2015 JTM and Study Tour

Report on the 2015 JTM and Study Tour Europe By Francis Carroll, APA Group Mark Dragar, Jemena Tom Seeber, Atteris Nick Kastelein, GPA Engineering G...
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Report on the

2015 JTM and Study Tour Europe

By Francis Carroll, APA Group Mark Dragar, Jemena Tom Seeber, Atteris Nick Kastelein, GPA Engineering Guillaume Michal, University of Wollongong Klaas van Alphen, Energy Pipelines CRC

Executive Summary In May 2015, the Australian Pipelines and Gas Association (APGA) and the Australian Gas Industry Trust (AGIT) awarded scholarships to four Australian “young” engineers: Francis Carroll from APA Group in Brisbane, Mark Dragar from Jemena in Sydney, Tom Seeber from Atteris in Perth and Nick Kastelein from GPA Engineering in Adelaide. In addition, two young research staff from the Energy Pipelines Cooperative research Centre (EPCRC), Guillaume Michal and Klaas van Alphen from the EPCRC in Wollongong, also joined the tour. The scholarships were for the six of us to attend the Joint Technical Meeting (JTM) of pipeline research in Paris, and a subsequent study tour through various gas and pipeline-related facilities in Europe. This report is a recount of our journey. We have drawn attention to the professional contacts made and lessons learnt at each visit. However, we have also included some detail of the many enjoyable social activities that we also undertook. Over three weeks, we went from France, to Germany, Italy and finally Spain. The first week was taken up by the JTM itself, where we spent a large portion of every day listening to research presentations and discussions, participating in working groups, and occasionally asking (hopefully) insightful questions. In France we also saw two R&D facilities for large energy companies: Engie (formerly GDF Suez) and Total. The learnings at the Engie facilities varied across a range of research disciplines, including risk management, pipeline locating, and simulating and experimenting with mechanical damage and wraps. The second visit, to Total, took us to the warm south of France – a welcome late addition to the itinerary. There we learnt about rock core sample analysis, offshore seismic analysis, testing biocide and corrosion inhibitors and qualifying materials – stretching our horizons beyond the pipeline industry to the broader hydrocarbon industry. In Germany, we visited the steel- and pipe makers – HKM, Salzgitter Mannesmann, Europipe and Vallourec. At these facilities we observed the manufacture of raw steel products (slab, billet, and plate), ERW pipe, UOE pipe and seamless pipe. We enjoyed a public holiday in Germany; a chance for a nice bicycle ride in the country. Before leaving Germany we visited Rosen, the ILI tool company, which was a revelation to everyone because of the extent to which they fabricate all the components of their products. In Italy and Spain we visited the two national pipeline operator companies: SNAM and Enagás. The two experiences could not have been more diverse. In Italy we saw pipeline construction, compressor station control and distribution systems, as well as a good look at Venice in general. In Spain we visited Barcelona’s main LNG terminal and Enagás’ R&D facility in Zaragoza focusing on instrument calibration. The trip was certainly a joy from start to finish. Several times we thought we had probably seen the best so far, and were only surprised to have our expectations subsequently exceeded even further. We would all like to sincerely thank the APGA, AGIT and EPCRC (and especially Steve Dobbie, our tour guide and pseudo-dad) for the opportunity, which we judge as ‘once in a lifetime’ and certainly won’t forget. We hope that you enjoy reading our report and are able to appreciate the lessons that we learnt and share in some of the fun as well. We know that the time and effort invested was significant, and believe it was well spent; in our opinion, the study tour was a roaring success! - Francis, Mark, Tom, Nick, Guillaume and Klaas

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Table of Contents 1

2

3

4

France ............................................................................................................................................................ 4 1.1

20th Joint Technical Meeting, Paris ...................................................................................................... 4

1.2

ENGIE (formerly GDF Suez) ................................................................................................................. 12

1.3

Total – CSTJF Pau ................................................................................................................................. 14

Germany ...................................................................................................................................................... 19 2.1

(SZMF) - Research ............................................................................................................................... 19

2.2

Huttenwerke Krupp Mannesman (HKM) – Steel making .................................................................... 20

2.3

Salzgitter Mannesmann Grobblech (SMGB) – Plate rolling ................................................................ 22

2.4

Europipe (UOE pipe production) ......................................................................................................... 22

2.5

Vallourec (Seamless Pipe) - Hamm ..................................................................................................... 24

2.6

Salzgitter Mannesmann Line Pipe (HFI ERW) ...................................................................................... 26

2.7

Münster Bicycle Tour .......................................................................................................................... 27

2.8

ROSEN ILI tool manufacturing and research - Lingen ......................................................................... 28

Italy .............................................................................................................................................................. 32 3.1

SNAM Rete Gas ................................................................................................................................... 33

3.2

SNAM Italgas ....................................................................................................................................... 36

Spain ............................................................................................................................................................ 39 4.1

5

Enagás ................................................................................................................................................. 39

Conclusion .................................................................................................................................................... 44

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1 France At the beginning of May in 2015 we (Francis, Mark, Tom, Nick, Guillaume and Klaas) flew to Europe to attend the 6-day Joint Technical Meeting (JTM) and subsequent study tour. The first week of the trip was spent in France, where we attended various JTM sessions and functions. Moreover, we visited Engie’s (GDF Suez’) Crigen R&D facility in Paris, and Total’s CSTJF R&D facility in Pau in the South of France.

S FRANCE PARIS

WORKING GROUPS

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CRIGEN – ENGIE R&D FACILITY WORKING GROUPS OPEN OPENING DINNER

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T

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TECHNICAL SESSIONS

TECHNICAL SESSIONS

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DINNER – BAKER HUGHES

SEINE CRUISE

TECHNICAL SESSIONS

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VERSAILLES TOUR

CLOSING SESSION

Figure 1.1: Schedule for week 1 (3-8 May)

1.1 20th Joint Technical Meeting, Paris 1.1.1

JTM Overview rd

The 20th JTM for Pipeline Research was held in Paris at the Hotel Pullman Montparnasse, from the 3 to the th 8 of May 2015. The JTM allows for members of the Pipeline Research Council International (PRCI), the European Pipeline Research Group (EPRG) and the APGA Research and Standards Committee (RSC) to share and discuss latest research findings and plan for joint activities. Researchers from Australia’s EPCRC, which includes all members of the APGA Research and Standards Committee (RSC), presented ten of out of the 37 high quality papers that were discussed by the approximately 200 attendees of the JTM. The papers were presented over five technical sessions that are further detailed below.

Figure 1.2: Gerhard Knauf opening the JTM

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The Australian delegates at the JTM were strongly involved in a number of working group meetings that were held on the first two days of the JTM. These meetings were intended to discuss current tripartite projects and topics, including Fracture Control, Human and Organisational Factors, CO 2 pipelines, Time Delayed Failure, Mechanical Damage, and Ground Movement. The chairs of the working groups reported back on their discussion and findings on the last day of the JTM. In general, it was great to see the progress made on these topics by the tripartite and the willingness to continue collaboration going forward. For example the working group on ‘Human and Organisational Factors’ (cochaired by EPCRC Program Leader Jan Hayes) identified a number of new research areas that could be explored in the future by members of the tripartite. The working group on ‘Fracture Arrest’ explored various new initiatives to improve current fracture arrest models, and the working group on CO2 pipelines reviewed the current status of CO2 pipeline research in great detail with the aim of publishing a ‘status review’ later in the year.

Figure 1.3: Participating in the fracture mechanics working group

The first technical session included papers on the themes of Fracture Propagation and CO2 pipelines. Five papers focused on general fracture control methodologies, phenomenology of decompression and fracture as well as standardisation. Two papers had a direct focus on the research and standardisation carried out on CO 2 pipelines. APGA and the EPCRC presented 5 out of the 7 papers in this session. Lu (EPCRC) presented a new fracture velocity model for high grade gas pipelines. The model is an extension of the standard Battelle fracture velocity equation whereby the characteristic strain is reformulated based on the plastic instability theory. This extension introduces measurable material properties such as the strain hardening exponent, the yield to tensile ratio, and the ratio of uniform elongation to total elongation to better represent the ductile behaviour of the pipe. The model was calibrated against a full-scale fracture propagation database. Compared to previous models, this extension does not require the use of a correction factor and appears to cover steel strength from X70 to X100. The model still needs to be blind tested against experimental data not part of the calibrating database. Völling also presented a new approach to the control of ductile fracture propagation. The approach has numerous novelties while being strongly connected to classical fracture mechanics theories. The material resistance to fracture is quantified via the elastic-plastic toughness parameter of the J integral measured experimentally from a pre-fatigued drop weight tear test. The crack driving force is related to the elastic distortion accumulated in the pipe-wall from the internal pressure. The approach led to a new fracture velocity model with a more gradual decay compared to the J shape of the Battelle fracture velocity model. The characteristic is closer to the Japanese HLP model. Like Lu’s model, future validations and developments will be interesting to follow.

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Figure 1.4: Guillaume Michal presenting his work on decompression at the fracture site

Michal (one of our touring party) presented a semi-analytical analysis of the pressure distribution along the flaps of a running fracture and highlighted the effect of a two-phase decompression. The model is based on well-known supersonic expansion formulation of a fluid through a convergent-divergent nozzle. Good agreement was found with Computational Fluid Dynamics solutions for the region covering 1 to 2 pipe diameters downstream of the fracture tip. Compared to single phase decompression, as exhibited by a lean gas, two phase decompression leads to an increase of the pressure distribution along the fracture flaps. However the impact of this change on the fracture velocity has not been investigated so far. Davis (EPCRC) reported numerical work on the effect of delamination in Charpy V-Notch tests. The model confirmed that delaminations orthogonal to the fracture plane lead to an increase of triaxiality. As the delamination reaches a critical length, the specimen behaves like side-by-side sub-sized specimens with a reduction of the triaxiality and an increase of lateral contraction. Cosham discussed the progress for new EPRG recommendations for crack arrest toughness of high strength line-pipe steels. Instead of specifying toughness based on the toughness statistical distribution of an order, whereby half the pipes were considered above the minimum toughness, the recommendations will instead specify the minimum arrest toughness to arrest the running fracture. As part of the recommendations, a definition of what constitutes a “lean gas” was devised in the form of a set of limits on the concentration of the mixture’s components. This definition envelope led to bounding the decompression curve of a lean gas and, by extension, the specified minimum toughness was adjusted. While the latter is greater than specified in the original recommendations, it remains in most cases below 100 J. Di Biagio presented the outcome of the first SARCO2 full scale burst test aimed at testing the arrest performance of a dense phase CO2 pipeline on a LSAW and HFI 24” L450 test section with a wall thickness between 12.7 and 13.7 mm. The test pipes had a toughness up to 320 J and composite crack arrestors were also installed. The test showed a short propagation with an arrest at the girth weld of the initiation pipe following spiralling of the fracture path. Experimental data showed a mixture composition and condition in line with the predictions. The pipe wall temperature remained nearly constant while the temperature of the mixture decreased as low as -60°C. While the propagation was shorter than expected, valuable data was gathered to support the development of dispersion models. The session ended with the presentation of Linton (EPCRC) on the development of an Australian standard for CO2 pipelines, as an outcome of the work undertaken by the EPCRC, and currently included as an appendix in the 2012 revision of AS2885 Part 1. Linton provided an overview of the research completed on decompression, fracture control, dispersion and corrosion, public safety community and organisational requirements and

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highlighted the Australian recommendations with respect to design, construction and operation of CO 2 pipelines.

