Wood Group – offshore technology review

Wood Group (USA) is a technical services company, which can manage and implement any part of a pipeline or associated facility project. Its pipeline-related capabilities include surveying, mapping, right-of-way acquisition, geographical information systems, environmental permitting, inspection and construction management, as well as pipeline integrity management.

The company has been involved in many offshore pipeline projects in 2016. Its key technical achievements include:

The engineering and delivery of a direct electric heated pipeline system.
• A multidiameter 30 x 34 in., 135 km clad multiphase pipeline to the shore that crosses a steep continental shelf.
• Assessment of the gaps in technology that is needed for subsea developments in water depths of over 4400 m.

The continued low oil price is the industry’s most obvious challenge and Wood Group is focused on enhancing and streamlining its engineering services to drive efficiencies for its customers. For example, the company has improved engineering efficiency by the increased use of GIS and database technology to improve access to project data.

Moreover, CAPEX has been reduced by the use of advanced engineering techniques such as computational fluid dynamics (CFD) to reduce design loads on subsea structures. This, in turn, enables weight reduction and Coupled-Eulerian-Lagrangion (CEL) to model soil pipe interaction, reducing lateral buckling and pipe walking intervention costs.

Wood Group has developed a composite analysis tool kit and is currently working with composite suppliers to deliver lightweight composite risers, spools and jumpers that can significantly reduce installation costs. In response to the high cost of traditional retrofit risers, the company is developing a retrofit riser solution based on hanging riser technology. OPEX costs have been reduced through the use of data analytics to reduce the quantity of intervention works. Wood Group is well positioned to support an anticipated increase in subsea tie-back, life extension and brownfield work, with a reduction in the number of large developments. In previous years, the company has helped push the design envelop of pressure, temperature and water depth out to 1379 bar and 204°C and 4400 m. However, its current focus is on reducing the installed costs of these systems.

As part of this, Wood Group is rolling out an engineering, procurement and fabrication (EPF) capability, which will enhance its business as an efficient one stop shop for the delivery of subsea equipment and structures, from concept to quay side. This has already been successfully delivered to clients in Norway.

Looking to the year ahead

Colin McKinnon, Wood Group Subsea and Pipelines Technical Director, said: “The current low oil price is the biggest challenge facing the offshore oil and gas pipeline industry. In the future, Wood Group sees a rise in pipeline life extension projects and other brownfield work. The company is committed to investment in research and development that is focused on developing the new designs and methods, which will produce a step change in the CAPEX and OPEX of pipeline systems while maintaining its target availability.”

You can find Wood Group at OTC 2017 at booth #2857.

Additional information can be found on Wood Group's website.

_{The image is provided courtesy of Wood Group, and illustrates a detailed CFD analysis of complex subsea infrastructure in order to reduce conservatism.}