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Ocean Observation: Gliders, Buoys & Sub-Surface Networks

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(DECC) requirements prior to decommissioning and retrieval. central North Sea ? eld.

During the test phase of its development, Pipe-Pulse had ac-

Enter Pipe Pulse curately detected a blockage for an operator in the North Sea

One international oil company operating in the North Sea which turned out to be a collapsed ? exible jumper 10 kilome- suffered persistent blockage on a 15 kilometer ? ow line for 11 ters into the gas lift line of an umbilical. This knowledge saved years and lost an estimated 350 barrels per day. Another had the client an estimated $600,000 for not having to mobilize a a subsea ? ow line blocked for 10 months with sand and wax. DSV to investigate the blockage.

Located 16 kilometers from the host platform, the six-inch Pipe-Pulse has also been used to solve a number of paraf? n multiphase ? ow line lay at a water depth of 100 meters. This wax blockages in the Gulf of Mexico, and the unblocking oper- operator had tried a variety of conventional methods to tackle ations let oil companies get their wells back online. In one case, the issue, but due to the remote location of the blockages from the blockage occurred in a 16-mile, ? ve-inch ? ow line, and the the host platform, access to the pipelines and the subsea in- operator had failed to unblock the blockage despite six months frastructure proved dif? cult. A number of topsides and subsea of trying. Pulsing cleared the blockage in two weeks and full- issues were left unsolved. ? ow resumed without the need to shut down the ? ow line.

A nonintrusive removal of subsea blockages was needed, and the solution was the Pipe-Pulse ? ow oscillation method. Gulf Interventions

Deploying this type of technology cleared the blockage in all A high-frequency low-amplitude ? ow oscillator for the re- these examples and lines could be ? ushed within 2.5 days. It moval of blockages in pipelines and umbilical offers a low took less than a week to unblock multiple ? ow lines in this cost solution which completes in days rather than months with www.marinetechnologynews.com

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