Latest Oil and Gas News Russia

N.I. KURBATOV and V.I. KHOMENKO

In response to the consistent demand for its services in a highly competitive construction market, Stroytransgaz has established a new division, the Construction Engineering Services Department - to further systemize the company's focus on the use of advanced, cost-effective, resource-efficient, reliable and environmentally friendly equipment and technologies in its projects.

Stroytransgaz dedicates approximately 3.7% of the annual value of its ongoing projects to developing its own research and engineering capabilities and upgrading those of its subsidiaries (compared to a national average of 0.3%).

Over the years, the company's research and engineering achievements have included:

• pipeline and field facilities construction in Arctic, permafrost and seismically active environments;
• construction of 1420 mm diameter gas pipelines rated for operating pressures of 10MPa or greater;
• use of modular designs for compressor stations, pumping stations and other industrial facilities;
• customization and deployment of the best foreign and domestic welding technologies, including automated gas-shielded, flux cored and flash-butt resistance methods;
• company-wide transition to 100% nondestructive testing (NDT) of welded components and coatings through the use of EU-certified laboratory facilities and development of digital quality control technologies;
• implementation of state-of-the-art pipeline corrosion-protection methodologies (surface coatings, cathode and drainage systems), supported by computer monitoring and integrated failure analysis;
• development of new pipeline gauging and hydraulic (stress) testing technologies, along with a proprietary all-weather pneumatic testing method that draws natural gas from active pipelines and returns it upon completion of testing (proven highly effective in Arctic conditions);
• deployment of advanced technologies for post-test drying and smart-pig inspection of newly constructed pipelines;
• development of new directional drilling and tunneling technologies for natural and man-made barrier crossings;
• development of on-site cold bending of insulated, thick-walled (28-30 mm) 1420 mm line pipe;
• application of remote sensing data and 3D as-built models to facilities design;
• use of rotary excavators and trenchers; company participation in the development and production of test prototypes for advanced excavation machinery to be deployed in the severe conditions of the Far North, including Yamal Peninsula;
• expansion of the company's own capacity to manufacture advanced high-performance construction machinery and heat-engineering equipment.

BASIC STRATEGIES FOR IMPROVING CONSTRUCTION STANDARDS

The Stroytransgaz research and engineering policy focuses on providing the scientific, process and informational support needed to enhance the competitiveness of the company's products and services in domestic and overseas markets, while maximizing profits. The company implements this policy through the following strategies:

• research, engineering and process support for facilities construction;
• development, testing and implementation of advanced technologies and new equipment and materials for petroleum and industrial facilities construction;
• continuous improvement of the company's quality management system;
• standardization, guideline development and licensing;
• compliance with construction-related environmental protection and occupational safety regulations;
• organizational management of the company's design subsidiaries;
• scientific and technical cooperation with research institutions, universities and international organizations;
• technical information;
• personnel technical training and continuing education;
• research and engineering support for the company's future activities.

Stroytransgaz is an active participant in the development of pipeline design, construction and repair guidelines and is a member of Gosstandart Technical Committee 462 on Trunk Pipeline Transport. Together with the Russian Union of Petroleum Construction Companies, Stroytransgaz representatives appeared before the UN-sponsored EEC Committee on Standardization with a proposal to develop regional guidelines for the construction of trunk pipeline systems. The UN is currently in the process of establishing a select committee for this purpose.

QUALITY MANAGEMENT SYSTEM

The first phase of the Stroytransgaz quality management system (QMS) was certified by TUV CERT for compliance with ISO 9001:1994: Model for quality assurance in design, development, production, installation and servicing. As stated by company management, the fundamental principal underlying development and implementation of the Stroytransgaz QMS is "Customer satisfaction is our highest priority. Projects must be completed in full compliance with design specifications, contract requirements, applicable regulations and customer expectations."

The current Stroytransgaz quality management system was recertified in 2004 to ISO 9001-2000.

To meet ISO 9001:2000 requirements, Stroytransgaz has developed a revised quality management policy that defines the role of the QMS in achieving the company's strategic objectives by:

• creating an environment that promotes continuous improvement of company services and encourages employee involvement in that process;
• streamlining the company's organizational structure and management practices and refining its operational processes through the implementation of advanced equipment and technologies and state-of-the-art quality control media and methods;
• providing formal training and systematic continuing education in quality management, and motivating each employee to focus on continuous self-improvement and make full use of his or her creative abilities;
• complying with all documented quality management requirements and procedures while continuously improving system effectiveness and efficiency.

