Pipeline Pigging
Experience
40
years of magnetic pig tracking and locating
experience.
We started on
British Gas pipelines, Mainline Pipeline and
Forties Field Pipeline System (54 dents and
ovalities found) in the U.K.
The experiences listed
below are only a few samples of the jobs
completed.
Onshore:
Recently
StarTrak
has just completed pigging 650 miles of a 30"
pipeline from Kome, Chad Africa to Kribi,
Cameroon Africa for Exxon Mobile. The Pigging
was done for the fill process of oil into the
pipeline. StarTrak was chosen for the job for
its vast expertise in pigging. The fill
process had to be done in such a way that
Exxon knew where the pigs were at all times
because of the rough terrain and a very
drastic drop in the pipeline. The pigs were
tracked 24hrs a day and satellite monitoring
stations were set at predetermined places
along the pipeline that sent data back to the
main control center in Kome. The job took 2
months to complete and was completed
successfully.
Check out pictures
from the Africa job.
StarTrak
was called in by a client to locate a lost pig
in a 12" pipeline north of Houston. An
Inspection pig had been lost for two days and
two other companies had failed to locate the
pig.
After
arriving at site and finding at least thirty
(30) personnel standing around, a
"Pathfinder" pig, was launched. It took
twenty-two (22) minutes to locate the
obstruction.
Later,
on
the same pipeline, but a 14" line section,
after poly pigs were lost, StarTrak tracked
a pig to a section which contained ~1500' of
16" pipe. It took less than a hour, the time
to walk the area in question, to locate the
pig.
Offshore:
On
return from Africa StarTrak was contacted by
Tampa Bay Port Authority to survey an
extremely deep pipeline across its bay.The
port authority had several other companies
that could not complete the job due to the
depth of the pipeline. StarTrak was called in
and the job was completed in 5 days
Our
past performances include a pig which was
lost, offshore, for over one year. Others
tried to locate the pig during this period
which cost the client $1.2M.
When
StarTrak personnel were eventually brought in,
the pig and obstruction was located in three
operational days from the surface, 49 miles
offshore Louisiana.
We
were also called in to solve a problem when
an inspection pig was lost in Lake Lugano,
Switzerland. This obstruction was causing a
severe loss of flow in a critical gas
pipeline serving the Lugano area. The lost
pig was freed by the magnetic pig and
brought "home" without further loss of
service.
Pipeline
Leak
Detection:
StarTrak
personnel
have found many leaks in pipelines during
hydrostatic test situations.
One
such operation was a very small leak was
discovered at approximately 1200 psi. ( with
40 psi. drop per hour) in a 12" offshore
pipeline.
To
locate the leak, a StarTrak magnetic pig
with special seals was introduced to the
pipeline. Using the pig as a movable plug,
the leak was easily located within a few
feet.
When
the
pipeline was brought to the surface the leak
was found within the suspect area.
The
trick
is to know the precise position of the
pig, and any pig movement. The pressure
across the pig can equalize if the pig
moves toward the leak (or even
flex on the cups/disks) , but this
can been seen with a StarTrak gradiometer
monitoring the pig.
Depending
on
the leak rate, the leak direction at each
location can be determined with a 20
minute test after pressurization and
settling time.
Multiple
Leaks
can also be found using this method by
elimination.
Temperature Acquisition Pigs:
A client,
with
a deep water multiple pipeline system inside
an insulated casing to a well head, needed to
evaluate the effectiveness of
insulation.
StarTrak
was
contracted to design and supply 7 off
3" temperature monitoring pigs with internal
back-up.
These
pigs
incorporated temperature probes and solid
state memory to capture 3600 temperature
readings at the rate of one reading per
minute.
The
pigs were run at intervals of one pig per
mile. The pigs were stopped so the pigs were
evenly spaced throughout the 8 mile
pipeline. Water at different temperatures
was pumped through a parallel pipe over a 48
hour period.
After
the
pigs were retrieved and downloaded, the
client was able to determine the
effectiveness of the insulation and
determine the temperature of water to be
pumped into the system to deter the possible
future formation of wax.
We
have also successfully completed many other
projects like these.
We have
always been the last pig location team our
clients have needed
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