Remotely operated Hot Tapping of Deep Water Subsea Pipelines

PIPETAP

Project timeline

Start:
October 2001

Duration:
18 months

End:
March 2003

General Information

Hot tapping is the technique of cutting into an existing "live" pipeline carrying hydrocarbons and connecting a new smaller diameter pipeline to it. This is done without interrupting the flow in the existing pipeline. Hot tapping is often done on land, and occasionally in shallow water at depths less than 250 m where divers can weld the the hot tapping saddle into the existing pipeline and operate the Hot Tapping machine. However much of Europe's remaining oil and gas reserves are in the depth range 300 m to 1000 m, and the offshore oil and gas industry now needs remotely operated hot tapping equipment with improved performance. The main objectives of PIPETAP include: the development of hot tapping technology that can operate by remote control initially to a depth of 1000 m and suitable for upgrading to 3000 m when required; a reduction in cost of up to 50% on hot tapping operations that are done at moderate depths with divers; a 90% share of subsea hot tapping at depths deeper than 250 m in the European sector; cost reduction of up to 30% in the development of small offshore deep water oil and gas fields; reduced pollution and CO2 emissions in the development of small offshore oil fields by reducing the need for flaring of gas.

EU-Programme Acronym and Subprogramme Area	FP5-EESD-1999 (Energy); Key action 6: Economic and efficient energy for a competitive Europe, 6.2.3: More efficient and safer transport of gas.
Project Type	RTD - CRAFT
Contract Number	CRAFT-1999-70441
Co-ordinator	Clear Well Subsea Ltd. (UK)

Total Eligible Costs (€)	Hereon Eligible Costs (€)	EC Funding for Hereon (€)
1.370.737	293.878

Contact Person at Hereon

Dr. Jorge dos Santos, Institute for Materials Research, WMP Phone: +49-4152-87 2050, Fax : +49-4152-87 2033
E-mail contact

Worldwide Europe

Participants

Circle Technical Services Ltd. (UK), Clear Well Subsea Ltd. (UK), National Hyperbaric Centre Ltd. (UK), Neos Robotics AB (SE), Norwegian Universal Technology AS (NO)

(completed March 2003)

Last Update: 16. April 2021