Offshore staff
LONDON – Tracerco has revealed a first with a preview of its TRACERCO Discovery subsea CT scanner for flowlines and pipelines. The unit can scan any coated pipeline without process intervention, says the company.
Tracerco cooperated with Statoil to develop detection technology with the primary goal of use in flow assurance applications; although the applications have since expanded to include integrity issues on a variety of subsea transportation functions. TRACERCO Discovery eliminates the risks involved in removing and replacing coatings to diagnose line integrity by assessing wall thinning or hydrate plugging.
The tool provides a 360º, high resolution scan of pipeline contents and pipe wall thickness in real time, with defect resolution of 1-2 mm, said Tracerco.
“Inspection of subsea pipelines is often a challenge where pigging is not an option or is deemed too risky,” said Lee Robins head of Subsea Services at Tracerco. “Before now, inspecting pipelines from the outside has often been difficult and/or too costly, but TRACERCO Discovery is a totally non-intrusive device that provides asset integrity and flow assurance information quickly and accurately.”
6/18/2013
