Page 93: of Offshore Engineer Magazine (May/Jun 2013)

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Ormen Lange feld, located 120 km northwest of Kristiansund, Norway, holds the world’s largest gas wells, with a line size of 9 5/8 inches.

MEG.” the cooperation was accelerated to

The hydrate tagged at 553m where a new level with highly ambitious the electric line cleaner was activat- objectives. ed, and it removed the hydrate down “A development project for a new to a depth of 608 m in 20 hours of tool producing extremely high-res- actual milling time. This allowed the olution pipeline tomography scans, operator to reestablish functionality using a large number of gamma to the downhole safety valve. detectors, was therefore launched in

He estimates the method could 2012. This project has now produced save a third or half the cost of using a tool that will be ready for large a rig to intervene in the well. scale testing in 2013 and subsequent

A project to develop new technol- quick commercial applications.” ogy for detecting hydrate restrictions The presentation at UTC will cover subsea will be presented by Lee Rob- the background of the development ins, head of subsea, Tracerco Norge work and give a description of Tra-

AS, and Keijo Kinnai, Senior special- cerco’s technology for solving fow ist fow assurance, Statoil. assurance challenges.

The two frms have been co-operat- Preventing, mitigating, detecting ing over several years on the project, and removing hydrates is just one of development work on which started the themes to be addressed at UTC. a decade ago using existing Tracerco The event’s overall theme is Global technology developed for topside Subsea Challenges, managing the usage. old and the new. “It is a challenge

Its “œtomography” scanning for operators and suppliers in our equipment was successfully applied industry to connect new and innova- to locate restrictions on a couple of tive solutions to ageing infrastructure

Statoil-operated platforms. and installations,” said conference “Some initial tests were performed chairman Trond Olsen. at the operator’s K-Lab underwater “The challenge is most likely to testing facility at Kårstø, Norway, us- grow as even more subsea tiebacks ing the fow assurance test fowline, are installed, equipment gets refur- which provided excellent results and bished, control systems is modifed paved the way for a new develop- and updated, and a new generation ment,” Robins says. of people coming in to the industry “Due to increased needs at Statoil shall relate to and understand tech- to have a fully operational tool avail- nology developed before they were able for locating hydrate restrictions born.” oedigital.com May 2013 | OE 95

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