Pipeline integrity specialist STATS Group will be represented at the 24th International Pipeline Pigging & Integrity Management Conference in Houston from 7-9 February.
The PPIM conference is the only forum devoted exclusively to pigging for maintenance and inspection, pipeline integrity evaluation and repair, and will attract global experts concerned with improving operations and integrity management.
STATS Group technical director, Angus Bowie, who has specialised in high pressure isolation devices for 20 years and has an extensive experience of many isolation techniques, will present a White Paper at the event.
Mr Bowie, who is the inventor of the BISEP™ isolation tool which introduced double block and bleed to the hot tap and line stop market, will discuss Double Block and Bleed Isolation.
This paper assesses how temporary isolation devices can provide equivalent isolation where incumbent valves do not exist at appropriate locations in a piping system. It will reference several examples from around the world of where temporary isolation devices have been used successfully by STATS to replace valves and perform repairs in trunk pipelines without depressurising the whole pipeline.
The examples will include:
> Isolating 800km of 40″ gas pipeline at 1500 psi to facilitate the refurbishment of a welded in ball valve in the North Sea.
> Isolating 38″ gas line with high H2S in the Middle East.
> Removing an 18″ dead leg without interrupting the production flow.
The STATS team attending PPIM also includes Jason Ross and Stephen Rawlinson, general manager and operations manager respectively for STATS in Canada, and UK contracts engineer Gareth Campbell.
STATS Group managing director, Pete Duguid , said: “The US market offers huge potential for our technologies and tools and we have it firmly in our sights for future expansion in the next 12 to 18 months.
“Attending PPIM is an important step in breaking in to this market and gives us an opportunity to showcase the depth of expertise we can provide on major international projects.”
[mappress] Subsea World News Staff , February 06, 2012; Image: STATS Group