ENGlobal is an engineering services firm that specializes in oil and gas automation solutions, subsea control systems and engineering and construction projects. Housed within its Subsea Controls and Integration (SCI) group is the company’s patented Universal Master Control Station (UMCS), the result of a collaborative development effort with a major global oil company that recognized an important need in the offshore oil and gas industry.
In offshore oil and gas projects, subsea equipment vendors are responsible for the topsides (the upper half of an offshore oil platform) subsea controls component. In developments with multiple vendors, operators have to work with multiple topsides subsea controls components, creating the need for an integrated solution to streamline operations. This is where ENGlobal’s UMCS, developed in collaboration with the major oil company, is emerging as an ideal solution for many subsea projects.
ENGlobal’s UMCS includes standardized and secure communication interfaces between major vendors of subsea equipment, distributed control systems and topside equipment, providing seamless integration of critical control execution and data monitoring. As a result, the solution offers savings in design and acceptance testing by requiring less time to build and interface with topside systems and components.
In the company’s own words, “UMCS is a start departure from the historic uniquely customized subsea control systems of the past.” The technology monitors and controls subsea control pods at the wellhead from multiple subsea equipment providers without disturbing the subsea vendor’s innate communication protocol.
In terms of architecture and connectivity, the UMCS interface is comprised of three main layers (HMI, logic/control and subsea communications) and two complete and segregated channel networks to create a dual redundant architecture that eliminates any single point of failure and provides a smooth transfer from the failed to healthy channel network.
Demonstrative of its many features, ENGlobal reports that UMCS has effectively cut engineering time by 80% in regards to system and design fabrication, software development, human machine interface graphic creation, subsea communications interface, and EPU/HPU interface.
To-date, ENGlobal’s UMSC/UMC project experience includes several industry giants such as Anadarko, Chevron, ExxonMobil, HESS and more.
ENGlobal’s UMCS is just a brush stroke of the company’s broader picture and mission to become the preferred provider of automation integration services and EPCM (engineering, procurement and construction management) projects for customers worldwide. The company is on track to achieve its goal and earlier this month reported its fourth consecutive quarter of profitability and an increase of 17% in quarterly revenues, demonstrating its ability for consistence performance both operationally and financially.
For more information visit www.englobal.com
