Professional Documents
Culture Documents
High-performance
pipelay
see page 2
What’s inside...
03 Tethered Catenary Riser: a
novel concept
04 Bundle technology: extending
its capability
06 Integrity Management for
Pipe-in-Pipe and Bundles
07 Innovative geotechnics: new
mudmat design methodology
08 Welding for corrosion-resistant
alloy pipelines
10 BuBi® Mechanically Lined pipe
installed by reel-lay
12 Remote hydrocarbon
sampling skid
16 Outstanding versatility: the
Seven Arctic’s crane
capabilities
seabed-to-surface
02 03
Stainless steels are increasingly being used for oil and gas
technology
pipeline applications. The last two decades have seen
the development of specific designs of stainless steel Hugh Ferguson,
grades, including low-carbon 13Cr martensitic and duplex Projects and Operations Director, Life-of-Field
stainless steels which offer improved properties and cost
effectiveness for a wide range of operational service Subsea 7’s Autonomous Inspection The AIV is designed
environments. The selection of the optimum stainless Vehicle (AIV) was conceived as a to dive to 3,000m.
steel grade requires careful consideration of the service pioneering deepwater autonomous
environment. Additionally, the successful utilisation of inspection capability. In its Because of its unique
such pipeline materials requires critical control of the current development stage and basket deployment
welding procedures if the required corrosion performance configuration, it is a visual inspection system, all of the
is to be maintained. vehicle which will augment the AIV’s power resources
company’s workclass Remotely can be dedicated to the
The current generation of weldable 13Cr martensitic stainless
Operated Vehicle (WROV) and inspection missions, with
steels is a cost-effective choice for CO2 and mildly sour
observation class Remotely no power wasted on a dive
environments. These steels offer high strength at elevated
Operated Vehicle (ObsROV) and recovery process. Missions of up
temperatures that allow material and fabrication savings to
inspection services. to a single day can be achieved at a
be made through reductions in pipe wall thickness. Such
stainless steels exhibit relatively high hardenability, so that The revolutionary and unique aspect of speed of two knots, depending on the
hydrogen-controlled welding procedures are necessary to the Subsea 7 AIV is its ability to hover currents experienced.
mitigate the risk of fabrication cracking. Typically super-duplex and safely achieve close approach
stainless steel filler wires (25%Cr) in de-hydrogenated form and detailed inspections of subsea There is a comprehensive topside
are used for welding in order to achieve matching weld metal equipment. control system that plugs into the
strength properties. It is also generally accepted that a short AIV on deck. Complex missions can
post-welding heat treatment (typically 650°C for five minutes) be programmed through the control
The AIV has a dedicated launch and
has a beneficial effect on heat-affected zone (HAZ) hardness system, undertaking the same full
Manual GTAW welder qualification for duplex stainless steel bundle project recovery system and winch, and is
and stress corrosion cracking resistance. inspection sequencing deployed by a
deployed from its own basket station
on the ocean floor. It can be deployed WROV. The deck control system can
Recently Subsea 7 has developed improved welding which involved the fabrication of 5.8km of production flowline
from a vessel and work in tandem undertake system diagnostics. All of
technology for welding 13Cr steels. This has involved the use in 283.9mm ID x 20mm WT SMLS 13Cr – 2.5Mo SPD line pipe.
with a WROV carrying out Inspection, these activities can be managed by
of the Cold Metal Transfer (CMT) process to deposit good-
The duplex stainless steel alloys offer improved corrosion Repair and Maintenance (IRM) tasks, onshore control centres, with the only
quality root passes in a combination with the Pulsed Gas
resistance and resistance to chloride stress corrosion cracking or permanently based on a Floating reliance on another platform being a
Metal Arc Welding (PGMAW) process for deposition of high-
while also maintaining high strength properties. This is Production Storage and Offloading plug-in to the deck cable.