1.1.2

Technical Session 2 – Cracking, Corrosion and CP

During session 2 a total of seven papers were presented. The majority of these papers had relevance to the Australian pipeline industry, with 3 papers delivered by researchers from the EPCRC. These papers included recent topics such as Developing Structural Health Monitoring Technologies for In-situ and Site-Specific Warning of Pipeline Corrosion and Coating Failure by Tan, and Measuring and Quantifying the Effects of Two Major Factors on the Efficiency of Cathodic Protection of Pipelines (namely cathodic protection excursions and coating disbondment) by Mahdavi. The third EPCRC paper presented by Gamboa was a summation of the work to date conducted on the comparison of Stress Corrosion Cracking (SCC) found in Australian pipes versus Canadian pipes. The paper outlined the current model that has been developed and what further work is being planned to improve the model by including other factors such as aspect ratio and grain texture.

Figure 1.5: Erwin Gamboa presenting his work on SCC

Chen presented a paper of close relevance to SCC on the characteristics of pipeline pressure fluctuations and corresponding integrity management strategies. This paper outlined operation management practices that tried to answer what kinds of pressure fluctuations represent the greatest risk for increasing the potential for SCC to form and propagate. It also presented information about the load-interaction based models that were developed that are able to predict crack growth using SCADA data and other field information as inputs. The final paper of relevance to the Australian pipeline industry was on The Impact of Fluctuations in AC Interference on the Corrosion Risk for Buried Pipelines presented by Nielsen. This paper attempted to provide answers to two questions; namely, will corrosion rates produced in the presence of cyclic AC conditions be comparable with corrosion rates produced by static AC conditions, and how do these corrosion rates fit into the criteria given by the new European AC corrosion standard EN 15280? The paper concluded that cyclic AC voltages produce approximately the same corrosion rates as compared to static AC voltages when measured over a time weighted average and that these rates approximately fit into the criteria of EN 15280. The paper also highlighted the significance the shape of the coating defect had on the corrosion rate, where rectangular defects seemed to produce higher corrosion rates than circular shaped defects despite having the same surface area. As more pipelines begin to share corridors with high voltage AC transmission lines, and as more AC train lines are built, this information will begin to influence decisions regarding design and integrity management practices for pipeline owners across the country. Page 7 of 44

1.1.3

Technical Session 3 – Ground Movement, Route Selection and Pipeline Monitoring

Session 3 of the JTM focused on pipelines subject to ground movement and high strain in general, including both design and operational issues. Many of the papers presented were from European and North American researchers and pipeline operators and were very informative to the Australian contingent. Due to the relatively younger age spread of Australian pipelines and the different ground conditions encountered compared to Europe and North America, we gained insight to this field and will be able to apply some of the knowledge developed overseas to our pipelines in Australia. The first three papers, presented by McKinnon, Gaffard and Wang respectively, described advances in the understanding of pipelines under high strain conditions such as ground movement in different parts of the world. Failures of pipelines under strain conditions is less well understood than other failures, and typically occurs in wrinkles or buckles or girth welds. As well as discussing strain-based design methods, this session focused on integrity management practices for pipelines in strain risk areas. Typical geohazards such as landslides, frost heave, seismic faults etc. were reviewed. Monitoring and measurement practices were described including strain gauges, inclinometers, inertial mapping by ILI (“geopig”) and subsequent bending strain analysis. Processes and frameworks for analysis of and response to strain incidents including assessment and repair were proposed. A paper by Hohler on the strain capacity of large diameter pipes presented results from full-scale 4-point bending tests undertaken at Salzgitter Mannesmann Forschung in Germany. The APGA/EPCRC tour group visited this site later in the trip. The paper gave a description of the test rig and the optical strain measurements used. Tests were done under pressure and imposed large bending deflections on pipes around DN900. Impressively, none of the pipes failed – buckles occurred but without cracking or loss of containment. Skow’s paper on ILI Crack Tool performance evaluation was a statistical study on a large population of SCC and long seam cracks. The research compared ILI results to field NDE comparison and assessed the detection and sizing effectiveness of a range of crack detection tools. Deschamps gave a very interesting paper on monitoring of pipelines and ground movement using InSAR (interferometric synthetic aperture radar). This was applied to above ground facilities and to buried pipeline ROWs and a number of real case studies were presented. InSAR was shown to be a useful tool for monitoring ROWs by satellite and providing real ground movement data. The final paper in the session, by Hobeiche, discussed the area of route selection for onshore pipelines. The overall process, from initial corridor study through to agreements for construction and operation, was proposed in a framework. Issues such as constructability; soil types; geohazards and other route selection issues were discussed. Overall this session was of particular interest to the pipeline operators in Australia who are already using some of the monitoring techniques for pipelines in geohazard areas and will benefit from improved standardisation and understanding of the issues and techniques involved.

1.1.4

Technical Session 4 – Integrity Assessment, Operations and Risk

Session 4 of the JTM related to integrity assessment, operations and risk. In the area of integrity assessment, it was interesting to learn about potential changes to the American pipeline defect assessment tool (ASME B31G) and also a new “rule of thumb” being proposed for weld SCC in vintage pipelines, as well as a new dent assessment tool (dents provide sites for increased corrosion and fatigue crack initiation and growth). Various defect assessment tools are cross-referenced in AS 2885.3, so this is directly relevant to the Australian pipeline industry.

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A fourth paper followed logically from the defect assessment papers, which was about defect repair using composite wraps. The presentation laid out a “roadmap” for future research into composite wraps. It did not focus on actual research outcomes, but provided a summary of what information has already been gained about composite wraps, what work is still to be done, and what has taken the final step of being embedded into standards. This will be useful to any pipeline operator considering the use of composite materials for pipeline repair.

Figure 1.6: Charles Rottier (and other assorted audience) at one of the later technical sessions

After a coffee break, three Australian papers were presented. The first paper was by Ajit Godbole. Ajit presented his investigations into metal temperatures during pipeline blowdown, which he has previously presented at the International Pipeline Conference (IPC). The focus of the research was to determine the lowtemperature toughness demand for pipeline blowdown vent materials. His research shows that our industry has historically been conservative in material selection for venting systems, and so provided a potential cost saving for future designs. The last two papers in this session were by Vanessa McDermott and Jan Hayes of RMIT – who presented their work in the field of sociology. McDermott provided an interim report on managing third-party motivations for reducing the potential for pipeline strike. It laid out all the questions that are being addressed, and the conclusions of her finished work will be of broad interest to the pipeline community. Hayes presented an overview of her investigations into the well-known San Bruno pipeline rupture. The perspective taken by the RMIT projects into public safety asserts that the highest level of “safety maturity” (which results in the lowest level of incidents) can only be achieved when a company addresses human and organisational factors in additional to basic physical causes of risk. Jan Hayes’ paper presented the concepts of “fantasy planning” – when the purpose of a plan is to assert that uncontrolled risks are controlled, and “black swans” – a metaphor for events that cannot be predicted with the current level of knowledge, and are hence viewed fatalistically when they eventuate, i.e. “some things just happen”. Hayes recently co-authored a book on this incident, which provides much more detail.

1.1.5

Technical Session 5 – Materials, Welding and Offshore

Session 5 kicked off with four presentations focused on pipeline materials. Third-year PHD student Clement Soret opened the session, describing how engineering criticality assessments can be improved by using SENT specimens for pipeline material fracture toughness determination. Marion Erdelen-Peppler next took the stand, describing research by SZMF to work out geometrical limitations for drop weight tear testing of seamless pipe. Unexpected results from the testing (and a related concurrent project) led the team to dig deeper regarding inverse and brittle fracture. The work has instigated further testing programs and follow-up projects comparing fracture surfaces of air-filled pipes with high pressure gas samples. Aaron Dinovitzer of Page 9 of 44

Canada took us through a suite of technologies that the PRCI are developing with which to determine pipe material strength of existing pipelines. All non-destructive techniques, the methods allow operators to evaluate pipe properties such as yield strength of pre-regulation assets. Wrapping up the materials talk was veteran JTM delegate Brian Leis, presenting the evaluation of time-delayed failure in pipelines that have suffered mechanical damage. The PRCI, EPRG, and EPCRC joint project aims to develop an enhanced Ductile Flaw Growth Model, improving responses to mechanical damage events where delayed failure is plausible. The Session then turned towards welding research. An investigation of low bond line toughness in HFW pipe was presented by Carlos Perez Arnaez. Hundreds of Charpy specimens from the weld zone were tested. Notching distance and tilting angle were studied to develop a reliable method of testing the bond line. Marie Quintana of the Lincoln Electric Company described an alternative essential welding variable methodology that has been based on microstructure controlling material performance. Driven by industry demand, pipeline arc welding has become more sophisticated and essential welding variables drive weld performance. The final welding paper was presented by Simon Slater from MACAW Engineering. They are developing contemporary weld procedures for welding split tees up to 80 mm thick. The project was to qualify semi-mechanised gas shielded flux core arc welding procedures for 50 mm material. Overall welding times recorded were over 2mm per second faster for the root, hot pass, and fill than manual shielded metal arc welding. The JTM organisers clearly had decided to save the best until last, and when the eagerly anticipated offshore papers were presented, they did not disappoint. Christian Schruff, quality manager at Europipe’s Mulheim pipe mill, took the delegates on a journey to 2,000 m deep beneath the Black Sea, where extremely high-tech pipeline material was required for the South Stream Project. New inline heat treatment methods were developed to control ovality and improve compression strength for maximum collapse resistance. Demanding quality control, including laser-scanning of the pipe joints for dimensional accuracy, was also essential to guarantee compliance with stringent specifications. From Bulgaria to Brazil, Tanja Schmidt of Vallourec presented the manufacture of pipe material for steel catenary risers in 1300m to 1900m water depth. The high-pressure high-temperature seamless pipe is required to withstand high fatigue loading and this necessitates concentric, reproducible pipe end geometry manufactured to tight tolerances. An advanced pipe end design was used that involved additional wall thickness to allow machining. The pipe joints are essentially a precision product for use with the J-lay deep water pipeline installation method.

