With the world under siege with COVID19 pandemic and almost all revenue generation streams for corporates to individuals impacted, the fact that we all have a continuous supply of essential services provided by the direct or indirect actions of able governments and remarkable people is worth commending.
Amongst the vital functions, is our energy security. The supply of Gas to our kitchen or fuel to the food trucks – all continued to flow. The Oil price shock leading to a decrease in global demand may derail the production targets and help us re-consider transitioning from Oil to Gas faster than we would have wanted to achieve. However, we could simply not rule out the existential essence of Oil and Gas to our world. The process of transitioning towards greener energy sources is going to happen in decades to come. The transition from Oil to Gas is already becoming visible. CNG buses to Solar Electric Water heaters in our own homes. The transition from Gas to Hydrogen is currently being investigated with huge sentiment and technological backing.
While the type of energy transforms, the medium of distribution will always be around. The pipelines industry goes beyond Oil and Gas. Seawater plants, Freshwater domestic pipelines, Plants supplying Food products, fertilisers, medical and industrial gasses are some examples of where pipelines are an essential part.
The fact that the pipeline industry has survived many crisis and energy transitions is substantiated by cases such as the Iranian archaeologists uncovering a 5,000year-old water pipeline in Iran (2014). The uncovered pipeline pictures looked unrealistically intact for the age.
While pipelines are vastly used across different industries, the most technological advancement and investment has happened in the Oil and Gas sector. Being a considerably high-risk sector, the amount of investment put into Health, Safety and Environment by major corporations and the ability of front line personnel to adapt to the ever-changing (constructively) culture puts us in the right direction to enable transition in decades to come.
The knowledge of getting the Hydrocarbon products from point A to point B safely and efficiently is worth collaborating with any other industry.
Pipeline Pre-commissioning
In standard terms, getting a pipeline ready for the introduction of a product is known as pipeline pre-commissioning. Based on the product and the amount of risk associated with the routing/location of the pipeline, various guidelines exist to ensure no one gets hurt.
In a more sophisticated terminology, pre-commissioning of a pipeline constitutes of some or all of the below:
- Cleaning and Gauging, or
- Flooding, Cleaning and Gauging
- Hydrotesting
- Dewatering
- Nitrogen Purging and Packing
Sometimes, when there are some highly corrosive components in the Gas wells, the introduction of such Gas may require the pipeline to be conditioned with a layer of fluid left inside the pipeline. This conditioning process of the pipe wall also is undertaken as part of the Pre-commissioning Campaign.
Pipeline Pre-commissioning involves the use of different types of Pigs. Royal Oil and Gas, being an exclusive channel partner for IK, can provide all different types of pigs and pig detection equipment at extremely competitive pricing. Our inhouse technical competence also allows us to work with IK and potential clients to develop niche solutions to challenging deep-water solutions. In particular, we will talk about Pigs in another associated article this month.
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