Extending pipeline productivity

We all want value for money regardless of the nature of any investment we make. Whether it’s everyday items such as clothing and groceries or larger expenses like a vehicle or home, ensuring we get as much out of it as possible is at the forefront of our minds.

We want to ensure we’ll get a good return either financially or through value. For example, you want to make sure you are on top of the air conditioner in your home being serviced regularly, so that if the worst does happen in the heat of summer the damage – physical and financial – won’t be so bad. The same goes for your car and everything that goes with making sure it continues to run as you need it.

On a bigger scale, the same rule should apply to offshore assets and the accompanying infrastructure. Across the Gulf of Mexico, for example, we have seen a marked increase in the number of companies whose assets are coming to the end of their permits looking to extend their productivity.

Managing ageing assets

In recent months, Tracerco has secured a million dollar contract in the region which will see its state-of-the-art DiscoveryTM technology deployed to safeguard production processing and implement necessary corrective measures.

As assets age over time, oilfield professionals face the challenge of ensuring efficient production and maintaining pipeline integrity, and subsea inspection of these pipelines and risers has often posed difficulties in cases where traditional pigging methods are not feasible or considered too risky.

Tracerco’s technology has been specifically designed for both flow assurance and integrity experts looking at subsea pipelines that cannot be inspected using traditional methods. With 65 years’ of subsea experience going into Discovery, clients can visualise and measure flow assurance and integrity issues all in the same project, without interruption to production or any coating removal.

To date Discovery has provided real-time critical insights for many of the world’s deepwater infield flowlines, and most recently has been utilised by a trio of leading US energy companies, all of whom operate different flowline and riser pipes on multiple platforms in the Gulf.

Contracts such as these enable Tracerco to get standardisation as we work with these operators to maintain pipeline integrity, assure flow and extend the lifespan of their assets. Discovery can obtain real-time, highly accurate data via a non-intrusive approach, meaning there is no need for any downtime. This allows owner/operators to gain enhanced understanding of a pipeline, all whilst being fully operational.

As well as this, the output – high-resolution tomographic images of the pipe wall thickness and contents – helps operators refine and improve the efficiency of existing pipeline models and can also help companies plan for life extension, a major factor in the GoM project. In fact, our biggest efforts and pushes right now in North America are all centred around life extension work.

Life extension work

Organisations must apply to the Bureau of Safety and Environmental Enforcement (BSEE) for a life extension permit, which is only approved for well maintained platforms with proven integrity of all components. And that’s the catch.

The older assets get, and the closer towards the end of their permit they get, the more...

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Read the article online at: https://www.worldpipelines.com/special-reports/25092024/extending-pipeline-productivity/