You'll be in your elements

The BP Shah Deniz field is a High Pressure (HP) gas condensate development located off the deepwater shelf of the Azerbaijan sector of the Caspian Sea, approximately 100km south of Baku in water depths ranging from 70m to 580m.

There are a number of technology challenges associated with the development including the use of 15k rated trees, control systems for high pressure service, subsea HIPPS, wet gas metering, connection system design and potential use of direct electrical heating. The system layout is further complicated given the deep water and rugged seabed environment. The development will be phased and will require late field life compression, adding to the congested platform approaches.

The work will include all aspects of subsea and flowline design including detailed process and flow assurance assessments, materials selection, routing – utilising ArcGIS, flowline mechanical design and subsea equipment layout and design. Manifold functionality and design will be a key focus as there will be a requirement for eight or more manifolds with potential for local fabrication.

The Shtokman field is located in the central part of the Russian sector of the Barents Sea. The deposit holds around 3.8 trillion cubic metres of gas. The Shtokman gas and condensate field will become a resource base for deliveries of Russian pipeline gas to Europe and LNG shipments to the Atlantic basin markets.

J P Kenny has been contracted to execute FEED engineering for the 550km, 42 inch nominal diameter trunkline from the Shtokman field to the onshore terminal, as part of the Phase 1 development of the Shtokman Field. The J P Kenny scope also includes a subsea pig launcher (42 inch in a water depth of 350m); the landfall and onshore pipeline (5 km) and 2 no. fibre optic cables from the onshore terminal to the field.

The main technical challenges are multiphase flow assurance to manage liquid hold up, design of the a 42 inch subsea pig launcher, design of the pipeline to prevent excessive spanning on a rough seabed caused by icebergs, the 350m water depth which make all the subsea tie-in operations diverless and the development of large diameter subsea pipeline connectors which have not been done at this size before.

The main management challenges of the Shtokman project are the sheer scale of the project, the remoteness of the location, the limited construction window due to weather (6 months), preparing the Russian DED, logistics in terms of working in Russian – weather / site visits / permits, communication with respect to the constant requirement for translation and interpretation services and differences in work practices between the Russians and Europeans.

The Export Pipeline comprised a 664km, 24” PUF insulated heavy oil pipeline from Mangala Oil fields in Rajasthan to Salaya on the Gujarat coast. The design incorporated the utilisation of Skin Effect Heat Management System (SEHMS) maintain the product above the 63oC wax appearance temperature during normal operations with the capability of heating the pipeline from ambient following a prolonged shutdown to allow restart. Tyco's skin effect trace heating system has been selected.

System Facilities include 32 power generation stations for the SEHMS, an intermediate pumping facility at Viramgam capable of storage and export of up to 60,000bbls crude into a batching pipeline and storage and export facilities at Salaya including a terminal and offshore SPM. Additional to this, an 8" fuel gas pipeline was required from CEIL's Raageshweri gas field to run parallel to the crude pipeline to feed the numerous power generators.

J P Kenny established project teams in New Delhi and Staines to provide Pre-FEED, FEED procurement and construction management services.

The particular technical challenges of the design included design and verification of the heat management system, routing to the pipeline, design for high reliability, design of the buried line to accommodate high axial loads without buckling and design of the pumps stations and tank farms. The particular management challenges included fast tracking of placing orders for long lead items, use of Indian installation contractors, fast track schedule interface with client project management team.

In order to meet gas demands of Balearic Islands, Enagas required the construction of a 20" gas pipeline from mainland Spain to Ibiza, and on to Mallorca over a total distance of 270km, in water depths up to 1,000m. The overall development included an onshore pipeline connection to an existing gas main ring in mainland Spain and new infrastructure in each of Ibiza and Mallorca. Sales quality gas will be transported via a near-shore pumping station, in the vicinity of Denia to the island of Ibiza and then on to the island of Mallorca.

The JPK scope covers project management, preliminary and detailed design plus cost estimates, production of supply and installation tender packages, tender evaluation & recommendation, and full construction supervision.

The subsea pipeline presented a number of challenges including rugged seabed bathymetry, dual micro-tunnel landfall in Ibiza, deepest concrete coated pipelay and construction in environmentally sensitive areas.

The main project management achievements include successful management of full construction contract, completed on time and within budget and zero LTIs for over 250,000 construction hours worked.