Subsea Hot Taps

 

8 June 2011 Aberdeen Branch Evening Meeting

Chairman James Woods, Subsea Execution Team Lead, Shell UK

Sponsored by Subsea 7

 

Flyer

 

Overview

Since the start of the modern subsea offshore oil industry the requirement to join, modify and extend pipelines underwater has been an operational requirement. As a consequence ‘Hyperbaric’ habitat welding evolved and once the technique reached an acceptable level of reliability it was extended to enable ‘Hot Taps’ to be performed. Hot tapping is a method of making a connection to a pipeline whilst the pipe remains pressurised and without interruption to the normal flow or operating regime of the pipeline, and has been carried out extensively subsea since the mid to late 70’s.

Hot tapping has traditionally been carried out manually by divers, although some automatic systems have been used in the past. However, now we have entered an era of ever deeper water depths outside the range of divers, and necessity, being the mother of invention, has promoted new remote and innovative systems.

The evening’s speakers covered traditional hot tapping, remote hot tapping and a non- welded system of hot tapping, and aimed to bring the audience up to date with current hot tap developments. In addition, a Tech Byte covered some of the available inspection techniques for the processes.

 

Presentations

Subsea Hot Tap Experiences by Technip Norge AS 2007–2010

Geir Leden, Principal Engineer – Technip Norge AS

Technip Norge AS has in the period 2007–2010 completed three projects with subsea hot tap operations. Hot tapping has been carried out by use of both diver operated and remotely operated drilling machines in water depths ranging from 95 to 845 meters. A total of six hot taps have been performed, three hot taps through welded tees and three hot taps through pre-installed flanges. This presentation showed the basic concept of Hot Tapping as well as a description of some of the specific challenges that have occurred during the three projects.

 

World’s First Deep Water Remote Hot Tap

Keith Evans, MD  – Clear Well Subsea Limited

Aberdeen based Clear Well Subsea have provided a unique hot tapping solution to Norwegian state oil company Statoil. As part of the Ormen Lange South Development, located in almost 1000m of water, Statoil required two new connections to the existing 30” gas export pipelines. The two hot taps constitute the first successful use of the remote hot tapping system in deep water and were performed at pressures and temperatures well beyond the capability of existing designs enabling the team to claim a number of world firsts. This presentation explained the evolution and implementation of the unique technology developed by Clear Well Subsea.

 

Tech Byte – Subsea Automated Ultrasonic NDT Inspection of Hot Tap Welds

Craig Emslie, Integrity Services Manager – Sonomatic Aberdeen

Sonomatic is a specialised inspection company who has been involved in a number of subsea hot tap campaigns. Their involvement has been focused on conducting specialised inspection, from measuring the profile of the pipeline prior to securing the hot tap, to inspection of field welds prior to connecting to the pipeline. This short presentation presented an overview of the inspections that Sonomatic has conducted and recent developments in ROV deployed inspection tools.

 

Subsea 7 Grouted Tee Hot Tap Technology

Dan Vu, Engineering Manager – Life of Field Services

Grouted Tee technology was developed for hot tapping onto cross country transmission pipelines in the late 1990s. It is now a proven and accepted method for carrying out live intervention on gas and oil pipelines. In 2009, Subsea Grouted Tee™ (SSGT) was successfully developed for subsea pipelines at diver depths. This presentation described the mechanics of Grouted Tee hot tap technology on subsea pipelines and provided high level technical, safety and time comparisons over the traditional welded and mechanical options. It also outlined a further design consideration enabling diverless hot tap operations in deep and ultra deep water environments.

 

 

 

 

 

Assessing the Environmental Risk of Produced Water Discharges

 

20 October 2011 London Evening Meeting

Chairman Dr Bob Allwood, Chief Executive, SUT

Sponsored by Xodus Group

 

Report 

 

Flyer 

 

Overview

Media and public interest in environmental issues and the oil and gas industry are currently the greatest they have ever been since hydrocarbon reserves were discovered in the North Sea. Although much of the interest currently focuses on oil spills, there has been interest in discharges of hydrocarbons and other components in produced water.

The discharge of produced water from offshore installations has been a topic of discussions for OSPAR and the preceding Paris Commission since 1978. The Offshore Industry Committee (OIC) of OSPAR has revisited the topic of produced water many times over the intervening years and has addressed sampling and analysis, BAT, BEP as well as standards. Most recently OIC have been developing a ‘Risk Based Approach on the Assessment of Produced Water’. In addition, EU regulations such as the Marine Strategy Framework Directive (MSFD) and REACH have potential to impact on produced water discharges in the near future.

These regulations often lead to the installation of compliance based process improvements to reduce the potential of produced water discharges to adversely impact the marine environment. In bringing about such modifications these regulations may have a direct and significant impact on both the capital expenditure of projects as well as the subsequent operating expenditure of assets, and can contribute to business and project risks. They will also have an impact on the environmental performance of a project, for example as the balance of different environmental emissions shifts from marine discharges to atmospheric discharges.

