In October 2015, APS was awarded multiple production and installation contracts worth in excess of US$150 million by Petronas for the rehabilitation of various 6, 8 and 10 in. subsea crude oil gathering and high pressure gas and condensate lines, varying in lengths from 700 m up to 3500 m.
These pipeline rehabilitation projects are expected to be executed during the course of 2016 and the beginning of 2017 and more contract awards are expected at the start of 2016 for execution in 2017 and 2018.
The liner system
The InField Liner system was developed under the joint management of Petronas and Anticorrosion Protective Systems, a pipeline rehabilitation engineering specialist and contractor. InField Liner was successfully piloted at Petronas Carigali Sdn Bhd’s (PCSB) Samarang field in September 2013 and a commercial trial deployed at West Lutong field in November 2014.
InField Liner is a flexible Kevlar reinforced liner installed in existing subsea pipelines. Once installed the liner acts as a corrosion barrier, providing protection against aggressive service conditions and extending the use of the pipeline far beyond its original design life.
The IFL liner comprises of a Solef PVDF inner liner from Solvay, a tightly woven Aramid core, using Dupont Kevlar fabric, with an outer layer of abrasive resistant Thermoplastic Polyurethane from BASF.
The inner PVDF layer provides a high chemical resistance against the most aggressive hydrocarbon exposure conditions, including hot sour crude oil up to 110°C. The Kevlar core provides the liner with an extremely high tensile strength, thus enabling the insertion of single lengths of multiple kilometers of liner through multiple 90° bends of down to 5D radii. The outer TPU covering provides a maximum protection and abrasion resistance, as may be required during the pulling and insertion process of the IFL liner system into the host pipeline.
The IFL system is ideal for rehabilitating in-field subsea pipelines running from platform-to platform, or from platform to shore. IFL can also be used as a corrosion barrier for new pipelines that are exposed to extremely corrosive environments.
The IFL system was originally developed as a viable and cost-effective method for subsea pipeline rehabilitation, however and in addition to this, the IFL system may also have specific applications for the onshore hydrocarbon pipeline industry as well. An example of this would be where a pipeline passes under an area where, for one reason or another, site access is extremely limited, and thus the pipeline has to be rehabilitated over much longer lengths with single pulls of up to 5 km.
On the back of the recent successful internal application of this highly innovative technology and the subsequent large contracts award to APS, Petronas has further granted APS a global 20 year exclusive license to apply the technology for other oil and gas operators.
Tn Hj Zakaria Kasah, Chairman of Petronas Technology Ventures (PTVSB) said, “The exclusive license will enable the globalisation of the IFL technology so that it becomes available, not only for usage in PETRONAS facilities in and outside Malaysia, but also opens the market towards a new and cost effective way in re-commissioning damaged or corroded pipelines for other oil and gas operators.”
Edited from source by Elizabeth Corner