1.1.6

Networking

Throughout the JTM, opportunities were provided for the delegates to network and get to know one another, during a variety of scheduled and unscheduled events.

Figure 1.7: Some scenes from the opening night of the JTM

The JTM opened with a reception at the Tour Montparnasse on Monday evening. The tower is one of the tallest buildings in the old city of Paris – just a whisker short of the Eiffel Tower itself. Built in the seventies, Tour Montparnasse is considered by many to be an eyesore, but on the contrary, it is one of the greatest vantage points from which to see Paris! And that’s just what the delegates and guests did, crowding around the binoculars facing west, some even braving the biting wind to venture out onto the roof for the full 360 Page 10 of 44

degree experience. The champagne was excellent and the food was delicious – if a bit mysterious. Gerhard Knauf MC’d the event in his usual style; professional with a bit of humour, putting everyone in the room at ease. After a brief presentation from Annie Audibert-Hayet of Total, the room returned to the hubbub of networking banter, making new acquaintances, and posing for the cameraman. Overall, it was a superb evening, and launch for the week.

Figure 1.8: Steve and Gerhard share a joke while Ann is busy looking good

The second social event was a dinner cruise on the river Seine on Wednesday evening. Everyone bussed down to the Port de la Bourdonnais in their suits and gowns to be greeted with a Kir Royale on boarding. The water was high, so instead of steaming downriver into old Paris we headed out of the city towards the countryside. As luck would have it, the view was not inappropriate for a group of engineers and scientists; we were treated to a tour of the cement works, construction barges, and material depots that sprawl on the banks of the Seine! Not to mention travelling through time to view dazzling architecture from bygone decades. Some elaborate and ornate, some... not so much. Paul Roovers of Fluxys addressed the crowd before dinner was served, and later magicians made their rounds entertaining table by table. After a fantastic trip we were all delivered back to Paris safe and sound, in time to be enchanted by the Eiffel Tower light show.

Figure 1.9 - Ajit contemplates, Nick gesticulates

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th

Friday the 8 May marks Liberation Day in France, a celebration of the end of WWII. It is a national holiday, so no technical tour was possible. It was only appropriate to visit the very place at which the Treaty of Versailles was signed some 95 years prior: The Palace of Versailles. The party was split into manageable groups and embarked upon spoken tours of the site. The sheer detail and beauty is astounding, but by the end of the tour, the tales of vanity and opulence have one sympathizing with the revolutionaries. A brisk walk through the gardens took us to our lunch destination, to reflect on our luck at having been born into an age of opportunity and equality. In addition to the scheduled events there were many opportunities during meals and coffee breaks to meet pipeliners from all over the world. Several evenings we went in various directions with newly-made international friends, visiting the Sacre-Coeur, the Eiffel Tower, Notre Dame, and all sorts of restaurants. We particularly enjoyed meeting other young pipeliners from the UK, Germany, France, Canada and America – two of whom we specifically met with on the Tuesday afternoon to discuss their ideas for an international collaboration between young pipeliner organisations (Canadian YPAC, USA’s YPP, and Australia’s YPF). This has subsequently led to the formation of an international committee with two representatives from each of these organisations.

Figure 1.10 – The Australian scholarship recipients, with delegates from YPAC (Canada) and the YPP (USA)

1.2 ENGIE (formerly GDF Suez) 1.2.1

Company Overview

The ‘study tour’ part of the trip commenced with a visit to CRIGEN in Paris on the Monday of the JTM conference. ENGIE is the company formerly known as GDF Suez and is a group with 75% ownership of GRTgaz, the transmission system operator (TSO) in France. GRTgaz manages over 32,000 km of infrastructure. CRIGEN is the ENGIE group research and operational expertise centre, located at Plaine Saint-Denis on the northern outskirts of Paris.

1.2.2

Key Contacts    

Mures Zarea, Scientific Coordinator and Partnerships [email protected] Charles Fernandez, Pipeline and Soil Protection, [email protected] Didier Caron, Senior project Manager [email protected] Michel Hardy, Project Manager – Network Engineering [email protected] Page 12 of 44

1.2.3

Facility Visits / Discussion Topics

A series of technical presentations were provided by CRIGEN staff during the APGA tour visit. Charles Fernandez presented his work on software development for pipeline integrity management. CRIGEN has developed in-house software to carry out integrity engineering assessment on pipeline anomalies, including a smartphone app for use in the field. Where complex defects such as dents, gouges and corrosion are exposed in the field, they can be laserscanned to provide a high-definition 3D digital representation of the pipe surface. The laser scan data can then be imported into the software and calculations run to assess the failure pressure and safety factors. The software can interface with separate finite element analysis packages to enable a very detailed analysis of a defect to determine repair requirements.

Figure 1.11 – Some burst test cut-outs at the CRIGEN facility

Didier Caron gave an overview of ENGIE’s approach to transmission pipeline integrity management and took the group on a tour of the CRIGEN integrity test laboratory. The laboratory conducts burst tests and can simulate a range of corrosion and mechanical damage on pipes. The laboratory also conducts qualification tests on repair materials such as compression sleeves prior to their acceptance for general use in the company. Michel Hardy gave an overview of the gas distribution networks asset management in France including the importance of geospatial information systems (GIS) and recent developments in radio frequency identification (RFID) tagging of excavations. This involves placement of RFID devices in excavations during construction of new pipes or maintenance of existing pipes, so that they are easily located in the future. Additional information can be stored on the tags including pipeline dimensions, dates, and the like. Risk and process safety modelling is also an important area for CRIGEN and the final presentation gave the tour group an overview of ENGIE’s approach to this topic.

1.2.4

Lessons Learnt

The level of investment for in-house research and technology demonstrated by the existence of CRIGEN was impressive to the tour group. Similar companies in Australia typically have only limited internal research and technology capabilities. ENGIE has clearly spent significant time and effort developing and optimising its operational capabilities by internal research and development. It was also noted that CRIGEN actively markets its services and abilities to other companies and its laboratory facilities are used on a commercial basis to provide additional revenue. Page 13 of 44

1.3 Total – CSTJF Pau 1.3.1

Company Overview

Total is a France-based, multinational oil and gas company, and one of the six so-called ‘supermajor’ oil and gas companies – making it one of the largest companies in the world (i.e. $236 billion revenue and $1.3 billion R&D budget in 2014, more detail below). It undertakes projects all over the globe to explore and locate oil and gas reserves, develop them, and finally sell the resources on international and domestic markets. The company has over 100,000 employees in over 130 countries. As is described below, the Lacq field in southern France is a major part of Total’s history. Because of its location, Total built their main R&D facility, the CSTJF, in Pau in the South of France. It was this facility that we visited.

1.3.2

Key Contacts   

1.3.3

Pascal Breton, Total External Communications [email protected] Nicolas Cambefort, Deputy VP of Project and Construction Division [email protected] Carlos Viale, Pipeline Engineer [email protected]

Company History

The history of Total goes as far back as 1920 when the Compagnie Financiere Belge des Petroles was created by a group of Belgium bankers and investors, following the merge of petroleum companies by German banks. In 1922 the company was renamed PetroFina. It encompassed petroleum activities from explorations, extraction, production refining, transportation, manufacturing, storage and drilling equipment maintenance. In 1924 the Compagnie Francaise des Petroles was created to develop oil production controlled by the French. The same year PetroFina France was created to serve the marketing interests of the company in France. 1939 saw the beginning of Elf Aquitaine following the discovery of a gas field 1600 meters deep in South west of France. However it wasn’t until 1967 that the Elf brand was launched. In 1949 the Lacq oil field was discovered in south-west France, near Pau. Two years later a deep gas field with a reserve estimated to 250 billion cubic meters was also discovered. The gas field processing plant was commissioned in 1957. This sour High Pressure and High Temperature (HPHT) reservoir ended production in 2013, after 97% of recovery and a production that lasted 15 years more than initially planned. The region is considered the birthplace of the French Natural gas industry and provided at one time up to 90% of France’s natural gas demand. The Total brand, part of CFP, was created in 1954. Total replaced the name Total CFP completely by 1991. In 1969, CFP-Total, Elf and Petrofina entered a partnership following the Ekofisk oil field discovery in the North Sea. Further cooperation between Elf and Total were agreed for the production of intermediate petrochemical products. In 1971, the two companies merged their petrochemicals businesses under the umbrella name of ATO. In 1998 Total and PetroFina merged their activities. The company was known as TotalFina in 1999. In 2000 TotalFina and Elf Aquitaine merged and adopt the name TotalFinaElf, creating the fourth-ranked oil major. The group name is changed to Total in 2003. The visual identity we know today was unveiled. Page 14 of 44

Today Total is an integrated energy company. Its central activities revolve around exploration and production of oil and natural gas in more than 50 countries with interests in 21 refineries, 700 production facilities and 15,000 gas stations around the world. The daily production amounts to 2,146 kboe, including 20% of LNG. Total sold 12 million tons of LNG in 2014 and 1.8 million barrels per day of refinery throughput. th

As the 5 Oil and Gas company in the world in 2014, Total generated 236.1 B$ in revenue, 12.8 B$ net income and spent 26.4 B$ in investments. 1.9 B$ will be invested in 2015 for exploration. 8 new projects will start in August 2015 with an estimated additional production of 125 kboe per day. Closer to home, Total owns a 30% share in the Santos-operated GLNG project, and the Inpex-operated Icthys project. Through its shipping and trading venture, Total has expertise in shipping and vessels and purpose built carriers to the specifics of its projects. As of late 2013, Total possessed a fleet of 46 double hulls time charter ships. With an oil demand increase of 0.6% per year, 5 Mb/d of new production will be needed by 2030. New technologies are required to cope with the demand and to balance the loss in production, highlighting the importance of R&D to remain competitive. To this end Total invested 8.8 B$ to R&D between 2013 & 2017. Total is also an important player in the development of new energies through its Biomass and solar photovoltaic activities. With their affiliate Sunpower, Total is the second-largest operator in the world. In 2012 Total introduced Awango, a line of solar lighting and charging solutions for low income and off-the-grid communities, mostly in Africa. Awango sold 880,000 solar lamps and provided access to energy for 4.4 million people by the end of 2014. Furthermore, in 2010, Total developed a 60 M€ integrated Carbon Capture and Storage project. The CO2 was captured from Lacq and transported by pipelines to Rousse where it was compressed and stored. 51,000 tons of CO2 was injected in two years. The storage will be monitored for 5 years.

