Inflatable Buoyancy Units (IBUs)
Mexilhao 34” Gasline Shore Pull Project Brazil
Client: Pertrobras Contactor: Acergy Brazil S.A.
Location: Santos Basin, Brazil Water Depth: 20 -0 Meters
PROJECT OVERVIEW
Petrobras is presently carrying out a project to develop the gas reserves of the
Mexilhão field in the Santos Basin in Brazil. The field lies off the coast of Sao Paulo,
approximately 160km offshore and in water depths of between 320m and 550m.
Acergy was awarded the Mexilhão gas export trunkline contract which covered the
installation of 120km of 34” diameter pipeline from the fixed platform to shore.
SEAFLEX INVOLVMENT
Seaflex were approached in May 2007 to supply for rental 2t Inflatable Buoyancy in pairs to assist the shore pull in extremely shallow water depth due to an 800m wide sand bar. The total length of the shore pull was over 2km.
The sand bar proved more of an obstacle than expected and as a result Seaflex were asked to supply additional buoyancy to:
a) increase the lift per meter to the pipeline reducing its overall draft and
b) assist the float out of the two 76mm
pulling wires.
SEAFLEX FLEXIBLE BUOYANCY SUPPLIED
- 115 x 2t Inflatable Buoyancy Units
- 165 x 5t Inflatable Buoyancy Units
- 140 x 5t Mono Buoyancy Units
- 42 x 50m sections of 33kg/m SeaSerpent wire flotation
- SeaSerpent Deployment Pedestal
- SeaSerpent hydraulic Recovery Pedestal
In total over 1800t of inflatable buoyancy was supplied. The packed size and weight of Seaflex buoyancy enabled Acergy to benefit from a huge saving in transport costs when compared to shipping rigid floats.
Mexilhao Project Overview download
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