quality fill and cap passes. The CMT process is an advanced
short-circuit metal transfer GMAW technique which enables especially the case for the more highly alloyed super-duplex (FPSO) installation. No surface mother
the root pass to be welded without the need for an internal grades (25%Cr) which offer remarkable corrosion resistance vessel needs to follow the vehicle. De-risking of the autonomous nature of
copper shoe. This has resulted in a significant improvement in and high strength. The properties of the duplex stainless the system includes building numerous
corrosion performance. This improved welding solution was steels are highly dependent on the microstructural phase control behaviours to account for
The system will be maintained and
successfully deployed for Statoil’s Svalin project in Norway balance. Generally speaking, phase balance is considered to any system anomalies or emergency
operated by a small crew of dedicated
be optimised when ferrite and austenite are in roughly equal situations. The vehicle is programmed
technicians. The data processing takes
critical proportions. This is dependent on the thermal history. to return to its basket if the AIV believes
place onshore with a design that allows
the support team to undertake its work there are any anomalies that will
Therefore, during pipeline fabrication, careful control of the
in near real time. compromise the mission.
preheat/interpass temperature and heat input is necessary
to ensure that the optimum phase balance is maintained in
the weld metal and HAZ. Subsea 7’s CMT/PGMAW welding The AIV system is currently configured In an emergency situation, depending
technology can be used to advantage for the welding of duplex with video, which is soon to be on the deployment mode, the vehicle
steels. Precise control of the weld root profiles and heat input upgraded to HD video cameras and will either sink to the seabed or release
for welding ensures that the optimum combination of strength, 3-D high-resolution sonar. The battery buoyancy and float to the surface,
toughness and corrosion performance is maintained. life and data storage permits up to 24- signalling for recovery.
hour missions, collecting continuous
This technology will be deployed for Noble Energy’s West
data through its sensors. For further information contact
African Diega Pipe-in-Pipe (PIP) project which will involve
fabrication of 14km inner pipe comprising 25% Cr super- Hugh.Ferguson@subsea7.com
duplex stainless steel of nominal dimension 219.1mm OD x
13.7mm WT. Fabrication is due to commence mid-2015 in
Subsea 7’s Port Isabel spoolbase in the USA.
Mechanised CMT welding of clad pipe
For further information contact
Richard.Jones@subsea7.com
deep7 May 2014 seabed-to-surface
10 11
transporting corrosive fluids using BuBi® lined BUTTING to understand the relation
between pre-existing surface features
installation and service conditions.
This detailed analysis proved itself very
on the outer pipe ID and the value of efficient in interpreting and predicting
pipe and reel-lay installation techniques the gripping force obtained through
BUTTING’s ‘push-out test’.
the process involved. Excellent
correlation was found between reeling
tests and confirming the complete
All test pipes were subjected to a
Grégory Toguyeni, Senior Welding and Materials Engineer conservative cyclic bending test,
integrity of the pipe.
Remote hydrocarbon There are six video cameras on the Topside equipment overview surface and then flushed out from the
sampling skid
sampling skid. Three cameras are Once all hydrocarbons and slops have skid into the topside equipment slops
powered and interfaced directly from been re-injected into the SU, which is tank.
the ROV. All pictures from these followed by a MEG flush, only small
cameras are available at the topside The topside equipment is mounted
amounts of sample hydrocarbons are in a fabricated basket and consists
ROV control console. Three cameras recovered at the surface following the of a flushing solvent tank and slops
Mick Fowkes, are powered and interfaced from the test campaign.
valve packs on the skid and only one container, complete with nitrogen cap.
Applications Development Venting of the slops tank is provided
of these pictures will be available for In the event of a dead-sub or
Manager topside transmission at a time. Video vessel blackout when the ROV has to accommodate extreme deck
switching allows for each of these video to be recovered mid-process, the temperatures.