HEALTH, SAFETY AND ENVIRONMENTAL PROTECTION SYSTEMS

As of today, Stroytransgaz is virtually the only international construction company that has developed and implemented its own environmental management (EMS) and occupational health and safety management (OHSMS) systems. The Stroytransgaz EMS was certified in 2005 by the Moody International Certification Group (UK) and successfully passed an external audit by the same company in 2007 for ISO 14001:2004 compliance.

The company has developed a full suite of official documentation to ensure that these systems will be properly implemented (more than 120 separate procedural manuals for health and safety and 41 for environmental protection, each based on a specific job function). Project-specific health, safety and environmental protection manuals are also being developed for use by construction contractors (in Russia, Sudan, Finland, Algeria, India, Saudi Arabia, etc.).

An electronic distribution system that allows for real-time updates and revisions has been developed and implemented for EMS and OHSMS documentation. Model health, safety and environmental plans have been developed for specific types of facilities. These plans are currently being adapted to the requirements of individual projects.

The process of restructuring Stroytransgaz subsidiaries and business units to incorporate HSE management continues.

In 2007, Stroytransgaz held a review competition among its business units to identify those employing the most effective HSE management practices. Those business units and employees judged best were awarded with certificates, cash bonuses and prizes.

WELDING TECHNOLOGY. QUALITY CONTROL MEANS

The operational reliability of a pipeline depends first and foremost on the welding technology employed during its construction. Stroytransgaz uses only the most advanced welding methods in all of its projects.

Flash-butt resistance welding is a Russian-developed technology that was initially designed for small-diameter pipe joints, but since the 1970s has also been applied to 1420 mm gas pipelines. Even with the growing competitiveness of other fixed-butt automatic and mechanized welding methods, resistance welding remains in widespread use, since it continues to provide a number of advantages, the most important of which are its ability to consistently produce high quality welds under any climatic conditions and its reduced labor requirements (four times lower than other automatic welding methods).

A joint effort by Stroytransgaz and the E.O. Paton Electric Welding Institute has resulted in a major advance in welding technology, a fundamentally new composite method. The root face is resistance welded and the rest of the joint is then filled with flux core. Implementation of this technology has made it possible to accelerate construction of thick-walled pipelines (32 mm), successfully weld bent sections, improve weld quality, and reduce the consumption of welding materials and the required output of resistance welding units.

Stroytransgaz has extensively employed automatic gas-shielded welding in construction of the Yamal, Europe and Russia, Turkey (the "Blue Stream" Project) gas pipelines and the Eastern Siberia, Pacific Ocean oil pipeline, along with oil pipelines in Algeria and Saudi Arabia and gas pipelines in India.

The company's welding assets include an internal welding machine, joint preparation units and automatic welding machines, all tractor-mounted. The synchronized operation of all these components has made it possible to maintain a high daily welding rate by fully compartmentalizing welding operations. These assets are also suitable for deployment in less challenging environments.

During construction of the Russia-Turkey and OZ-2 (Algeria) pipelines, the company set new per-shift automatic welding records that far exceeded international productivity standards for overland pipelines. For example, 207 welds were produced per shift on the Turkish segment of the Blue Stream pipeline (1220 mm in diameter), 151 on the Russian segment (1420 mm in diameter) and 251 along the OZ-2 oil pipeline (860 mm in diameter).

The greatest implementation of automatic and mechanized welding (74%) was achieved by Stroytransgaz along the Kenkiyak - Atyrau oil pipeline in the Republic of Kazakhstan. The company's arsenal also includes two-sided submerged arc automated welding at pipe welding stations, semiautomatic self-shielded flux cored wire welding, and stick electrode arc welding with cellulose and other coatings. Manual welding is carried out using state-of-the-art inverter power sources.

For pipeline construction, Stroytransgaz has made the transition to 100% non-destructive testing of welds and insulation supported by high-tech mobile diagnostic laboratories that have been certified to EU standards. The company's diagnostic assets include self-propelled radiographic crawlers equipped with X-ray processors and digital displays, computer-supported, automated ultrasonic units, holiday detectors and other pipeline-coating inspection devices. Each equipment package of this type is designed to support 100 km of 1420 mm pipeline per year.

As was noted above, pipeline weld quality is currently inspected using radiographic or ultrasonic technologies. Of the two, radiographic inspection is the preferred option in construction practice. The advantages of this method are its ability to visually display and document inspection results and its high sensitivity to volumetric defects. Major drawbacks include low productivity, radiation hazards, high operating cost, significant time lags between weld application and receipt of inspection results, limited film storage life, and low sensitivity to planar defects located 35-40 о from the axis of the radiation plane.

