Subsea BarsBoosting And Regulating System

Over the years, oil and gas exploration has pushed into greater and greater water depths. This combined with ever-increasing standards, regulations and requirements for subsea wellheads means that a solution for storing more energy at the subsea wellhead is needed. Traditional pneumatic accumulators limited by surface pressure ratings become less effective as water depth increases; adding capacity with such limitations results in significant increases in BOP cost and weight.

Oilgear’s Boosting and Regulating System—or BARS—is designed to increase the fluid pressure from the surface with its proprietary intensifier pumps to a maximum of 7,500 psi, storing additional volume in the existing accumulators which are rated for that pressure. It then regulates the downstream pressure back to 5,000 psi. This gives BARS the unique ability to maximize pressure capacity in accumulators without significant increase in weight or pressure on the existing piping and hydraulic system.

• FULLY HYDRAULIC - No additional controls required.
• BOOSTING - Automatically intensifies incoming supply pressure to boost accumulator charge by 1.5X.
• REGULATING - Pressure reduced back to normal working pressure for fluid sent to BOP functions.
• BUILD IN REDUNDANCY - Two each of intensifier and regulator. Switchable by ROV ball valve.
• BYPASS MODE - Deactivate when not needed.
• ROV INTERFACE - Gauges allow operators to monitor pressure, Ball valves allow to switch operational modes.

The operation of the BARS unit is fully hydraulic, meaning there are no electrical signals needed. Once fluid is supplied to the inlet or consumed from the outlet, the BARS unit will begin to operate until a system equilibrium is created.

BARS is a proprietary design by Oilgear’s Olmsted group. The unit can be retrofitted to any BOP system with minimal modifications to the hydraulic system; bolts on and connects to your system with only three pipes/hoses. BARS does not require real-time control, and fully redundant intensifiers and regulators offer both weight and cost savings.