Latest acquisition establishes Acteon as a top solution provider
Acteon received a boost a few months ago with the acquisition of CAPE Group, which is based in Singapore. The company has operations throughout South-East Asia, and is run by former diver and veteran of the region’s oil industry Simon Hartog. Even before Acteon came on the scene he was building a healthy business in pipeline
inspection, repair and maintenance under the TOPS banner – Total Oilfield Pipeline Solutions.
“South-East Asia has some of the oldest subsea pipelines in the world,” says Hartog. “And in recent years, with the increased focus on safety and environmental protection, looking after these key assets has assumed a high priority. Operators require two things from service providers. It almost goes without saying that effective technology is vital, but the ability to provide a complete service package, sometimes at very short notice, is also important. These requirements have driven the development of our TOPS offering, which will be considerably reinforced as a result of our becoming part of Acteon.”
Hartog is already talking to his new colleagues at Subsea Riser Products about developing a novel pipeline handling and recovery tool, and at InterAct about the issue of pipeline decommissioning, which is a natural extension of the inspection, repair and maintenance business. Beyond this, there are other potentially beneficial technology tie-ups: Hartog has his eye on the severance, hot-tapping and abandonment skills spread across WellCut, Claxton Engineering and Mirage; and the foundations and piling expertise possessed by MENCK.
Hartog believes that, technology aside, improved service delivery will be the main benefit to the business from the merger with Acteon. He explains: “CAPE boasts a very experienced senior management team, people with unparalleled practical knowledge gained from working on major subsea pipeline projects across the region. But the modest size of the company has sometimes limited our ability to put together a fully integrated service package, notably one that includes the provision of a suitable vessel and a specialised diving team. With Acteon’s backing, we will be better placed to coordinate and mobilise all the various elements needed to undertake what can often only be described as emergency projects.”
TOPS technology
The corrosion protection of subsea pipelines has received a great deal of attention over many years from the main players in the oil industry. Nevertheless, corrosion, attacking from either the inside or the outside of the pipe, remains a major headache and is at the root of many pipeline failures. Its effects vary considerably, from discrete perforations to more general loss of structural integrity; consequently, the range of possible remediation technology is just as diverse.
CAPE has carried out a lot of work using purpose-designed sleeves that are clamped around the affected pipe and then injected with epoxy resin to seal localised leaks. Last year, the company completed a major project involving such repairs for Petrovietnam Gas Company at seven locations along 120 km of 16-in. pipeline in 60 m of water. Next year, a similar job is scheduled to start on a 48-in. pipeline for Shell in Singapore.
Before repairs of this kind can be carried out, it is generally necessary to remove the concrete weight coating plus the bitumen or polymer coating covering the pipe, which is not always a straightforward task. CAPE has spent more than $600,000 over the past two years developing its own machine to do this. A major feature of the machine, which uses a 2000-bar water jet to cut through the concrete and then blast off the anti-corrosion coatings, is its controllability. The high-pressure water nozzle can be precisely positioned at the optimum distance from the pipe and then moved around and along the pipe in a closely regulated fashion to ensure efficient removal of the coatings.
During a recent job for the contractor, J. Ray McDermott, at Su Tu Vang field, Vietnam, the machine was used successfully to remove coatings from two subsea pipelines with diameters of 8.6 and 14 in. The smaller line had a 25.4-mm concrete weight coating over a 0.5-mm fusion-bonded epoxy anti-corrosion layer. The larger diameter line had 38 mm of concrete over 31.5 mm of four-layer polypropylene. More than 1 m of coating was removed in the first case and nearly 3 m in the second. Similar work has been carried out for Shell in Brunei and for BP in Indonesia.
Further development effort is now being directed towards automating the deployment of the machine, thus avoiding the need for divers and enabling the machine to be used in deeper water.
Not all pipeline problems can be solved with the use of sleeve clamps. It may be necessary to remove and replace sections of pipe or to create bypasses, either of which may involve hot tapping into live lines. A wide range of highly specialised equipment is needed for work of this nature, and, as it is neither economical nor practical to carry all the tools within the company’s inventory, CAPE has formed strategic regional alliances with several leading suppliers. Particularly important relationships have been forged with Fisher Offshore, which provides CAPE with advanced underwater excavation systems; STATS for pipeline isolation plugging systems; Hydratight, the supplier of Morgrip subsea connectors and couplings; and Karmsund Maritime Offshore Supply, which recently introduced the innovative KaMOS range of sealing rings for the leak testing of flanges.
It is Hartog’s experience in the pipeline repair business that has driven these important relationships. He is particularly pleased to have identified the value of the KaMOS seals and to have introduced them in the region. “Using these seals enables us to leak test individual flanges in a repaired pipeline before it goes live,” he explains. “Previously, we would have been unaware of any problem flanges before a full pressure test over the section of repaired line. A problem at that stage would have meant a time-consuming and expensive exercise, first to pinpoint the offending flange and then to put it right.”
CAPE’s goal is to become the first choice for emergency pipeline repair solutions in South-East Asia. Supplier relationships are undoubtedly going to be important in achieving this. However, a greater differentiator in the future is likely to be created as CAPE absorbs the experience, technology and skills of other Acteon group companies and raises its game to a new level.