OMS completes pipe measurement for Kaombo Ultra-Deep Offshore Project

Optical Metrology Services (OMS) has completed a series of pipe measurement surveys for the Kaombo Ultra-Deep Offshore Project – the largest subsea oil and gas project in the world.

The scope of work involved end dimensioning, numbering and colour banding of deepsea, fatigue-critical flowline pipe, Steel Catenary Risers (SCR) and long seam welded line pipe.

Kaombo Ultra-Deep Offshore Project involves the development of six of the 12 fields discovered at Block 32, around 260km offshore Luanda in Angola.

The project is located in an 800km2 site in the central and southeast part of the block. The water depth at this location ranges from 1,400m to 1,900m. The project involves the drilling of 59 subsea wells, which will be connected via 300km of subsea pipelines to two floating production, storage and offloading (FPSO) vessels. Associated gas from the fields will be transferred to the Angola Liquefied Natural Gas (LNG) plant in Soyo. Production is expected to start in 2017, with production capacity expected to be 230,000 barrels a day.

Marcus Smiles, Client Solutions Executive at OMS commented: “OMS is really excited to be involved in such an important deepsea development project – currently the largest of its kind in the world. By measuring every pipe end and then colour banding these to a calibration block group code [in accordance with calibration blocks to be used for the AUT inspection] ‘golden joints’ can be allocated to the more critical sections of the deepsea pipeline. Identifying and marking pipe ends in this way will improve operational logistics for the customer, ensuring the least possible disruption and handling to their pipe fit-up and welding processes, which in turn will minimise project cost and delays.”

OMS was contracted to perform onshore pipe end dimensioning of more than 10,000 pipe ends. The work was carried out in three separate mobilisations. Five OMS engineers were deployed for 10 weeks at the Bredero Shaw pipe yard in Batam Island, Indonesia, to measure more than 9,000 pipe ends. In addition, two OMS engineers were deployed for two weeks at the Socotherm pipe facility in Sicily, where an additional 750 pipe ends were measured. The pipe sizes measured were a mix of 10”, 12”, 14” and 16” in diameter.

OMS also deployed four engineers for two weeks in Brazil, where an additional 800 pipe ends were measured. These were 18” diameter subsea arc welded line (SAWL) pipes.

For end dimensioning, OMS utilised its own AutoToolâ„¢ laser measurement tool, which is capable of recording more than 2,000 internal and external measurements around each pipe end in less than 20 seconds. This tool is accurate to 0.05mm and enables OMS staff to measure hundreds of pipe ends in a single shift. This means less time on site, minimising project delays and costs for the customer. The AutoToolâ„¢ is a non-contact laser-based measurement system that is provided to the customer as a service together with trained operators.

The end dimensioning results were a critical part of the customer’s pipe design studies and pre-qualification tests. The scope involved measuring, numbering and colour banding of pipe ends, including the linking of pipe numbers with pipe measurement files.