Rigid Pipe Technologies

Reel-lay is a very efficient technique to install rigid wet coated pipelines and pipe-in-pipes. Technip has a rigid pipeline reeling track record in excess of 7,600 km to date. The track record includes static flowlines resting on the seabed and dynamic steel catenary risers. The rigid pipe products proposed by Technip meet the needs of operators developing fields with demanding flow assurance challenges such as requirements for high performance insulation (passive or active) or the growing trend of highly corrosive fluid transportation.

Key References


Reeled Mechanically Lined Pipe	Electrically Trace Heated Pipe-In-Pipe

Steel Catenary Risers

The faster reeling installation method is very attractive to lay Steel Catenary Risers (SCR) because it minimizes the time spent by the lay vessel in the vicinity of the topsides. Technip was first to install a fully reeled SCR on the deepwater field BP Nile in 2001 (1,100m/3,600 ft water depth). Thanks to a superior welding quality, achieved at their on-shore spoolbases, Technip successfully assembled and installed many SCRs in both sweet and sour service design conditions, in the Gulf of Mexico. The track record includes the first ever pipe-in-pipe SCR (Shell Na Kika in 2004 (1,939m/6,360ft) and latterly the deepest SCR (Shell Perdido in 2009 in 2,469m/8,100ft).

An alternative to SCR is the Hybrid Catenary Riser (HCR), which combines a rigid pipe length and two flexible pipes tails, located in the most dynamic sections of the riser. Apart from the excellent dynamic behavior of HCR, the configuration also offers the advantage of a closer touchdown point to the topsides.

Pipe in Pipe Technology

(click to see the full version)

Pipe-in-pipe is the rigid pipe answer to industry requirements for ever increasing needs for high performance passive insulation. The first ever reeled pipe-in-pipe installed by Technip was in the Bass Strait (Australia) in 1989.

Since then, the track record has increased to approximately 30 projects, including key landmark projects, such as Na Kika (1st SCR and deepest) and Total Dalia (OHTC of 0.6 W/m2.K).

The next generation of reeled pipe-in-pipe is electrically trace heated pipe-in-pipe (ETH-PiP). The system combines the high passive insulation performance of a standard pipe-in-pipe system and the high heating efficiency of trace heating technology. Trace heating can be used during or after shutdown periods or on a continuous basis to ensure that the temperature of the fluid remains above critical wax or hydrate formation temperature. The efficiency of the system implies lower OPEX costs from the topsides and lower voltage requirements. ETH-PiP was successfully qualified and its first application will be on the Total Islay in the UK sector of the North Sea in 2011.

Pipelay and Assembly Capabilities

Technip operates one of the most advanced fleets of pipelay vessels in the industry. The capabilities of our vessels include:

· subsea construction
· heavy lift operations for subsea infrastructure
· pipeline installation using Flex-lay, Reel-lay, J-lay and S-lay methods

The Group also operates 5 rigid pipe spoolbases located close to major subsea markets in the USA, UK, Norway and Angola.