By Claudi Santiago
President and CEO
GE Oil & Gas

In 2006, GE's overall spending on research and development was $5.2 billion, of which approximately $100 million was invested in the oil and gas industry. We put time, effort and finances behind great ideas. And it gets great results.

We invest in people and economies

We value leaders who perform over time with a sense of mutual accountability. So we actively recruit, train and develop new leaders to build the future. Our Invest and Deliver culture requires a team approach, so we launched Leadership Innovation and Growth to help teams improve growth culture and capability.

We provide training opportunities for our customers' employees through the Oil & Gas University, Florence Learning Center, a new Training Center in Nigeria and another to open soon in Qatar. This industry is driven by technology, but knowledge and leadership are what keeps everything on track.

We also invest in regional economies by spreading our research, manufacturing and service facilities around the world. It makes good business sense for us while at the same time creating jobs and other opportunities in local communities.

And we invest in the future of the planet overall. With our ecomagination program, we strive to introduce and modify technologies that will be better for the environment. It's good for nature, people and for business.

We invest in future technologies

This will not be news to anyone who's done any business with us – it's been our mantra for many years. But what may be news to some are the ways in which we go about doing it.

We identify the technologies that are most worthy of investment and development by simultaneously looking outside and inside our company – outside at the industry trends and needs, and also at the current technological undertakings of our customers; and inside to identify technologies from across all GE businesses that can add value for oil and gas applications.

Outside & In

We work extremely closely with customer engineering teams on every project, so there are always opportunities for learning and knowledge transfer on those specific jobs. But we also have a strategic program that looks beyond the work of today and focuses on the needs of tomorrow. As part of our New Technology Introduction (NTI) program, we meet with customers every quarter for the sole purpose of brainstorming new ideas. We pool human and financial resources. We share responsibilities, the risks and ultimately the rewards.

These initiatives lead to successes. Subsea compression technology is on the verge of changing the industry – it would never have been possible without the concerted efforts possible through NTI. Neither could the latest high-pressure acid gas injection technologies, variable fuel combustion systems for gas turbines, or continually increasing thermal efficiencies. The list continues and it is quite long indeed.

Here are just a few examples of recent technological triumphs as a result of looking outside and in:

Outside with electric motor and drive technolgies

The Steadfast System was a response to the increasing and specific performance demands of rapidly growing natural gas and LNG industries. It is an innovative, variable frequency drive (VFD) system for centrifugal compressor applications and was co-developed by GE Oil and Gas with Ansaldo Sistemi Industriali, a leading supplier of electric motors and drives, the GE Global Research Center and the GE Energy Power Electronics & Controls Center of Excellence.

Steadfast uses Integrated Gate Commutated Thyristor (IGCT) technology to achieve high power capacity and deliver up to 35 MW. The design includes very few components, which is a key to increased reliability – the most critical requirement in the LNG industry. Our innovative control strategy results in a low harmonics level injected in the grid network and smooth torque pulsation and torque ripple at the motor shaft. 

As plants and compression train sizes increase, gas turbines and compressors are pushed toward their technical limits. Steadfast guarantees the reliability, availability and performance of our full-train solutions.

Inside with aeroderivative technologies

We introduced this product last year and, as soon as it became available for shipment in September, Alliance Pipeline Limited placed the first order for its Windfall Compressor Station in Whitecourt, Alberta.

The PGT25+G4 is a perfect example of the unique advantage we bring to the oil and gas industry – that we continually draw first-hand on the best knowledge of other leading technology-based industries. The unit is an upgrade of our well-proven PGT25+ technology, combining our two-stage, high-speed power turbine module with the enhanced LM2500+G4 gas generator from GE's Aviation business.

This product achieves efficiencies of 41% or greater – the highest thermal efficiency level available in this power range. Operating at a speed of 6,100 rpm, the power turbine is capable of directly driving a compressor without the need of a gear in most applications. At ISO conditions, the module offers an output of 34 megawatts, a 10% increase over the existing PGT25+. It also offers a significant increase in power output at high ambient temperatures; for example, at 120° F, the power increase is 20%. The package design and footprint are the same as for the previous PGT25+, and there is a dry low emissions (DLE) version available for more precise combustion tuning.

Inside with electric motor technologies

Our new Integrated Compressor Line (ICL) attracted a lot of attention at the 2007 Annual Meeting in Florence. These units are quite literally big things in small packages.

ICL eliminates almost all external auxiliary systems, requires less and simpler maintenance, covers a wide operating range, produced low noise and no emissions. All this and still the main skid is 40-60 % smaller than that of a traditional unit.

The line consists of centrifugal compressors directly driven by high-speed electric motors. ICL has been fully validated with an extensive test program covering components and the complete system; and machine behavior has been tested under severe site conditions.

The units are easier to install, operate and maintain, and they offer high availability. ICL meets environmental challenges while providing superior solutions for gas storage, pipeline applications and upstream or downstream clean dry gas services up to 15 megawatts of power.

Conclusion

GE's Oil & Gas business is stronger than ever and prepared for the future. We have made our biggest investments in the biggest growth areas of the 21st century. We are more innovative, global and technically advanced than at any other time in our history. Thanks to the acquisition of VetcoGray and the strength of our combined technologies, people and processes, we are a better company today than ever before – and well positioned to successfully Invest & Deliver for our customers.