20°C to +70°C. These enhanced components are thus well suited for use in the very cold or hot weather conditions that can be encountered at natural gas drilling sites.

3. Support for 64-bit Windows 7
ASTMAC VDS, the STARDOM supervisory control and data acquisition (SCADA) package, as well as all related software, now supports the 64-bit version of Windows 7. All engineering, monitoring, and control functions can be performed on computers running 64-bit Windows 7.

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