1.3.4

Facility Visit and Presentations

The tour spent a day at the Total Centre Scientific et Technique Jean Féger located in Pau, southwest of France, about 20 km from the Lacq oil and gas fields. The visit brought a detailed overview of the laboratories and activities on drilling & completion, fluids & organic geochemistry, production & corrosion, Petro-physics mechanisms, EOR, as well as sedimentary & structural interpretations.

Figure 1.12: The Total CSTJF facility

The CSTJF is a diversified technology support and R&D facility with a full range of oil and gas industry expertise such as petroleum exploration, appraisal discoveries, design of borehole trajectories and deployment of solutions to improve recovery factors and manage industrial impacts. Total has other R&D centres deployed worldwide in Aberdeen, Calgary, Doha, Houston, Lacq (the CO2 sequestering facility near Pau), Moscow and Stavaiger.

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2

The CSTJF was designed in the early 1980s on a site of 30 hectares. About 40 buildings offer 30,000 m of 2 offices and 5,000 m of laboratories to the 2750 people on site of which 437 are in the exploration department, 366 in development, 358 in operations, 349 in Finance and IT and 179 are in R&D. As a technical and communication hub of the company, the CSTJF carries out 3500 assignments each month to support Total sites around the world and provides training to the employees of the group. Following an overview presentation of the company by Pascal Breton, Deputy director project division Nicolas Cambefort presented a case study of the management of a big project at Total – the $8 billion, deep offshore CLOV project in the so-called “Golden block” (Block 17 ) in Angola. Though all major projects are different, Total has a common method for executing them – including basic milestones, timeframe and organisational structure for the project team. These major projects go through a phase of integrated studies including prospects and conceptual pre-project that lasts approximately four years. The project development lasts approximately three years and involves a project team of around 400 people. Calls for tenders (6 to 12 months), basic engineering (8 to 12 months) and detailed engineering (12 to 24 months), construction (36 to 42 months) and commissioning (4 to 8 months) are planned over these first 7 years. At the end of the field operations (generally 20 to 30 years) a project enters its site restitution and restoration phase (1 to 3 years). In the presentation, they drew attention to a couple of recent trends in their management of major projects. One is doing more design before FID; even though this means that more money is spent with potentially no return if the project is rejected, it reduces risk of having inaccurate pricing at FID – which is considered a greater risk. This philosophy also includes ‘ECI’ – Early Contractor Involvement – which means engaging potential contractors to assist in the development of the design and the final constructed price. This creates the potential for non-competitive pricing, but this risk can be managed. It does, however, further reduce the risk of passing FID with an inaccurate project cost estimate.

Figure 1.13: The CLOV project FPSO

CLOV started in 2010. The manufacturing of the Floating Production Storage & Offloading (FPSO) started in the second quarter of 2011, and it travelled to Angola in 2013. Following the start of the drilling operations in the third quarter of 2012, the first oil was produced in 2014. The project is designed for a production plateau of 160,000 b/day. CLOV involves 34 subsea wells connected to the CLOV FPSO unit at depths of 1100 to 1400 m to process the oils from Oligocene and Miocene sedimentary beds. Eight manifolds and 1 multiphase pump constitute the subsea pumping system. The flow temperature is controlled to avoid the formation of hydrates. The manifolds are modular to allow ROVs to take apart, repair and recommission the system. THE CSTJF includes a geo-sciences department, whose focus is to discover, understand and describe the specific features of the petroleum reservoirs and the complex geological structures that contain oil, gas, and water. Their analyses aim at generating detailed models of reservoir architecture and internal structure as well as the behaviour of the fluids set in motion by the production process. With a drilling cost that can exceed 1 Page 16 of 44

million dollars per day, optimisation of the drilling location and trajectory for maximising recovery is important and is approached in detail. The chain of analysis starts with drilling geological cores and sampling fluid at identified locations supported by GIS data. The CSTJF has an archive of 500,000 cores from around the world with the oldest from 1938. Approximately 1 km of cores are delivered every year to the CSTJF. The composition of the cores are studied along their length in detail and CT scanned for three dimensional imaging.

Figure 1.14: Core sample storage and analysis at the CSTJF

The physical properties of the reservoir rock and their ability to contain or permit the flow of oil and gas are analysed. The fluids are studied under reservoir temperature and pressure conditions. Some experiments last several months in order to understand how the product will behave over a typical twenty-year producing life of a reservoir. Seismic technology based on acoustic waves complement the hard data from the cores to obtain a broader picture of the geological layers. The data is then used to build a three-dimensional model of the contours and internal architecture of the oil traps. The CSTJF can then recommend acquisition systems for offshore and onshore operations. The sheer amount of data necessary to represent and analyse the reservoirs necessitate dedicated computing resources. The CSTJF deployed and manages Pangea, a high performance computer with 2.3 petaflops of computing power. The system runs calculation codes developed in-house for subsurface seismic images and reservoir modelling. Despite having currently 110,000 cores and 442 TB of memory, Total still continues to improve Pangea. The 2016 upgrade will raise its computing power to 6.7 petaflops, in the top 10 of the most powerful HPCs in world. The CSTJF provides further support through other phases of a project. The drilling operations are supported by the rock mechanics laboratories through analysis of the responses of the rocks to drilling, and formulation of cements and muds for smooth drilling operations. High pressure (> 1000 bars) and high temperature (> 200 C), highly corrosive environments can dramatically affect productivity. To support the individual challenges of its production sites the CSTJF carries out a range of corrosion tests such as Sulphide SCC tests and jet impingement following EU and NACE standards with acidic gases such as hydrogen sulphide and carbon dioxide. Static autoclaves at high pressure (1000 bars) and high temperature (300C) allow testing in conditions of the reservoir. The centre qualifies metal materials and corrosion inhibitors for use on projects and assesses their performance with bubble tests and anticorrosion tests carried out in a corrosion loop.

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Figure 1.15: The CSTJF supercomputer, Pangea

1.3.5

Lessons Learnt

The CSTJF is both an impressive R&D facility dedicated to Total core activities and a showcase of the resources necessary nowadays to compete in the global oil & gas industry. The scale of investments and resources deployed at Total is well above that of the other companies visited during the tour. Although the Oil and Gas industry is still the core activity, Total explores, researches and produces other forms of energy. Total public communication emphasises this aspect by portraying Total as an energy producer and provider.

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2 Germany Apart from the Monday trip to Total’s CSTJF, the second week was spent in Germany. We flew into Germany on the Monday afternoon and were picked up at the Airport by Gerhard Knauf – a senior manager at Salzgitter Mannesmann’s Forschung (SZMF), and also the current chair of the EPRG – who bundled us into a van that was hard-pressed to contain us and our luggage. We spent the whole time in the north-west region of the country – travelling through Dusseldorf, Duisburg, Munster, Hamm and Lingen. The region around Dusseldorf and Duisburg has a long history of involvement in steel and pipe production – and it seemed to be reflected in their town artwork (as seen below). Consequently, the learning focus for the Germany leg of our trip was materials – how pipe is made and how it is inspected, which we learnt by observation as we visited a series of steel and pipe mills, and finally the headquarters of pipeline inspection company, Rosen.

Figure 2.1: Duisburg's town artwork

S

S

M

T SZMF RESEARCH

CSTJF – TOTAL R&D FACILITY

PAU

HKM STEELWORKS PLATE ROLLING

DINNER – CARLOS, TOTAL

W

T

F LINGEN

MUNSTER TOUR

ROSEN – PIPELINE INSPECTION

DINNER – THOMAS, ROSEN

DINNER – OLAF, ROSEN

VALLOUREC SEAMLESS

SMLP – ERW PIPE

GERMANY DUSSELDORF

EUROPIPE – UOE PIPE

MUNSTER

DINNER – GERHARD, EPRG

DINNER – KRISTOFF, EUROPIPE

DINNER – THOMAS, ROSEN

Figure 2.2: Schedule for week 2 (Sunday 10 – Friday 15 May)

2.1 (SZMF) - Research 2.1.1

Company Overview

The Mannesmann Brothers are renowned in Dusseldorf for their tube making legacy that began 125 years ago. Their company expanded from tube and steel manufacture into multiple industries, forming a diverse conglomerate, up until the turn of the century. Since the 1930s the group has invested in practical research and development to improve production processes.

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2.1.2

Key Contacts  

2.1.3

Gerhard Knauf, Head of Engineering [email protected] Marion Erdelen-Peppler, [email protected]

Facility Visit

The SZMF facility is located right in the grounds of the steel works. The dedicated building comprises a long, double story structure with offices to one side and multiple adjacent laboratories to the other. There is a lab for each stage of the steel and pipeline material manufacturing process; from the extruder to the welds (the blast furnace is one process too complicated to reproduce). Each production step can be replicated in the lab and numerical modelling methods have been developed to simulate industrial modifications. There is a full complement of destructive testing facilities too, from the outdoor concrete pressure test pit, to one of the largest drop weight tear testing rigs you will ever see. However, none of the test equipment was more impressive than the Line-pipe Stress Analyser (LISA) that is capable of buckling pipe joints over 1 m diameter. The size of LISA is deceptive in photographs. Her 2,500 kN capacity rams stand over 3 m tall and dwarf you from the moment you walk into the room. LISA is used to validate computational models of pipeline structural behaviour, and is particularly relevant to strain-based design.

Figure 2.3 - LISA set up for a four-point bending test of a 36” UOE pipe

2.2 Huttenwerke Krupp Mannesman (HKM) – Steel making

2.2.1

Facility Visit

Once we had our breath back after meeting LISA, we walked over the road to the HKM visitor centre. A volunteer ex-steel worker presented a thorough overview of the plant and the global steel making industry. He didn’t speak a word of English, however Marion travelled with us, and was able to translate; she also seemed to summarise a lot of the information into a manageable amount for us, which we appreciated. With the PowerPoint complete, we piled into our minivan and went for a drive around the immense facility, which stretches over a kilometre in length. Page 20 of 44

First stop was the River Rhine, which provides barge transport for the imported coal and iron ore. Following the process in sequence, we next visited the enormous coking plant, where slabs of coal are heated and compacted at thousands of degrees to provide the “coke” fuel for the blast furnace. The plant was upgraded in recent years to double the capacity, and stretched as far as the eye could see. The coke ovens are continually serviced by a mobile, four-story high compactor and off-loader, which moves up and down the row of ovens on a pair of tracks.

