Victrex Polymer Solutions has signed a collaboration agreement with Portsmouth, UK-based Magma Global to develop solutions for deepwater oil and gas extraction, where they say existing technologies are starting to break down.
Offshore staff
THORNTON CLEVELYS, UK -- Victrex Polymer Solutions has signed a collaboration agreement with Portsmouth, UK-based Magma Global to develop solutions for deepwater oil and gas extraction, where they say existing technologies are starting to break down.
Magma specializes in developing risers, jumpers, spools, and flow-lines for demanding, deepwater, and high-pressure/ high-temperature environments.
As development heads into ultra-deepwater, present technologies have limitations, the company says, such as fatigue failure and corrosion. And the length of the pipes required to reach these depths is so great that traditional materials such as steel and titanium cannot support their own weight.
Hybrid designs are an alternative, but they are costly and difficult to deploy. Magma's solution is claimed to be more economic in terms of both deployment and ongoing operation.
Also, the requirement to extract oil from colder waters poses challenges to metallic structures which can become embrittled or exhibit a lower fatigue performance at low temperature. Magma’s carbon polymer pipes reportedly sustain optimum performance at temperatures below -50ºC (-58ºF) and offer improved insulation characteristics.
