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PETROMAKS2-Stort program petroleum

C.PIMS - Composite Pipeline Integrity Management System

Alternative title: C.PIMS - Integritets Styringsystem for Kompositt Rørledninger

Awarded: NOK 7.4 mill.

The project objective is to develop a pipeline integrity management system for flexible composite pipes that is equivalent to the systems currently used for steel pipes. Over the first 15 months progress has been made on several key topics. Mapping the needs for development of particular steps in Integrity Management System has revealed four (4) main gaps or topics to work further with namely inspection, monitoring, integrity assessment and repair. Review of existing service experience and risk assessment workshops have confirmed that 3rd party threat (trawling, digging etc.) is one of the main threat group to be considered in service. Field procedures for operation, maintenance, and repair have been also reviewed. Vast service experience already exists with steel pipelines and some with reinforced thermoplastic pipes (RTP). However, few procedures and practices such as temperature monitoring or pigging need reconsidering and adaptation. Preliminary evaluation of existing NDT methods (e.g., ultrasound) have been carried using conventional techniques on thin and thick thermoset and thermoplastic composite plates with artificial damages. A progressive FEA degradation model has been developed to predict the damage growth in laminates subjected to cyclic fatigue loads. Both development of failure mechanisms and final laminate failure of are predicted.

Thermoplastic Composite Pipes TCP for high pressure service and Reinforced Thermoplastic Pipes RTP for medium pressure service have the potential to replace large parts of currently used steel pipes in the offshore oil and gas industry and many other applications due to their cost efficiency and convenience of use. They are light, can be spooled, are easy to install and roughly corrosion free. The use is increasing rapidly, but only for noncritical applications. TCP/RTP will make transporting oil and gas cheaper and make building a field easier. They can be used as very cost effective water injection lines allowing increased yield of older fields that would otherwise be considered depleted or marginal fields. TCP/RTP basically do not corrode which can reduce the use of chemicals in the transported fluids giving environmental benefits. Focus has been on developing TCP/RTP products and design standards. All this is in place now and has contributed to the large growth of these products. The main bottleneck for further growth and implementation of the technology into safety critical areas is the lack of Pipeline Integrity Management Systems (PIMS) for the operation of TCP/RTP. PIMS are a combination of threat identification, risk assessment, planning, inspection, monitoring, testing, integrity assessment, mitigation, intervention, and repair, focusing on failure prevention. They are well developed for metals and expected to be used by industry. PIMS are essential for safe and reliable steel pipeline operation over an entire life cycle. PIMS are non-existent for TCP/RTP today. The systems developed for metal pipes cannot be applied to TCP/RTP, because inspection methods do not work and failure mechanisms are different. This technology gap has to be overcome. This project will develop PIMS for TCP/RTP that is of equivalent quality to the systems currently used for steel pipes, allowing the use TCP/RTP in safety critical and demanding applications.

Funding scheme:

PETROMAKS2-Stort program petroleum