Experts called in after damage to Egyptian platform
Posted: 12 January 2005
Engineers from the Portlethen-based firm were involved in vital excavation operations after pipelines supplying the majority of Jordan’s gas supplies required major subsea intervention.
The Temsah natural gas platform, located 60km offshore Port Said in Egypt, was destroyed in a fire following well control problems and a subsequent blow-out. The incident resulted in the total loss of field production and service pipelines from the adjacent Akhen platform had to be shutdown.
The Temsah deepwater field is believed to supply up to 70 per cent of Jordan’s total gas supply and an emergency operation to resume production by installing new pipeline sections to bypass the Temsah platform swung into action.
PSL’s excavation team were commissioned by Subsea 7 to uncover and debury production and condensate gas export pipelines on behalf of Egyptian subsea contractor Petroleum Marine Services.
A hydraulically-driven subsea excavation tool was used to direct a low-pressure, high volume flow of water vertically downwards at the seabed, dispersing soils around the pipelines, allowing diver access to tie-in new sections of pipeline.
Excavation works were controlled by way of a Seabat Sonar – a real-time multibeam sonar which can control excavation of pipelines to a tolerance of just 5cms.
PSL’s pipelines and excavations operations manager, Tom Hasler, said the company had been called in to lead the difficult project because of their vast experience in conducting similar work across the world.
Mr Hasler said: “In order to allow the earliest possible resumption of the export of gas to shore, new pipelines had to be laid bypassing the Temsah platform.
“To allow these new pipelines to be connected to existing lines from the Akhen platform and run to shore, extensive excavation was required to debury the pipelines and create sufficient access at tie-in/hot tap locations to allow diver operations.
“We possess some of the most advanced excavation technology in the industry, matched by extremely well-qualified and experienced engineers, who played their part in quickly getting this field back in to production.”
PSL subsequently received a letter of appreciation and recommendation from Subsea 7 on completion of the project.
Posted by Editor Pipeline Magazine
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