Any New Advances in Offshore Pipelines???

[evilkudos]

Dear All,

I am currently serving my internship in a pipelines company (Aker Kvaerner), and my supervisor has tasked me with a report on the advance in technology/ new equipment pertaining to offshore pipe laying work. I majored in Structures (but picked pipelines for internship coz it looked so much more interesting than boring buildings) and am at a loss as to where to look for information.

Can any kind souls please tell/refer me to any website/persons who might be able to inform me on any new technologies/equipment that are available now (any after 1998 is considered new)?

I’m looking for advances in these areas, but are there further areas of the pipeline process that I should add?

Geophysical-

Bathymetry
Side scans
Soil profiling

Geotechnical-

Sediment sampling
(wat else???)

Pipelaying-
Trenching
Rockdumping

I can’t seem to find anything on the pipe laying part, and I’m sure there are more to pipelaying than just trenching and rockdumping….

 

[DrillerNic]

The biggest change is the water depths pipelines are now being laid in, which have meant changing the way pipe is laid- from S-lay to reeled and J-lay. So the effects of water depth would be one aspect - how you trench pipe in 2km of water? etc. The Blue Stream project and the Nakika project are two of the recent deep water envelope pushing pipeline projects. Look at the SPE website for SPE/OTC papers about these projects (you do have to join the APE to see more than the paper abstracts). The OMAE section of ASME might have something too, but I don't know if you can search their papers on line.

Other places that might have something to get you started are the Pipeline Industries Guild (a small UK based technical society) and IPLOCA the International Pipeline & Offshore Construction Association.

Good luck!

 

[marianc]

Have a look at

http://www.offshore-technology.com,

two of their sections, Industry Projects and Industry News Releases. provide specific project news that may be of interest to you.

Other websites worth checking regularly:

http://www.offshore-engineer.com

http://www.oilandgasonline.com

http://ogj.pennnet.com

http://www.oilport.net

http://www.pipewire.net