Rolls-Royce is increasing its involvement in West African power expansion with the supply of its twenty-sixth RB211 aeroderivative in the region.
Rolls-Royce is to provide an RB211 powered electricity generating set to the Nigerian state of Bayelsa as part of the expansion of an existing power plant previously supplied by the company.
Joining two Olympus gas turbines units at the Kolo Creek site, the RB211 will assist in the state’s long-term plan to improve the living standards of locals and help rural development. The electrical power will be used over an area of more than 1000 square miles of remote and rural Nigeria. The turbine will be fuelled by natural gas created as a by-product from the region’s oil fields, and so will have environmental benefits.
The manufacture of the RB211 generating set was undertaken at the company’s Liverpool facility from where it was shipped in late October. Earlier this year a senior delegation from Baylesa State led by Torpido Amananagha, the state commissioner for public Utilities, visited the site to inspect the production facilities.
This latest project further expands Rolls-Royce’s offshore based involvement in Nigeria. Recent orders have included an $82 million contract in September 2005 from Technip for six RB211 industrial gas turbines, four of which are to feature exhaust-mounted waste heat recovery units.
In addition to five RB211s ordered in 2003, two 40 000 horsepower gas compression packages were ordered as part of the East Area additional oil recovery project. Another power generation package is also being supplied for the second phase of the Amenam platform, thereby supplementing four similar units on the nearby phase one platform.
This brings the total number of West African RB211s to twenty-six: eighteen for Total and Exxon, operating in offshore Nigeria, as well as a further eight located in offshore Angola.
An RB211 gas turbine package during final assembly