Figure 2.4 – The HKM tour group

Skipping the blast furnace, we went directly to where the ‘magic’ happens, the casting shop. Because of the entrance we took, we saw this process in reverse. We walked in the back door, where the steel slabs and rounds were cooling off, and then saw the continuous caster. Massive 40 tonne slabs of steel were rolling off the production line, the edges just cooling to about 900 degrees, enough to start to lose the bright orange glow of super-heated metal. Another caster further along was making round billets. We climbed up onto the catwalk and skirted around the caster, basking in the radiated warmth of fresh steel, trying not to touch anything or get covered in black soot and grit. We looked down on rail cars with crucibles of molten pig-iron on board, waiting to be loaded into the converter. And then the highlight; we watched scrap metal being loaded into the 280 tonne converter, and then the crucible of pig-iron (as big as your lounge-room) was lifted almost 4 stories and tipped over, easy as pie, pouring liquid metal into the mix. It was better than fireworks. The oxygen lance was engaged and tonnes of oxygen injected, commencing the secondary metallurgy. Minds blown, it was time for lunch.

Figure 2.5 - HKM coking plant

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2.3 Salzgitter Mannesmann Grobblech (SMGB) – Plate rolling

2.3.1

Facility Visit

A short drive took us East to Mulheim to the heavy plate mill. This facility receives cast slabs directly from the steelworks and rolls the slabs into plate. The plate is then suitable for pipeline material. The process is straightforward: heat the slab in a furnace to 1500 degrees, descale, roll it flatter about 30 times, then it’s plate. The equipment however is incredible. The rolling machine is like a big pasta maker, but with 25 tonne capacity. It throws the slabs backwards and forwards on rollers as effortlessly as an air hockey disc, only not as quiet. We perched on an overpass above the 32 m long roller bed and watched the slab passing back and forth at surprising speed, and with each pass, becoming a little closer to plate than slab. It was quite mesmerising; I could have stood there for hours. After rolling the plate is precision-levelled and the edges sheared to make them square. Another impressive feat; the shears slice through 15 mm plate like it wasn’t there. Then it’s onto the cooling beds, where the plate is carefully shifted around to ensure it cools evenly (it’s still 600 degrees at this point), gradually inching towards the piling area where the finished plate is stacked for load out at ambient temperature. All the while, the plates have been tracked and controlled with automated hot stamping for identification, and coupons are sampled for quality control. The plant has additional capacity for heat treatment, shearing, levelling, and welding tabs, if required by the client. All in all, it is a clean and efficient plant with impressive capacity and attention to detail.

Figure 2.6- Steel slabs await rolling

2.4 Europipe (UOE pipe production) 2.4.1

Company Overview

EUROPIPE is headquartered in Mülheim an der Ruhr, Germany. They have production facilities for longitudinal seam-welded large-diameter pipes (up to 60” diameter and 40 mm wall thickness) in Germany (Mülheim), France and the USA. A new plant for helically welded pipes started production towards the end of 2008 in the USA. In order to protect the steel pipes against physical damage and corrosion, EUROPIPE offers coating methods to protect against corrosion. Modern coating and lining plants are located in the immediate vicinity of the pipe plants.

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2.4.2

Key Contacts

 

2.4.3

Dr Christoph Kalwa, Pre-sales, [email protected] Christian Schruff, Quality Engineer, [email protected]

Facility Visit

After witnessing the production of steel slabs from iron ore, and the plate from slabs, it was time to see pipe made from plate. So we crossed the road, and headed to Europipe’s UOE facility. Unfortunately the mill was not in production at the time, but we saw the machinery in operation in a video. The tour was a quick walkaround the factory, to view all the machinery that would typically be pumping out large diameter seam-welded pipe joints. The advantage, of course, was that no earplugs were required, and it was a pleasant end to the day to be able to ask questions without the competition of heavy industry noise. UOE pipe is made from plate from four consecutive processes – U-ing (bending the plate into a U shape, O-ing – bending the plate over into an O shape, welding the seam at the top of the O, and finally Expanding the pipe to the correct inner diameter. The materials they use are very strong, extending even up to X100 in their commercially available range. In each of the forming stages there is a significant spring-back due to the pipe’s elasticity and strength; they have experimented with higher grades of steel (X110 and X120) but the springback is so high that it is difficult to form, and the pipe did not end up very round. The highlight of the visit was the U- and O-presses, with the capacity to bend 18m long heavy plates into 1.5 m diameter pipes in minutes. Christian explained how the ‘O’ shaping process had been improved in recent years to close the gap at the seam from a few centimetres to a few millimetres to facilitate more reliable welds. In fact, the mill was responsible for a number of innovations required to meet demanding client specifications. Out of 20 or so steps in the UOE manufacturing process, more than half are actually quality control measures. They range from visual, ultra-sonic and x-ray inspections (twice) to sampling and hydro-testing of each joint. The final geometry inspection can utilise laser scanning technology for ultra-high precision pipeline requirements.

2.4.4

Lessons Learnt

It was interesting to realise how varied the pipe material requirements can be for different branches of the industry. Europipe were very engaged in understanding the use of the pipe that they sell, so that they could customise it for the project demands. For example, arctic pipe requires low-temperature toughness, hightemperature pipe requires high-temperature strength and creep resistance, sour-service pipe requires properties to resist some internal corrosion threats, sub-sea pipe and onshore pipe can be different, pipe for strain-based design is different from traditional stress-based design pipe, liquid lines and gas lines will have differing fracture propagation requirements. Europipe have been heavily involved in understanding these demands so that they can provide a high-level of practical expertise to their customers.

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2.5 Vallourec (Seamless Pipe) - Hamm 2.5.1

Company Overview

Vallourec is a French seamless pipe company, with several facilities around the world. We visited their German facility near Duisburg. They have two seamless pipe production methods available at this plant – a plug mill and a Pilger mill. The facility was very old, and originally owned by Mannesmann, and some of these manufacturing techniques were originally developed and pioneered at that facility.

2.5.2

Key Contacts



2.5.3

Tanja Schmidt, [email protected]

The Plug Mill

In the Plug mill, steel billets (solid cylinders, or ‘rounds’) which have been made using the continuous casting method are heated in two stages until their temperature exceeds 1000 degrees Celsius. After this, they are pushed by conical rollers over a piercing mandrel, which creates a hole down the centre. Once the billets are pierced, they are rolled over one or more “plugs” – which are mandrels that increase the internal diameter even further. By this combination of rollers external to the pipe, and plugs inside it, the wall thickness and diameter required for the finished product is eventually achieved and then the pipe is straightened. Re-heating of the tube is sometimes required during its manufacture because the steel is continually cooling down from the moment it leaves the oven. Consequently, this method of manufacture is very energy intensive. The plug mill was in operation when we visited, and we were all impressed by several things. The speed of the process was impressive – once the tube is pierced, the pipe is approximately 18m long, but it still flies over the plug in around 1 second. The plugs are lubricated with salt, but nevertheless require replacement on a frequent basis due to the high friction. Another noticeable effect was the oxidising of the steel on the surface, creating “mill scale”. The scale was hosed and shaken off the billet before piercing. At high temperatures, steel rusts so rapidly that it can burn with visible flames in the atmosphere. This looked spectacular as the pipe flew away from the piercing mandrill with flames billowing out of the end. We were surprised to see that straightening of the finished product for rectangular hollow sections was done manually by an operator who used his eye to judge where the section required straightening.

2.5.4

The Pilger Mill

Vallourec also have a Pilger Mill. This manufacturing process starts with a steel bloom (also a cylinder, but larger diameter than a billet). The blooms are individually cast, because a starting material that large cannot be made by continuous casting. After heating, the bloom is put in a cylindrical cast, and then a shaft is pressed down its centre, to punch a hole in it. The hole does not penetrate to the very end of the billet, so the end has to be punched out afterwards. The final size of the pipe is established by elongating it in the Pilger roller. This unique roller is designed so that the material flows in the opposite direction to the movement of the roller surface. This method cannot be used to complete the very ends of the pipe, so the ends are cut off, and wastage can be as much as 20% of the material on thick pipes.

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The Pilger mill was not in operation when we visited, but we were allowed to see the facility. We were impressed by the scale of the machine. The first step in the process – pressing the shaft into the bloom – requires a very high force. When they recently installed the current machine, they had to excavate the foundations of its predecessor, and found the foundations had broken up due to the repeated impact loading. We were also impressed by the wall thicknesses of pipe available to this method – which is the main advantage it has over other pipe manufacture methods; the thickest pipe we saw was over 100mm thick.

Figure 2.7: Heated billets being removed from the second oven

Figure 2.8: Hot tube being pushed back very fast after expansion over a plug

2.5.5

Lessons Learnt

The tour provided a high-level understanding of seamless pipe materials. In Australia these materials are not commonly used on pipelines (though it is not unheard of), but they are frequently used for facility piping. The group gained an understanding of:    

How seamless pipe is made What are key considerations in ensuring quality for seamless pipe When seamless pipe is more economical than other pipe manufacturing methods How seamless pipe compares with respect to manufacturing precision, achievable material properties, and energy consumption in manufacture. Page 25 of 44

2.6 Salzgitter Mannesmann Line Pipe (HFI ERW) 2.6.1

Company Overview

Salzgitter Mannesmann Line Pipe was the final pipe manufacturing company that we visited. At this facility they make ERW line pipe from coils of steel strip, and coat it – generally with Polyethylene. Their factory is shared with Salzgitter Mannesmann Precision, which also uses strip and skelp products, but makes precision components such as for the car industry. We were interested to see this facility, because ERW is the most frequently used product in the Australian pipeline industry.