As the need to exploit offshore oil
and gas deposits in increasingly streams to be monitored. hydrocarbons are recovered at the
challenging environments increases,
the economic development and Subsea hardware requirements
safe operation of technologies has In order to perform sampling without Skid storage and
spares container
become more critical. interrupting production, a Sampling Unit
(SU) is required to be incorporated in
The requirement to sample and the design of subsea infrastructure.
establish the characteristics of
produced well fluids has been long The SU is a mixing device which
established in order to provide: separates the gas phase from the liquid
• fluid composition and flow data for phase to ensure a liquid sample volume.
each well In the mixer, the gas flows upwards
whereas the liquid phases are mixed
• reservoir management towards the bottom. The SU can be
• fiscal allocation. installed upstream of the Multiphase
Flowmeter (MPFM) in a topside
Traditional methods for sampling and
installation or subsea in a manifold, tree Topside equipment overview
testing wells employed the use of a
Sampling skid being deployed
or a flowline jumper.
dedicated subsea test header, pipeline
or riser, connected to test separators Sampling ports at the lower and upper System flushing unit,
slops and solvent
and individual single-phase flow methodology and can be deployed to Control system overview part of the SU chamber are piped to an tanks
meters located on a surface production meet the client’s schedule and mitigate Communications between the sampling ROV hot-stab receptacle mounted on
facility. But, as production has moved any timescale implications. skid and a topside laptop PC is by the unit. Double block valves provide
into deeper water, Multi-Phase Flow means of the host ROV fibre-optic isolation between the chamber and hot
Meters (MPFMs) have been introduced The origins of the remote multiplexer, over an RS232 link. A stab.
to monitor or meter individual well hydrocarbon sampling skid minimum of one spare serial channel
production prior to a manifold is required to interface the skid and all Sampling skid design overview
A patent was granted for Subsea 7’s Sample bottles
combining the production from several relevant sensor data telemetry from the The hydrocarbon sampling skid is
first remote hydrocarbon sampling
wells for onwards transport in a single surface to the ROV electronics pod. mounted under the delivery ROV and
skid in 1998 and revised again in 2010.
riser or flowline. Connection from the sampling skid has a similar footprint. The skid houses
This early sampling system covered Water jacket
Since reservoir and well fluid relatively shallow water installations and electronics control systems to the ROV the following subsystems:
characteristics alter during their was not required to mitigate for hydrate electronics pod is via copper cables. • Eight US Department of Transport-
lifecycle, it is essential that MPFMs or waxing issues. Obtaining samples approved sample bottles, pipework
A single 115Vac @ 7A power supply Interface stab
are recalibrated to account for these relied upon well pressure to fill the and isolation valves, housed in a
from the host ROV provides the
changes to ensure their continued sample bottles as this was greater than heated water jacket, manufactured
sampling skid with all necessary power.
accuracy. To enable recalibration the ambient seawater at the sample from buoyancy materials
to be performed, regular periodic location. The requirement to protect the • Heating system
samples of the well production fluids environment from hydrocarbon release
• Syringe-style suction pump with the
are taken. The samples are extracted was paramount with this design.
ability to extract process fluids and
from the flowing production fluid in gas from the SU that is of a lower
The sampling skid in operation today
close proximity to the MPFM. The pressure than the ambient seawater
is capable of taking separate samples
samples are tested to provide up to- at the work site.
from up to eight individual wells in Valve packs
date fluid data to permit recalibration
a single dive. During operation and • Syringe-style monoethylene glycol
of the MPFM to maintain operations at
recovery, the temperature and pressure (MEG) injection pump system
optimum accuracy.
of the samples are maintained to • Syringe-style slops suction and
It is critical that an accurate and prevent the sample coming out of phase reinjection pump system Double block valve interface tool
representative sample can be taken and to prevent hydrates forming in the Control panel
• Slops storage flask
to ensure precise calibration of the sample or skid pipework. On recovery,
Electrical power is supplied from the • Buoyancy
MPFM and its continued effectiveness the sample bottles are removed from Illustration of Sampling Skid
host ROV to the skid-mounted control
over time. It was at this point that the the skid and transported ashore • Sampling tool
system equipment, which comprises
concept of a sampling skid attached for analysis to allow calibration of • Double-block isolation valve tool
two 12-station valve packs, various
to an ROV was first developed. MPFMs, and for fiscal allocations to be
cameras and sensors, and a Pressure • Failsafe system For further information contact Mick.Fowkes@subsea7.com
This provides the critically accurate determined.
Transducer Module (PTM).
www.subsea7.com
deep7 May 2014
© Subsea 7, 2014. Information correct at time of going to press.