Italian oil and gas contractor Saipem and Germany’s Siemens have signed a joint development agreement for qualifying and promoting subsea control systems for Saipem’s Subsea Bus architecture based on Siemens Subsea DigiGrid.
Siemens will, through its subsea entity, support the company in realizing the Saipem Subsea Bus architecture, by adapting and further developing the Siemens Subsea DigiGrid digitalization, control, and communication portfolio into a customized subsea control system.
According to Saipem, this system will be the first control system in the market promoting a modularized and standardized subsea system through open framework architecture.
The Saipem Subsea Bus is designed to ensure full support for and integration into all subsea applications.
The combined system will be capable of controlling an all-electric configuration, ideally suited for subsea oil and gas fields with long distances between wells and the host facility.
That, in turn, avoids hydraulic umbilical cables while leveraging distributed architectures with control units to support subsea technology applications such as seawater treatment and separation.
Saipem added that the collaboration between the duo fit into strategic objectives of both companies to support the oil and gas industry.
Stefano Cao , Saipem CEO, said: “This technology cooperation agreement with Siemens marks a further step for Saipem along the road to the development of Saipem’s Subsea Processing Systems.”
Frode Tobiassen , Siemens Subsea CEO, added: “We have found a partner who is as passionate as Siemens about introducing open framework all-electric systems to facilitate flexible digitalization and automation solutions to the subsea industry.”