2.6.2

Key Contacts  

2.6.3

Nils Schmidt, Australian Sales Contact, [email protected] Hendrik Loebbe, [email protected]

Facility Visit

Most of the facility was not operating when we visited, but there was still pipe in the machines, so were able to see how they worked. ERW pipe manufacture begins with uncoiling the strip, preparing the edge of the strip, and rolling it up into a circular tube through a series of rollers. Where the two edges come together, they are welded using the electrical resistance method – a high-frequency oscillating current across the two edges causes the steel at the face to melt, and the edges are then pressed together. The external and internal surfaces of the finished weld are scraped off, leaving a flush surface, and actually making the seam weld a little difficult to locate in the final product. The weld is annealed and then the pipe is sized by fixing the external diameter using rollers. Finally, the pipe is cut into lengths and the ends are bevelled as required. One part of the factory that was in operation was the square-hollow-section (SHS) production, where they heated round pipe using induction coils, and then passed it through flat rollers, which established a square cross-section. We were amazed that even though the steel passed through the induction coils fairly quickly and over a short distance, they heated it to glowing-red temperatures. The radiant heat from the SHS was difficult to bear as we walked past it – it was definitely the hottest we directly experienced in any of the steel processing plants. The mill had a broad range of options for testing the product, and some testing was being undertaken while we were at the facility. There are a number of standard tests they do, as well as a number of optional tests, which they will do if required by the purchase specification. We saw their longitudinal tensile tests, flattening tests, Charpy toughness tests, hardness tests, weld NDT machines, a machine for NDT of the source strip to look for delaminations, visual inspection and hydrotest of the finished product. Because they are often required in Australia, we asked about ring-expansion and round-bar tensile tests; these tests are not standard for them, but they do have access to that capability. At this facility, we also saw the coating plant. Their most common coatings are polyethylene (PE) coatings, extruded directly onto the pipe, either over the whole pipe at once, or side-extruded onto a rotating pipe for larger pipes (which leaves a characteristic spiral pattern to the coating). The coating plant was not in operation when we visited it.

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2.6.4

Lessons Learnt

ERW pipe is the main material of construction for Australian Pipelines. The group had varying degrees of preexisting knowledge about ERW pipe (a couple of us had seen ERW manufacture before, though most of us hadn’t). The main things that we learnt about were:   

How ERW pipe is made and coated The range of product testing and inspection that is available and/or recommended for ERW pipe. The ability to form ERW pipe into other shapes such as square sections

2.7 Münster Bicycle Tour After our visit to the various pipe mills in Duisburg and surroundings we had a day off, as it was a public Holiday in Germany. Thomas Beuker from ROSEN recommended that we should stay in the historic city of Münster the day before our visit to the ‘ROSEN Factory’. Given that Münster is also known as the bicycle capital of Germany he invited us for a bike tour around his hometown. To put you in the picture, Münster has more bicycles than people, multistorey carpark buildings just for bicycles, and 4,500 kilometres of signposted bicycle paths! After a guided walking tour through the old part of town we picked up our bicycles and started our adventure. We first cruised through the city for a while before we hit the green fields of the Münsterland: the beautiful countryside around the city. We cycled for hours from castle to castle – each one more impressive than the previous. Of course we also showed off our bike tricks that we learned as kids and raced each other up the hills. It was a great day which only got better when we got off our bikes that evening to sit down on nice terrace next to the river for a big glass of locally brewed beer. Special thanks to Thomas Beuker (ROSEN) for taking us on an amazing ride!

Figure 2.9: Munster had several significant bicycle-parks, including one at the local train station (top, this shows only the first row of bicycle parks) and (bottom) less formal parking in the town squares.

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Figure 2.10: Scenes from our Munster bicycle tour

2.8 ROSEN ILI tool manufacturing and research - Lingen 2.8.1

Company Overview

ROSEN is a world-renowned pipeline inspection company. Rosen fabricate and maintain a fleet of inspection tools, which use a variety of technologies for inspecting the wall of metal pipes. They book these tools to pipeline operators all over the world. Rosen has approximately 40% of the market share in pipeline inspection services.

2.8.2

Key Contacts  

2.8.3

Thomas Beuker, Rosen Corporate Marketing Manager, [email protected] Dr. Olaf Stawicki, International ILI Service Manager, [email protected]

Company History

Founded in 1981 by Hermann Rosen, ROSEN started with the exploration of diversified niche markets and businesses as an engineering and consultancy firm for electric design and home automation in Lingen, Germany. It took several years for the company to identify the need for instrumented tools for oil and gas pipeline integrity. The company had 10 employees to develop the know-how and its new fields of activity in this industry. From 1990, ROSEN expanded its activities globally and closer to its market in the USA, Malaysia and the Netherlands. The company built its reputation from a “can-do” mentality and high-end solutions tailored to the technical challenges of its customers. During this decade ROSEN established itself as a challenger. Page 28 of 44

While the first decade of the new millennium saw the group consolidating its position as an in-line inspection solution provider, it was also a time of diversification of its portfolio. The development of ROPLAST (development and manufacturing of advanced polyurethane products) and Rosen Integrity Systems (ROIS) opened new markets to the group. ROSEN entered the present decade in the position of technology leader. The group provides services for inspections, integrity solutions and R&D solutions. It delivers a range of products from software, instruments and sensors, high performance elastomers, intelligent plastic systems, coatings and cleaning tools to a panel of industries such as aerospace, marine, oil & gas and transportation & security. Over the years ROSEN has inspected over 1,000,000 km of pipelines all over the world. With its headquarters in Switzerland, the group is also present in 120 countries, including Australian offices in Adelaide and Melbourne. It employs 2200 people. The ROSEN Technology and Research Centre (RTRC) was built in 2012 in Lingen, Germany. It is the ‘Technology Pool’ of the ROSEN Group. It integrates R&D, manufacturing and maintenance of various inspection tools and other equipment. A staggering 85% of its products are manufactured in house, from connectors to sensors, from electronic circuits to data acquisition systems, from cleaning polyurethane cups to Titanium components. ROSEN designs, manufactures and tests every component to fulfil its needs.

2.8.4

Facility Visit and Presentations

The Lingen RTRC is dedicated to the development of solutions for the market's future needs. It performs extensive applied research and development in areas such as electronics, mechanical engineering, chemistry and software. The core activity is to support the development of the technologies and the manufacturing of 16 global subsidiaries and to provide the necessary technologies to fulfil the needs of the group’s customers.

Figure 2.11: The Rosen Technology Centre (RTC) in Lingen, Germany

The ROSEN site in Lingen is home of the Intelligent Plastic Solutions Plant, the Integrity Solutions and the onsite ROKIDS day-care facility. The factory manufactures electronics, mechanical, sensors and electromechanical devices and parts. The innovation building employs 650 people. The tour was hosted by Thomas Beuker, Olaf Stawicki, Judith Weigold and Matthias Lohaus. Presentations on the ROSEN Group, the ROSEN Intelligent Plastic solutions, ROSEN Asset Integrity Management Software and the Electromagnetic acoustic transducer (EMAT) were given. A visit of the facilities allowed the group to touch base with the core activities of the RTRC. On the software side, the ROSEN Asset Integrity Management Software (ROAIMS) was first implemented in 2006 before the ROSEN Integrity Solutions was spun off in 2009. ROAIMS is a collection of interoperable software tools for asset maintenance that conforms to ASME B31.8s, API 1160 and PNGRB-IMS. The centralised implementation interfaces with the entire IT landscape of a pipeline operator through modules dedicated to asset management, risk assessment, FFP assessment, corrosion comparison, threat diagnosis, stress analysis (bending strain using ILI), task management and GIS analysis. ROSEN Intelligent Plastic solutions (ROPLASTS) were developed to answer the group’s need for better polyurethane (PE). All PEs are developed in house and cover cups, discs and pipe caps. Other PE applications Page 29 of 44

include separation equipment (APEX, Vortex, and Hydro-cyclones), asset protection, wear protection and internal coatings. The latter are also applied at ROSEN’s new internal coating facility in Calgary, Canada. External spray coatings are currently in a development phase.

Figure 2.12: Rosen's internally lined pipe

ROSEN offers a range of cleaning tools for wax removal, black dust removal, dewatering and commissioning, systems for the application of inhibitors, as well as in-line cleaning tools used in preparation prior to inspection. The tools are also classified depending on the type of cleaning require, from standard to heavy duty cleaning and active cleaning. The range of inspection tools and detection technologies allows the detections of coating damage, mill related features, mechanical damage or long seam defects. More challenging defects such as general corrosion, metal loss, internal corrosion and sharp external corrosion also have their dedicated tools. Inertial mapping tools provide XYZ mapping information.

Figure 2.13: A large diameter inspection tool

The tools can carry several detection technologies amongst axial and circumferential Magnetic Flux Leakage (MFL), Ultrasonic Transducers (UT) and Eddy Current (EC). The latter is suitable for non-magnetic materials such as Carbon Resistant Alloys (CRA). Electromagnetic Acoustic Transducers (EMATs) are used for crack and coating disbondment detection. Rosen EMAT has completed 24,000 km of inspection on 250 pipelines. More than 4,254 crack-like anomalies have been verified since 2008. Most tools are designed for operations up to 150 bars with specialised systems allowing up to 300 bars. Operating temperatures are limited to about 65°C. The fleet is also made of systems for bidirectional operations or multi-diameter pipelines. Typical minimum bend radius is 1.5 pipe diameters. The spatial resolution of the inspection data is generally between 2.9 mm and 5.9 mm.

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The visit of the workshops was impressive by the level of resources and the know-how employed to design even the smallest and benign component. A fleet of 19 CNC machines and ancillary stations are available. ROSEN also provides equipment for the training of apprentices. Throughout the tour, the visitors could look closely at the assembly lines of the inspection tools, the manufacturing of electronic circuits, sensors and the assembly of components, the manufacturing of the batteries, and the testing of wires and connectors. The data acquisition chain, completed with an in-house operating system, is nothing less than astonishing.

Figure 2.14: Rosen's manufacturing and test facility

In a subcontracting world it is rare to contemplate such a wide range of technologies being designed and manufactured at a single site, especially at this level of technology. The commitment of ROSEN to develop the components suited to its need is truly remarkable. The visit was completed by a walk through the pull through test yard where the tools are tested on a range of pipes and, occasionally, on pipes coming from a particular customer to tailor the systems. Electric Discharge Machining is sometime employed to create specific defects.

2.8.5

Lessons Learnt

The RTRC was possibly the most surprising visit of the tour and, for some of us, a day of discoveries of what makes an in-line inspection ecosystem. The expansion of ROSEN is tightly connected to its philosophy whereby improving each and every component of its system can open new markets. To this end, its “can-do” attitude is not over stated. The RTRC has many common features with Total’s CSTJT. They are both centralised R&D facilities and centres of knowledge providing support to their respective groups around the world.

