Subsea Pipeline Unblocked On-Line

Tube Tech were able to mobilise urgently, unblock the pipeline and remove the deposit by using:

• Tube Tech 'hot tapped' into aa non-pressurised system and removed the stuck pig by a bespoke "drilling" method.
• Once pig removed the remainder of the line was cleaned to production standard using a variety of cleaning heads to suit heavy scale and other fouling characteristics.
• The pipeline was inspected before, during and after the cleaning process.
• Actual cleaning time was 1 week.

Tube Tech technicians were also able to retrieve the lodged pig in the final 30m of the pipeline.

Mike Watson, Technical Director: “Most definitely one of our biggest challenges to date. The Client’s only alternative was to lay a new pipeline. Substantial 6 figure sums per day where being lost while the sub sea pipeline was out of action. Due to the criticality, this particular customer invested in developing this bespoke solution which took approximately 3 months to develop and once the go-ahead was given we were able to respond in a timely manner with appropriate pipeline cleaning techniques to solve what appeared to be an ‘impossible challenge.”