CSPC is a petrochemical joint venture between the China National Offshore Oil Corp. (CNOOC) and Shell. When production started during 2006, the project was also one of the biggest installations utilizing Foundation Fieldbus (FF) technology in process control and field instrumentation. One of the main reasons for the CSPC project to select FF technology was that it allows a proactive approach to instrument maintenance. FF devices can send out maintenance requests before an instrument actually fails, and when an instrument has failed it can provide detailed diagnostic information about the failure. The CSPC petrochemical plant is an early adaptor to the new technology. In the CSPC project, the majority of the control valves are from Metso. All together there are 2400 valves with Metso’s intelligent FF ND9000 valve controllers. CSPC uses their diagnostic information daily. The graphical user interface of the intelligent valve controller is based on open and standardized FDT/DTM technology. At CSPC the asset management system is Yokogawa’s PRM, which has FDT/DTM capability and allows access to Metso’s device DTM.