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3 Italy The third weekend of our journey began with a Saturday Morning flight to Venice in Italy. While we were in Italy, we would be visiting SNAM Rete Gas – the company that operates Italy’s gas transmission pipeline network, and SNAM Italgas – an affiliated company with a long history, which manages the gas distribution network in the city of Venice.

ITALY VENICE

M

T

W

T

SNAM RETE GAS PIPELINE

SNAM ITALGAS – VENICE DISTRIBUTION

ENAGAS – LNG FACILITY

ENAGAS – R&D FACILITY

SARAGOSA

MADRID

SNAM RETE GAS – COMPRESSOR STATION

VENICE CRUISE

SPAIN BARCELONA

DINNER – VALERIA, SNAM Figure 3.1: Schedule for week 3 (Monday 18 – Thursday 21 May)

The weekend in Venice was a chance to relax and recover from a long week of flying, riding, and walking around Germany. None of us rushed ourselves, but we did take the opportunity to wander the streets of Venice, observing the shops, admiring the infrastructure, avoiding pedestrian traffic, sampling the food and drink, and catching up on laundry. The streets of Venice are lively and hence feel safe, even late into the evening. Once you get away from the highly trafficked route from the causeway to the Rialto Bridge and Saint Mark’s square, the city is easier to enjoy. The experience of wandering through the city is a repeating cycle of narrow streets, opening onto the occasional narrow canal bridge, and then frequently opening up into a square – which usually has a well, a bell-tower, a church, and a street-level pub.

Figure 3.2: A view of the Grand Canal at Venice

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We thought that after our weekend in Venice we had probably done all the ‘tourism’ that we could expect, and then it would be down to business. In one sense we were right – the Monday and Tuesday were very educational. However, our hosts treated us to dinner on the Monday at a very highly-rated seafood restaurant near our Hotel, which had a tremendous number of courses and was probably ‘technically’ the best food we had on our trip. Then, on the Tuesday once the formal presentations and visits were over, our hosts ended our visit with an impromptu boat tour of Venice and some spritz for a pre-lunch drink. In that tour we probably doubled the number of photos we had taken from the previous fortnight, and we all agreed that you haven’t really seen Venice until you’ve seen it from the water.

3.1 SNAM Rete Gas 3.1.1

Company Overview

SNAM is Italy’s leading natural gas transporter. Simplified a little, SNAM’s gas transmission pipeline network looks like a large trunkline stretching down the length of Italy. In fact, this main route often consists of several parallel lines, and they have diameters up to 56”. Because these pipelines are large diameter, this “core” of their network has large inventory, and low pressure losses, so it functions as a large gas-bottle for the whole country. The inputs to the system include some onshore production, but mostly imports through: LNG regasification terminals (though in Italy LNG is called GNL), pipeline connections in the North that link to Russian gas sources, and sub-sea pipelines to Tunisia and Libya in the south – most of which are also operated by SNAM. Also included in the network is gas storage using depleted reservoirs and salt caverns.

3.1.2

Key Contacts

 

3.1.3

Luca Bacchi, [email protected] Valeria Capuzzi, Environmental Engineer [email protected]

SNAM’s 48” Pipeline Construction Site

On Monday morning we met up with Valeria Capuzzi, an environmental engineer who works for SNAM’s integrity group and was to be our host for the next two days. She loaded us onto a bus with 4 times as many seats as we needed, which took us to the SNAM 48” pipeline construction site. The pipeline was being built from Minerbio Compressor Station to Poggio-Renatico Compressor Station, and would operate at maximum 7.5 MPag. The steel grade was L450 (X65) and the wall thickness was 16.1mm. The burial depth was 1.5m cover, and we were told that they now bury to that depth for all their pipelines. Within its 19.2km length, the pipeline crossed 82 landowners, 2 provinces, and 5 municipalities. The pipeline was coated with a single 4mm layer of polyethylene, with heat-shrink sleeves used for field joint coatings. The inside of the pipeline was also coated for the purpose of reducing pressure losses. Our visit included two places on the pipeline route, one where the final pass of the welding was being finished, and the other where the pipe was freshly strung, and preparations were being made for a thrust bore road crossing.

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Most aspects of the construction were similar to what we experience and specify for Australian pipelines of any size; the overall sequence – stringing, welding, field coating, trenching, then lowering-in – was the same as any pipeline in the world. There were, however, a few items that were new to us. For example, in Italy one of the steps in the pipeline construction sequence is ‘reclamation of devices’. Before any other activity on the Right of Way, the military do a survey of the pipeline route, searching for unexploded bombs, abandoned armaments or basically any relics of previous military activity or wars in the area. We don’t generally have to do that in Australia…

Figure 3.3: Fitting the alignment clamps on the 48” Minerbio-Poggio Renatico pipeline

The pipeline girth welds were made using an automated GMAW (MIG) machine, for which the weldpreparation was a J-profile with very steep edges. This was novel to us, as automated welding and SMAW welding are not (yet) common practice in Australian pipeline construction.

Figure 3.4: An automated GMAW pipeline welder

We also found the thrust bore crossing a surprise, because it appeared to be a very minor road – barely 6m wide, with no kerb and no bitumen. At the thrust-bore site, the entry pit on one side of the road was already dug, and while we were visiting, a pile-driver was creating shoring in preparation for digging a pit on the other.

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Before we left, we visited a lay-down area for the pipeline, where they were cold-field bending the pipe. Due to the large diameter, the bend angle achieved for each length was very slight, and the bending machine was very large. We also saw some large-diameter MIJs for the pipeline, and some MLVs, which were enormous. Overall, it was a very interesting visit, and exciting to see construction of a pipeline of that diameter.

3.1.4

Compressor Station

In the Italian transmission network, there are 11 compressor stations, most of which operate with only a relatively small pressure difference – typically boosting pressure from 5.5 to 7.5 MPag – and consequently they do not require after-coolers. After visiting the pipeline construction site and being served a generous local Italian lunch, we visited the Poggio Renatico compressor station. The station has been in service since 2008, and currently has three gasturbine compressors, with a fourth unit approved and commencing construction. At the station, we saw a brief power point presentation. They demonstrated to us the control system which they have integrated into a mobile phone app for the site supervisors to view critical variables remotely. They also explained how GE – the packager of two of the compressors – provides an ongoing service by monitoring the compressors remotely and giving guidance and diagnosis when there are problems.

Figure 3.5: A brief power-point presentation about the operation of the Poggio Renatico compressor station

Figure 3.6: The inlet filters at the Poggio Renatico compressor station

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After the presentation, we were taken on a tour of the facility, including the compressor itself. Our guide was very enthusiastic about his compressors, and explained to us with only minor translation difficulty about the machines he looks after. Just like a jet on an aeroplane, the engine consists of a gas compressor and gas turbine on a common shaft. The inlet compressor for the models we viewed is still very similar to aeroplane engines, so the design was optimised to make it as light as possible. The difference between a gas compressor driver and an aeroplane jet is that the power output is via torque in the shaft, rather than thrust of the exhaust air. This difference is seen at the turbine end, which is more noticeably different to an aeroplane. Our guide explained that more recent designs of the compressor end are also heavier and deviate more from their aircraft-industry cousins, and because of this they can capture more opportunities for mechanical efficiency. There were a couple of factors that complicate the operation of the compressor station. The emissions from the compressors are monitored continually, and must remain below government-imposed limits, which mainly relate to carbon monoxide and carbon dioxide levels. The limits are strict and the consequences for exceeding the emission quotas are significant. The second complication is that gas nominations are adjusted twice a day. This is a tight timeframe when one also considers the time required to start and stop compressors of this size.

3.2 SNAM Italgas 3.2.1

Company Overview

Founded in 1837, Italgas was the first Italian company to distribute gas in urban areas. Italgas is now the leading Italian natural gas distributor, with approximately 6.4 million active gas connections. Italgas distributes gas through the distribution network that extends for approximately 52,600km. The network is divided into the following classes of pressure;   

High pressure (greater than 12 bar); Medium pressure (up to 5 bar); Low pressure (up to 0.04 bars).

Withdrawal stations and pressure reduction facilities allow gas to be taken from the national transportation network and delivered to retailers in the vicinity of the end users. At the withdrawal stations the gas is odorised to ensure it is detectable by the public in the event of leaks. As part of its activities, Italgas measures the amount of gas at the withdrawal and delivery stations.

3.2.2

Key Contacts

 

3.2.3

Maurizio Boz, [email protected] Davide Tagliapietra, [email protected]

Facility Visit / Discussion Topic

The tour made a visit to Italgas’ office just outside of Venice where a presentation about the Venetian distribution network was given to the group. The presentation outlined some of the difficulties that are faced in delivering natural gas to Venice and in running the distribution system on the island. Despite the difficulties Page 36 of 44

in bringing gas via subsea pipelines to Venice, the real challenge appears when having to upgrade the network on the island. Following the presentation, we were taken on a boat to Tresse Island, a small island entirely taken up by Italgas’ combined metering, pressure reduction and odorising facilities that provides natural gas to Venice via subsea pipelines. The facility was fitted with boiler heater units to heat the gas prior to pressure reduction via three parallel regulator runs. Odorisation of the gas occurs at this facility prior to making its way to Venice to ensure any leaks can be detected by the public and monitoring of the gas quality is conducted through a gas chromatograph, providing the heating value used for billing purposes for the consumers residing on Venice.

Figure 3.7: Tresse Island, the gas metering and regulation station for Venice

After visiting the gas metering and reduction station on Tresse Island, the group was taken to see a small construction site where a replacement of a gas distribution main was being undertaken. Considering Venice is a UNESCO World Heritage site, the difficulties faced by Italgas when undertaking such work are considerable including:    

Numbering of pavement cobble stones prior to removal to ensure restoration is authentic; Tools are either brought in by canal or by hand, thereby limiting equipment size; Digging is all hand completed as no machinery can fit within most narrow passageways; and Construction time required for typical main replacements were minimum 4-6 weeks as compared to a few days in other parts of Italy where restrictions were not as great.