Until recently, ultrasonic testing was not widely employed in pipeline construction owing to its labor intensity, low productivity and inability to visually display inspection results. It is especially poor at inspecting welds produced by different methods or possessing different joint designs. However, ultrasonic method has been greatly improved and many of its drawbacks have been eliminated. Today it is commonly used to inspect welds produced by automated methods. The use of automated ultrasonic inspection has made it possible to achieve high levels of productivity. Software-based processing of inspection results provides highly accurate visual imagery, especially for crack-like flaws. Ultrasonic method may be used immediately upon completion of welding with very little delay before results are displayed. However, the method requires highly complex equipment that may only be operated by specially qualified personnel and is no less expensive than radiographic inspection.

Stroytransgaz was challenged to reduce the cost and improve the efficiency of welding inspection while achieving highly accurate testing results.

Analysis of trends in the development of non-destructive testing methods shows that radiographic inspection has not exhausted its potential. Recent advances have made it possible to perform radiographic inspection without the use of film or "wet" processes. Radiometric weld inspection represents one of these modifications. Semiconductor elements are covered by a scintillator layer that under the impact of ionizing radiation, emits an optical photon, converting the semiconductor element into an electric signal.

Radiometric inspection is similar to the standard radiographic technology used to inspect circular welds on gas pipelines. In cooperation with a number of other companies, Stroytransgaz has developed a high-efficiency radiometric weld inspection unit.

Instead of X-ray film, the unit employs line detectors to acquire weld quality information. The number of detectors per line is determined by the width of the inspection zone. Line detectors are installed in a detector unit and are mechanically moved around the perimeter of the weld over a shroud installed in the inspection zone.

The line movement rate during inspection depends on flaw detector sensitivity requirements (all else being equal, the higher the rate of movement, the lower the inspection sensitivity, and vice versa). When using 192Ir or 75Se isotopes, radioactive decay will eventually require a reduction in the rate of line movement. The maximum allowable scanning rate is determined prior to weld inspection. Inspection time for welds on 1420 mm pipes is no greater than 3 minutes.

The radiometric unit (RMU) has made it possible to:

• reduce inspection costs by at least 50% vs. traditional technologies by eliminating the need for X-ray film, processing materials and laboratories;
• increase inspection productivity to 80 - 120 pipe joints (1,420 mm in diameter) per shift;
• obtain highly detailed real-time inspection results;
• create a digital data base of inspection data and transmit it to the customer in real-time.

Given the widespread implementation of new welding and inspection technologies in the company's construction projects, all welding specialists have been recertified to Gosgortekhnadzor standards and all employees engaged in weld inspection have undergone certification under European Standard EN 473.

MECHANIZATION. CONSTRUCTION OF CROSSINGS OVER NATURAL
AND MAN-MADE BARRIERS

The company's high production capacity and a goal-directed investment policy that emphasizes expanded mechanization and implementation of advanced technologies have enabled Stroytransgaz to construct up to 3,000 km of large diameter pipelines and up to ten 80 - 96 MW line and booster pumping stations per year, along with petroleum field facilities, refineries, housing and community facilities.

The company currently boasts a specialized equipment fleet of more than 1,400 units dedicated to pipeline and field facilities construction, including, in addition to the advanced welding equipment described above, heavy excavators and rotary trenchers, padding machines, pipe layers, 150 T cranes, pipe carriers, large-diameter pipeline repair units and many other universal and specialized equipment types, enabling the company to engage in projects at any level of complexity.

Industrial construction methods and new materials and subassemblies supplied by Stroytransgaz subsidiaries and other organizations are used for compressor stations and petroleum facilities.

Stroytransgaz was the first company in the country to employ two advanced technologies for constructing pipeline crossings through natural and man-made barriers.

The traditional approach to crossing water obstacles (bottom trenching) is highly labor-intensive and carries with it a number of inherent drawbacks that tend to reduce the reliability and safe service life of pipeline crossings.

Trenchless pipeline laying based on directional drilling represents a breakthrough technology that meets the most stringent environmental protection requirements. The major difference between this and other crossing methods is that during construction and operation, the pipeline never comes into contact with the water medium and may be laid at almost any depth to avoid stresses induced by riverbed or bank deformation. Other advantages are that construction may be carried out at any time of year and at a high rate.

From an engineering standpoint, the technology is highly complex and is therefore carried out in three phases. The first phase consists of drilling a small diameter directional pilot hole along a specified trajectory using a non-rotating drill string with an asymmetric bearing surface. The actual hole path is monitored by periodic measurement of zenith and azimuth angles (using a special-purpose probe) which will then determine jet nozzle position. Additional control is provided by computer data processing and transmission of exact drilling tool coordinates. In the second phase, the pilot hole is widened by inserting gradually expanding reamers. The third and final phase consists of drawing the pipeline string through the reamed hole. The pipeline segment is laid on supports equipped with polyurethane coated rollers.

