A few weeks ago, the Norwegian oil company Norwegian Statoil announced the production start of the world’s first subsea gas compression facility at the Åsgard field in the Norwegian Sea.
The facility features two hermetically-sealed MAN Diesel & Turbo HQFIM™ motor compressor units which operate on the seabed approximately 300 metres below the surface as part of a large gas processing module.
The compressor is a completely sealed unit with an electric high-speed motor running at around 10,000rpm. Its magnetic bearings mean that the compressor/moto rotor is actually running suspended in the process gas levitated by a magnetic field.