Pipelines

Subsea pipeline repair robot ready for service

Nov. 4, 2022

PTTEP subsidiary Rovula (Thailand), part of its ARV business division, has co-developed with Kongsberg Ferrotech what is claimed to be a world-first subsea pipeline repair robot.

Nautilus’ worldwide debut was in Bangkok, Thailand, on mission for PTTEP.

Offshore staff

BANGKOK, Thailand — PTTEP subsidiary Rovula (Thailand), part of its AI and Robotics Ventures (ARV) business division, has co-developed with Kongsberg Ferrotech what is claimed to be a world-first subsea pipeline repair robot.

Deep sea diving: Nautilus reduces the operation time from seven to 14 days to less than 48 hours and saves more than 50% on the preparation cost for subsea pipeline maintenance, according to Kongsberg Ferrotech.

The Nautilus subsea pipeline repair robot was developed by ARV and partner Kongsberg Ferrotech. Nautilus is a novel approach for pipeline pin-hole leakage repair by wrapping method in accordance to the international standard.

Nautilus Robot, which is now ready for commercial operations, can perform tasks in water depths of up to 150 m that are beyond safe diver ranges, helping to cut subsea repair costs by more than 40%, PTTEP claimed.

The Thai state energy company, which included the development in its latest results statement, also provided an update on the G1/61 gas project offshore Thailand covering the Erawan, Platong, Satun and Funan fields; PTTEP assumed operatorship earlier this year from Chevron.

Since April, PTTEP has installed four new wellhead platforms, drilled 10 production wells, installed new subsea pipelines and secured more rig capacity for planned activities covering about 70 production wells, with targeted completion by the end of this year.

The company also is constructing four further wellhead platforms to ramp up production from G1/61.

At the same time, the company has increased gas production at the offshore Bongkot and Arthit fields and the Malaysia-Thailand Joint Development Area project by roughly 200 MMcf/d to 250 MMcf/d to satisfy domestic needs.

11.04.2022