Triconex to supply safety, critical controls to Canadian oil sands project

Canadian Natural Resources Ltd. recently selected Invensys Process Systems to provide Triconex safety and critical control systems and related services for Phase I of the $6.8-billion Horizon Oil Sands Project under construction in northern Alberta, Canada. The Horizon project is a large grassroots mining, bitumen extraction, and upgrading facility for production of synthetic ...

By Staff September 1, 2005

Canadian Natural Resources Ltd. recently selected Invensys Process Systems to provide Triconex safety and critical control systems and related services for Phase I of the $6.8-billion Horizon Oil Sands Project under construction in northern Alberta, Canada. The Horizon project is a large grassroots mining, bitumen extraction, and upgrading facility for production of synthetic crude oil.

Invensys reports that it was chosen as the preferred supplier to Canadian Natural for all emergency safety shutdown, boiler management, and fire and gas safety systems throughout the Horizon Project, which is one of the largest oil extraction projects in Alberta’s Athabasca oil sands region. Canadian Natural is building the project in three phases. For the first phase, Invensys is supplying 38 Tricon V10 TMR triple modular redundant (TMR) control systems.

Triconex’ safety and critical control systems will be used to protect processes and business units in the Horizon Project’s bitumen extraction and upgrading facilities, in the cogeneration plant, and at several remote facilities. Besides its Tricon safety and control systems, Invensys’ direct purchasing agreement with Canadian Natural includes Triconex training, integration, and installation services.

Tricon is an industry-certified, fault-tolerant controller based on triple-modular redundant (TMR) architecture for safety and critical control applications. TMR architecture employs three isolated, parallel control systems and extensive diagnostics in one system. Invensys adds that its Tricon controller’s redundant control functions and diagnostics are embedded and transparent, and the system behaves as one control device to the engineer or operator.