Subsea 7 awarded US$ 150 million contract by BP and opens pipeline spoolbase in Texas

Subsea 7 Inc., the international subsea engineering and construction company, has been awarded a pipeline engineering, construction and installation contract by BP and opened a new spoolbase in Texas.

Gas export pipeline contract

The contract, valued in excess of US$ 150 million, is for a gas export pipeline (GEL) project in Angola, offshore west Africa. The scope of work is to engineer, construct and install a 74 km 12 in. gas pipeline from Block 18 to a gas delivery pipeline in Block 3. In addition, Subsea 7 will perform the tie-in of the pipelines, including installing three client supplied subsea manifold systems and a 1000 m umbilical before carrying out the final commissioning of the completed gas export system.

The engineering work will commence immediately, followed by the fabrication of the rigid pipeline at the company’s Luanda spoolbase next year. The offshore phase will commence next year and complete in 2011, using Subsea 7 pipelay and construction vessels.

The Greater Plutonio development is located within Block 18, approximately 125 km off the coast of Angola in water depths ranging from 171 – 1325 m. It has been operational since 2007.

A new pipeline spoolbase

A few weeks previously, the company opened its new pipeline fabrication spoolbase in Port Isabel, Texas. The investment in the spoolbase, in excess of US$ 30 million, allows the company to expand its presence and capabilities in the North America and Mexico regions and provide customers with solutions to serve the increasing deepwater pipeline and steel catenary risers (SCR) market.

The spoolbase covers an area of 58 acres and is 2 km (6000 ft) in length. It will fabricate and store oil and gas pipelines of up to 20 in. diameter (16 in. steel plus 2 in. insulation coatings) in lengths of up to 1.2 km
(4000 ft) for spooling onto reeled pipelay vessels.

The first project to be undertaken at the spoolbase is the fabrication and installation of two 8 in. flowlines totalling 58 km (36 miles) for Marathon Oil Corporation’s Droshky field development. The Droshky development is located approximately 180 km south of Houma, Louisiana with water depths ranging from 1350 - 3000 ft in Green Canyon Block 244. Pipeline fabrication is already underway at the new Port Isabel facility, with pipeline installation scheduled for Q4 this year.

Read the article online at: https://www.oilfieldtechnology.com/drilling-and-production/30092009/subsea_7_awarded_us$_150-million_contract_-by_bp_and_opens_pipeline_spoolbase_in_texas/