Page 52: of Offshore Engineer Magazine (May/Jun 2014)

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GLOBAL DEEPWATER REVIEW

Flexible investment naval shipyard, which closed in

Flowlines and getting the 1980s. bigger and longer.

Since 1997, the site has been

Wellstream, part of making unbonded fexible pipes for the oil and gas subsea indus-

GE Oil & Gas, has try. The site, which produces increased capacity at its pipe from 2in.-16in. internal diameter, has the capacity to

Newcastle facility. make about 300km of up to 8in. normalized kilometer pipe alker Riverside’s a year. These are mostly used expansion has as fowlines on the seabed, or

W extended to as risers up through the water unbonded fexible pipe column to platforms or foating manufacturing. production facilities.

Wellstream, part of GE Oil & The Newcastle facility exports

Gas, offcially opened two new about 80-90% of what produces storage and manufacturing car- around the world, except to ousels at its unbonded fexible Brazil, where Wellstream has a pipe manufacturing facility at dedicated facility working for

Walker Riverside at the begin- this region.

ning of April. The facility produces pipe,

The two new carousels, starting with fat steel strips, which increase capacity at the which form a carcass to prevent site, have been built to meet the pipe from being crushed, the increasing demands for then adding extruded polymer deepwater and high-pressure barriers, to stop fuids or gases pipelines. escaping, and then a fexlok “With FLNG coming, and layer, which at up to 12mm production coming from deeper thick prevents high pressure and deeper waters, pipes are fuids (up to 10,000psi) from getting heavier and bigger in causing the pipe to burst.

One of GE’s two new storage and manufacturing carousels at diameter and the conditions Flexible tension layers, using its Newcastle facility. Photo from GE.

they are going into harsher,” armor wire, is applied to hold says Bruce Heppenstall, general manager, speed it passes through the production on end pieces, which can be under

Wellstream. Higher pressure require- line, as each component layer is added. considerable tension hanging off a vessel ments are also increasing, he says. Wellstream also has one 1000-tonne stor- or production facility, and also further

Flexible pipe produced at Wellstream age carousel. polymer layers, to protect the wires from currently extends to a 10,000psi design The two new carousels are 26m seawater. Insulation can also be added load. diameter, 3000-tonne manufacturing and where required and the number of layers “The industry wants more and more storage carousels. of each component depends on each in higher and higher pressures, and it Wellstream has also invested in two specifc application and requirements. is a trend we are investing in on our new 35ft reels to supply the larger diam- During the production process, pipe is research and development programs in eter pipes, and increased lengths, and it wound on to each carousel in turn, as

Newcastle,” Heppenstall says. “There is a has taken a lease on a new building, in each layer is added. lot of proprietary technology and manu- Newcastle, for its research and develop- Pipes are tested to 1.5x their design facturing technique to make and wrap ment, and testing activity. R&D is cur- pressure. Flange end fttings are also ft- around a reel what are effectively fexible rently focused on high-pressure, and the ted, so the pipe can be connected to the pressure vessels.” types of polymers used. “Also, as pipes platform, production vessel, wellhead, or

The site already had two, 1000-tonne get larger in diameter, they get heavier, each other. storage and manufacturing carousels. so we are looking at using composites to The frm can get up to 1km of pipe (or

These are used for storage and during make pipes lighter,” says Heppenstall. 180-tonne) on a reel. Reels are then trans-

GE’s Newcastle facility was opened in the manufacturing process, by rotat- ferred to vessels for transport to installa- 1997, on the former Vickers Armstrong ing to wind on the pipe at the same tion locations.

May 2014 | OE oedigital.com 54 048_OE0514_DW3_Newcastle.indd 54 4/18/14 7:04 PM