ABSTRACT
BP Pakistan has been laying cross-country pipelines to produce oil and gas in the Badin concession for the last 20 years, and has gained considerable experience with conventional carbon steel material. The average time required to lay a 4" diameter × 5000 ft long steel pipeline has been around 4 weeks. There was a desire to reduce this time to improve put-on-production (POP) time. Other factors driving us to think out of the box were corrosion, high operating and life cycle cost etc.
A project consisting of laying 4"-1500 psig × 5000 ft Spoolable Reinforced Composite (SRC) pipeline from wellhead to facility was initiated in consultation with BP Exploration & Production Technology Group (EPTG). EPTG was actively involved in the development of this new technology in the wider BP world, and this was seen as an opportunity to test the material in Pakistan. Testing of the material for potential use in high-pressure (HP) gas was also envisaged. In order to ensure rigorous testing of new material and technology, one of the toughest construction location (high water table, collapsing trench, three major crossings, a number of minor crossings, etc.) was selected. Since most of the potential risks to delivery were evaluated upfront, the result was a record laying time of 0.5 km / hr. The project was completed with great success and learnings for the use of this technology in future, and to share with others who choose to use the same material and technology.
This paper provides a brief overview of this new material, its physical properties, potential use, characteristics, advantages over conventional carbon steel and installation experience at BP Pakistan and recommendations for future utilization in oil and gas industry.
