Inspection provider for the oil and gas industry, Innospection, said it has become the first ever to complete an inspection of over 2000 meters of flexible riser in one inspection.
The Aberdeen-based firm has inspected 2600 meters of flexible riser on a Shell Nigeria FPSO in the Bonga Field, as part of its detailed integrity assessment.
The subsea inspection was carried out over a net period of 11 days using the MEC-HUG Crawler tool, which was designed and developed by Innospection and is the first to offer 100% circumferential scanning. This technology detects flaws within the tensile wires including cracks, corrosion and wire misalignment.
Andreas Boenisch , managing director, said: “The whole project was very successful and saw us achieve major results for our client to support life time extension.
“Our technology overcomes a challenge many operators face when assessing the integrity of their asset’s flexible risers because they are hung-off subsea and cannot have annulus testing performed, making it challenging to assess the integrity of them. In the case of the Bonga asset, Innospection provided a solution to this which produces valuable data which can be analysed to ensure risers are fit for purpose.”
Naren Ramaiah , Head – Pipeline & Integrity, Shell Nigeria, said: “Our offloading system is configured with flexible pipelines which are designed for onerous loadings and stresses. Assessing and assuring its integrity regularly is very important for our safe operations. The Mec-Fit technology from Innospection enabled us to scan the flexible pipelines fully. Their in-country competence also ensures we have continued assurance of their services.”