WorleyParsons Senior Project Manager – Select Steve Henzell delivered an insightful presentation about how pipeliners can best meet offshore and onshore design and integrity testing challenges.
Mr Henzell spoke about the challenges of determining internal corrosion and providing inspection for the Casino Pipeline in Bass Strait, south-west Victoria – a pipeline which is 70 m below the surface.
Dealing with 55 km of offshore pipeline and 12 km of onshore pipeline, the underwater technology used in this project provided new ideas and new perspectives for onshore pipeliners.
Mr Henzell spoke about the environmental sensitivity of the area, particularly being in close proximity to the Twelve Apostles.
“Everything we did had to be very careful and considered in terms of environmental impact,” he explained. He also discussed the challenges of dealing with unexpected corrosion and having to come up with innovative solutions.
“The original design made provision for pigging the offshore pipeline, but we never expected to need it. We expected quite low corrosion levels,” he said.
“Once corrosion was identified, it was decided that we needed to run an intelligent pig down the line, which sounded like a pretty challenging exercise, particularly with the first 5 km of the pipeline being filled with sea water. So it was a challenge to get rid of that sea water, and we also needed something to push the pig with for that first 5 km.
“We put our thinking caps on, and we thought about putting a pig in at the onshore site, pushing it out to inspect it, and then putting the pig back in. We also thought we could do an external pipeline inspection. In the end that’s what we did, because we only needed to check a short section of the line and not the whole length,” he explained.
The dinner was proudly sponsored by McConnell Dowell and Edgen Murray.