In order to understand and achieve BAT and BEP for the management of produced water it is essential to understand the risk of the discharges to the marine environment. This presentation reviewed the potential methodologies for a Risk Based Approach to the Assessment of Produced Water and provided background to the work of OIC in this area. Context to current concerns regarding the environmental impact of substances in produced water was provided from an overview of the current available information on produced water discharges in the North Sea in the light of OSPAR drivers of BAT and BPEO.

 

Presentation

Dr Anthony Millais, Principal Environmental Consultant, Xodus Group Limited

Xodus Group is an independent, international energy consultancy providing a uniquely integrated package of solutions for clients as they seek to overcome challenges throughout the life of their assets.

From conceptual definition, through design and construction and into operation, Xodus provides the clever and innovative thinking needed to maximise the return on our customers’ investment.

 

SUT Perth Branch Inaugural SUT Family Day –
Exploring the Immerse Exhibit

 

16 October 2011 SUT Perth Branch Inaugural SUT Family Day, Fremantle, Australia

 

Immerse Exhibit Flyer

 

Report 

 

Report

Following the successful launch of the Immerse exhibit in early September, visitor numbers to this public exhibition on subsea technology have been exceptional – not only have over 9400 people visited the exhibit in the first five weeks since its opening (an increase for the museum of over 170% on the same time last year), a number of school group excursions and public lectures have also been hosted with the support and participation of SUT members.

A key motivation for SUT in collaborating with the West Australian Museum on the Immerse exhibit was to reach out to young people and encourage them to continue with maths, science and technical subjects which could enable them to progress into careers subsea. We were also keen to raise awareness in the community about the challenges of working in and under the ocean, and the innovations which enable us to do so. Of course, where better to achieve these aims than within our families! So on the 16th of October SUT arranged our inaugural SUT Family Day, which provided a chance for members to not just have a look at the Immerse exhibit with our spouses and partners, but also to have a go (whenever the kids would share!) at piloting the observation-class remotely operated vehicle (ROV) in a tank, or trying to stack wooden blocks with five-function robot arms. The museum had also arranged for REmida to run children’s craft activities using a variety of industrial off-cuts to make their own ROVs or hard-hat diving helmets. The Family Day was also intended to be a chance for SUT members and their families to catch up over a casual ‘sausage sizzle’, however, unfortunately the catering for lunch was not successful – we would like to apologise to members for this rare glitch in our planning and organisation.

All in all, the success of the day can be judged by the feedback from the kids – their enthusiasm and engagement with the Immerse exhibit was fantastic to see, something that could not have happened without the very generous support of the corporate members who sponsored the exhibit, including Woodside as Principal Partner and GE Oil and Gas as Major Partner, and also the very generous individuals and organisations who have loaned equipment for us to display. Whatever challenges and fields of endeavour our offshore and subsea industry is focused on in the future, it is clear that some of the bright minds who came along to the SUT Family Day may be making their mark in due course.

 

Emergency Response

 

5 October 2011 Aberdeen Branch Evening Meeting

Chairman Mark Richardson, Subsea Projects Manager, Apache

Sponsored by Apache

 

Report

 

Flyer

 

Presentations

The Roles and Responsibilities of Government and Industry Groups Involved in Emergency Response

Brian Tadeo – Apache North Sea

Brian’s presentation was an introduction to the policy and infrastructure in place to deal with an emergency on the UKCS. It provided a background of why the legislation has been shaped as it has followed by an overview of the responsibilities placed on operators and contractors and a look at the collaboration between government and industry to implement the processes and procedures to keep both the people and environment safe.

 

An Introduction to Oil Spill Response on the UKCS.

Tina Massoura – Apache North Sea

The presentation covered the emergency response system in place to deal with an oil spill on the UKCS, including the roles of operators and stakeholders and the oil spill capabilities available to respond to such event.

 

The ‘All Hazards’ Approach to Risk Management

Albert Duncan – Altor Risk

Altor’s presentation looked at the principle of Dynamic Uncertainty with the Ripple Effect showing how the different aspects of response cannot be addressed in isolation. The ripple effect can trigger responses that affect people, environment, media and security issues. This is compounded by triggering individual ripples in each of these areas causing an interlinking ripple effect.

 

Business Continuity Management in the Offshore Industry

Duncan Salmon – Pracius

Business continuity management is the holistic term for the management and governance process that identifies the business’ critical processes, the impacts on the business that the loss of them would cause and builds and maintains proper recovery strategies and plans to keep the company running at ‘Business At Usual’, despite the crisis it may be experiencing. It gives the business enough resilience to cope with a loss of people, property, critical suppliers or important technology. The on-going management and updating of these plans is kept up through training, exercises and plan reviews.