Figure 3.8: A complimentary boat tour around Venice ended our Italy visit

The other great difficulty in operating a distribution network on Venice is collecting the gas usage at each meter. Meters are located indoors and are read manually which means billing information must be collected

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when residents are home and with a population of over quarter of a million, this activity takes a large amount of effort. Italgas has been innovative with their management of the Venice network. They are continually working on an expensive campaign to replace ductile iron and steel lines with polyethylene, to eliminate the external corrosion threats that they are continually exposed to. They replace around 12m per day, but the network is significantly interconnected (diagrammatically more like a grid than a tree) so downtime on any section of a distribution main does not generally mean supply downtime for any customers. The gas in Venice City crosses the bridges, just like the people do. Usually it is buried beneath the paving stones on the bridge or suspended from the bottom of metal bridges, but on one bridge they created some non-circular cross-section pipe and installed it within the stone hand-rail.

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4 Spain The last leg of our journey was in Spain. In Spain we were constantly on the move, we spent one night in Barcelona, one in Zaragoza, and one in Madrid, travelling from city to city by train. Our visits to Barcelona and Zaragoza were both for the purpose of visiting Enagás facilities – one LNG terminal and one R&D facility. Our visit to Madrid was merely to access the international terminal for our flights home – though most of us stuck around for a day or two to enjoy Madrid. The main cultural highlight of Spain was simply Tapas – we had it several times in several restaurants of several different qualities.

4.1 Enagás 4.1.1

Company Profile

Enagás was established in 1972 and is now the main carrier of natural gas in Spain. It has nearly 11,000 km of transmission pipelines throughout the Spanish territory, three underground storage facilities, and four regasification plants: Barcelona, Huelva, Cartagena and Gijón. It also owns 50% of the Bilbao regasification plant, 30% of Sagunto LNG terminal and 100% of Gascan, which involves the development of two LNG terminals in Canarias. Currently, Enagás terminals in Spain have 2,566,500 m³ of LNG storage capacity and an output capacity of 6,250,000 Nm ³ / h. In 2011, the company began its international activity. Since then, it is a shareholder of TLA Altamira regasification plant in Mexico and participates in gas pipelines construction in that country. Also, it acquired a LNG terminal in Quintero, Chile, in 2012 and shares in gas transportation companies in Peru. Enagás also participates in two European projects. In September 2014, the company joined Trans Adriatic Pipeline (TAP), with a 16% stake, and in March 2015 it agreed with the Belgium Fluxys to jointly acquire Swedegas, the company which operates Sweden’s Gas System. Enagás continue to make efforts in innovation, which extend to optimising energy efficiency in the management and operation of its infrastructures. This includes using waste energy from its processes and raising the efficiency of its equipment and plants.

4.1.2

Key Contacts

 

4.1.3

Ivan Montero Punal, Technology Unit, Madrid imontero@Enagás.es Jesus Manuel Gil Jimenez, jmgilj@Enagás.es

Enagás LNG Terminal, Barcelona

Ivan Montero hosted us at the Enagás regasification plant, which is located in the Energy dock of the Barcelona port. Before we started our tour of the facilities we were briefed by Pedro Cano Castella on the history of the company and the Enagás LNG terminal in Barcelona in particular, which commenced its operations in 1969.

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Figure 4.1: Aerial picture of the Enagás LNG Terminal in Barcelona

The Enagás LNG terminal in Barcelona is the oldest in Spain and the initial terminal consisted of two storage tanks and treatment facilities to receive LNG from Libya. In the seventies two new large tanks were built; 3 tripling the storage capacity from 80,000 m3 to 240,000 m . In 2005, LNG storage capacity was increased with 3 a fifth 150,000 m tank, and another similar tank was added in 2006. In 2010 and 2011, Barcelona LNG storage 3 capacity was expanded again with the construction of two new tanks of 150,000 m each. In 2013, it was 3 decided to dismantle the two first tanks of the plant, with a capacity of 40,000 m of LNG each one, resulting in 3 the current capacity of 760,000 m LNG. The table below shows the main features of the Barcelona LNG terminal. Number of LNG tanks Tank capacity Emission capacity Min. and max. Docking capacity LNG Trucks Loading LNG Ship Unloading Pressure

6 3 760,000 m LNG 5,206 GWh 3 60,546 Mm (n) 3 1.950,000 m (n)/h 544.3 GWh/ day 3 80,000 m LNG 3 266,000 m LNG 15 GWh/day (50 trucks/ day) 3 Small vessel ˜ 3,000 m LNG/h 3 Medium vessel ˜ 8,000 m LNG/h 3 Large vessel ˜ 10 a 12,000 m LNG/h Minimum: 30 bar Maximum: 72 bar

After the presentations, Ranses Ninou (LNG Terminal Operations Manager) took us for a tour on site. We started at the top of the jetty (300m above ground) where the LNG gets transferred from the vessels to the tanks. The unloading facility consisted of four 16-inch arms (three for unloading and one for gas return) that are powered by the ships pumps. The unloading facility in Barcelona is capable of serving the largest LNG ships 3 in the world up to a capacity of 266,000 m LNG. In the Barcelona terminal approximately 16 LNG ships are unloaded each month. The unloading arms are coupled to the LNG tanks on the ship using a hydraulic coupling system and are built to move with the ship. The arms are also equipped with a quick release system in case of an emergency.

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Figure 4.2: Unloading arms used to transfer LNG from the vessel to the storage tanks

From the jetty the LNG is pumped to the storage tanks by a 32-inch pipeline. The LNG is contained in one of the 6 storage tanks in the terminal, which are all connected and designed to keep the methane at minus 160°C in liquid state and slightly above atmospheric pressure. In the control room we had a look at the key data gathered from the 1000+ sensors installed in the facility to ensure pressure, temperature and (flow) volumes are kept at optimal as well as safe levels. We were also informed about Enagás its latest process improvements to reduce the boil-off gas (BOG) losses in LNG the operations (close to) zero, including the use of two novel BOG compressors and re-condensers. Pumps are used to pipe the LNG to from the tanks to the regasification plants where sea water vaporizers are used to increase the temperature of the LNG to 18°C (above zero) and bring it back into a gaseous state. After regasification, the natural gas is measured and regulated to the send-out pressure and odorised. Once it has been odorised, the gas is either pumped into the high pressure pipeline network (72 bars) for onward transmission to the Iberian Peninsula or send-out to the network servicing Barcelona at 45 bars.

Figure 4.3: LNG truck loading facility, Barcelona LNG terminal

Not all of the LNG is leaving the facility via pipeline (after regasification). Part of it is loaded on trucks in liquid form, as transporting LNG by road is becoming an important alternative for the supply of natural gas to locations or regions where no pipeline infrastructure is available or the LNG is used as a final product. We had a look at one of the three truck loading facilities at the Barcelona LNG terminal. Before filling the trucks are weighted and then connected manually to the loading arm and vapour return lines. The typical capacity of the 3 3 trucks is between 60 m and 250 m and the trucks are normally filled 85% of that capacity. Not below 80% to

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prevent the LNG to move around. Normally the trucks leave the terminal with a pressure of 3 bar in the tank that may rise to 7 bar over time.

4.1.4

Lessons Learnt

For most of us it was the first time to visit a receiving LNG terminal and although we may have had a bit of textbook knowledge when it comes to LNG operations, seeing the ‘real thing’ was a great experience for all of us. Lessons learnt vary from big picture items, like the importance of LNG imports to the Spanish energy system, to small technical details, like the process for recovery of BOG. Overall, the knowledge we have gained on the key processes involved in the operations of an LNG terminal is invaluable –to list a few: 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7.

4.1.5

Unloading LNG vessels and transferring the LNG to the storage tanks Managing pressure and temperature (cryogenic conditions) in the LNG containment tanks Recovery, compression and re-condensing of BOG Regasification of the LNG using sea water vaporisers Metering, regulating and odorizing methane after regasification Truck offloading Safety management on site

Enagás Research & Innovation Centre, Zaragoza

The tour made a visit to Enagás’ Innovation and Development Centre in Zaragoza that provides services to and cooperates with other areas of the company and the gas industry in general.

Figure 4.4: Zaragoza town square

A presentation was made detailing what the Centre offers in terms of technological support covering a wide range of areas, the most important and frequent of which are:       

Development of simulation models and optimisation of gas system operation Development of R&D and innovation projects applied to the natural gas business Study and modelling of the behaviour of natural gas and LNG Certification of equipment and instruments Development of models to reduce the impact of hypothetical gas leaks known as Boil-Off Gas. Technological support in obtaining samples and calculating the physical properties of natural gas and LNG, Technical support, studies and training in specific areas Measurement of natural gas: volume and energy Determining the quality and physical properties of natural gas analysis and study of composition of natural gas

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Enagás has enlarged and upgraded the facilities and equipment of the Zaragoza Central Laboratory, which has led to the recent development and certification of the High-pressure Meter Lab (LACAP). This lab is one of the few of its kind in the world that enables accurate calibration of gas meters. The laboratory obtained endorsement from the Spanish Accreditation Agency (ENAC) in February 2011 and is capable of calibrating meters that have the following range of attributes.   

Pressure from 3 to 50 bar Diameter from 2” to 24” Maximum flow rate of 10,000 Nm3/h

This Centre continually looks at reducing costs for the business, which includes its own costs such that that they have recently developed their own electrical equipment repair division to both reduce time and cost of repairing field calibration meters. This is possible because the individuals that work full-time at the Enagás Centre are mostly highly qualified technicians with vast ranging experiences.

Figure 4.5 - LACAP schematic

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5 Conclusion The journey was a joy from start to finish. From the research presentations at the JTM to the steel making to the LNG terminal (to mention just a few), all of us enjoyed many eye-opening experiences, and learnt so much along the way. We also made professional contacts and new friends that we won’t soon forget. We increasingly observed the differences between the Australian pipeline industry and the European pipeline industry. They have different diameters, pressures, and design factors, resulting from different distances, demand, and geographical distribution of customers and suppliers. They face different challenges – they have far more ‘old’ pipelines than can be found in Australia, and very different market and political pressures. Their pipeline industry is also regulated differently; their standards are more prescriptive regarding design, and yet less so with regards to safety management. Moreover government regulatory involvement varies from country to country. We also saw how important it is to have a connection to the international pipeline community. Historically, Australia has drawn heavily on international research and standards. It was great to see that we also are contributing to the international pipeline community. The Australian research papers at the JTM were of a high quality and certainly held their own on the international scene. Our most significant observation was that the European industry has a very ‘can do’ attitude towards R&D. Every individual company takes a portion of the burden to do research and development, and to share the research outcomes. We found this very impressive. We are very grateful to the APGA, AGIT and EPCRC for providing this opportunity to travel to Europe and learn so much about the international gas and pipeline industries.

Figure 5.1 – The tour group in front of a 48” pipe bending machine

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