In Russia, trenchless construction of pipeline crossings based on directional drilling was first employed in 1994. The pioneer in the implementation of this advanced technology was VIS-MOS, of which Stroytransgaz was a co-founder.

Construction of crossings of this type for 1420 mm gas pipelines – unprecedented in international practice - represents the crowning achievement of directional drilling technology. The first successful attempt was made by a Stroytransgaz subsidiary in 1997, when it built an 860 m crossing under the Volga-Don Canal for a 1420 mm gas pipeline. Later, during construction of the Russian leg of the Russia-Turkey gas pipeline ("Blue Stream"), eight crossings of this type, totaling more than six kilometers in length, were constructed through water barriers at a faster rate than specified in the plan. By the beginning of 2006, Stroytransgaz had constructed more than 98 km of large-diameter pipeline crossings.

In 2002, a team of Stroytransgaz specialists was awarded the Prize of the Government of the Russian Federation for its work in developing and implementing directional drilling technology for the construction of pipeline crossings through water barriers. The application of tunnel-shield technology to the construction of pipeline crossings through natural and man-made obstacles represents a successful adaptation by Stroytransgaz of technologies that have proved effective in other construction sectors.

During construction of the Russian leg of the Izobilnoye-Dzubga (Russia-Turkey) gas pipeline, the route was blocked by a spur of the Greater Kazakh Range. The presence of landslide zones, steep slopes, faults, and rock outcrops would have required an enormous volume of excavation work and other specialized operations. At the same time, trenching would have inevitably involved significant alteration of the natural terrain. Furthermore, owing to landsides, pipelines constructed in the area using traditional methods are prone to frequent accidents.

The problem was presented to the Stroytransgaz Science and Engineering Council, which proposed an alternative pipeline-laying method, tunneling, that offered a number of advantages. Since the pipeline would run under a tunnel shield, this method would eliminate negative soil/pipeline interactions and the need to construct access roads and landslide protection barriers, thereby significantly reducing land use requirements (by a factor of almost 10).

This method makes it possible to build tunnels of any length through virtually any type of ground with no seasonal interruption of work.

Advanced blade shield technology, widely employed in Russia and abroad, was recommended for construction of the tunnel crossing. However, it would be the first time such technology was applied to oil and gas construction in Russia.

During operation of the tunneling unit, the excavated ground was brought to the surface in mine cars pulled by an electric locomotive on rails laid inside the tunnel. As the tunnel was deepened, it was continuously reinforced by installing ferroconcrete tubing assembled with the help of a manipulator. Steps were taken to further strengthen and seal the tubing.

Once the tunnel was complete, the rails were removed and roller supports installed for the pipeline. Hydraulic jacks were then used to push the pipeline through the tunnel in 60 m sections.

As a result, Stroytransgaz built three tunnel crossings through the Kobyla Ridge (one) and Bezymyanny Ridge (two), with respective lengths of 2082, 988 and 196 m. Blade shield equipment was used for the first two tunnel crossings. The third was dug by a tunneling machine, with subsequent installation of temporary supports followed by a cast-in-place reinforced concrete encasement.

The method proposed by the Stroytransgaz specialists represents a genuine breakthrough in ensuring the operational reliability of pipelines laid in mountainous areas. Today, the production, research and design capabilities developed since 2002 by the company's Stoytransgaz - Tonnel subsidiary have made it possible to construct facilities of any level of complexity - pipeline and utility tunnels, long-term bridge crossings over water obstacles - and to factory-manufacture bridge spans, develop special bridge designs for Polar regions that require a minimum amount of "wet" processes, etc.

TECHNICAL TRAINING AND INFORMATIONAL SUPPORT

Stroytransgaz regularly conducts technical seminars to discuss real-world issues related to and gas construction. Participants in these seminars examine state-of-the-art welding, insulation and pipeline repair methods, along with new excavation and ballasting technologies.
Most of these seminars are attended by leading Russian and foreign experts.

To promote the continuing education of its employees, the company holds training classes in major Russian and foreign educational and research centers.

Stroytransgaz participates in organizing and holding technical workshops and exhibitions devoted to petroleum industry development and facilities construction. In 2007, Stroytransgaz took part in 12 such exhibitions in Russia and abroad. posted by The Rogtec Team @ 16:09 

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