This vapor recovery unit compressor, to be installed on the motor vessel Firenze FPSO, owned by Eni. This is a type of ship used for offshore oil production processing, which is essential for the conditioning and storage of hydrocarbons in locations far from the coast that cannot be reached by pipelines. The compressor, supplied to Saipem, a leading engineering and construction services provider with distinctive expertise in the design and execution of large-scale offshore and onshore projects, compresses hydrocarbons with mild traces of H2S (hydrogen sulfide).

Its design required a very high degree of customization because of the special installation conditions and cramped spaces of the FPSO. The engineers had to adopt ad hoc solutions, ensuring, among other things, the careful selection of materials and paints suitable for the marine environment. In addition, to make the package even more compact and to cope with the installation in a hazardous area, a pressurized electrical cabinet was mounted on the compressor base.

Despite the technical complexity of the order, the project was completed in record time: in fact, less than 7 months passed from the awarding of the order to the completion of the compressor, and the contractual date scheduled for its delivery was brought forward by one month; an even more striking achievement if one considers that, within this time frame, the machine also successfully passed the supervision test by a third party body that issued a certification of suitability for the purpose of supply in the marine environment.

To ensure the optimal customer experience and ongoing support, the engineers not only followed the construction and delivery phases of the compressor, but will also supervise its installation inside the ship.

On board the ship, which is currently being refurbished - after more than 10 years of service in Italy (in the Aquila field) it will operate in Africa, off the Ivory Coast - there are already five other compressors fully operational since 2010. The Global Service Division is currently carrying out a refurbishment intervention on 4 of these 5 compression units which concerns specifically:

A Stripping Fuel Gas Booster Compressor Package used to increase the operating pressure of certain atmospheric gaseous streams enabling them for re-use as a main fuel gas source.
A Fuel Gas Compressor Package used for fuel gas compression in order to send the compressed gas to the turbine.