Magma Global: Calash’s Independent Review of Magma’s m-pipe®
Magma Global is the manufacturer of m-pipe®, a carbon fibre PEEK pipe designed and manufactured to be the world’s most reliable subsea pipe for a wide range of exploration and production applications.
Magma commissioned an independent report from Calash, the specialist energy sector strategic advisory firm, to analyse the potential economic benefits of its m-pipe® versus traditional steel pipe for riser applications, an expensive and high risk component of production architecture.
The report shows m-pipe® is an enabling subsea technology that facilitates simplification of architectures, and standardisation, and can deliver a clear positive economic benefit on the basis of reducing costs and removing cost overrun risks for deep water multiple riser projects.
The report also shows that m-pipe® offers significant equipment, construction, fabrication, engineering and project management benefits that are likely to be highly competitive in shallower water depths.
A full summary of the Calash report is available at the Magma website: www.magmaglobal.com/reduce-costs
Key report highlights:
· The m-pipe® riser system has the capability to save 11% in total project costs compared to a steel riser system project, where these type of projects typically carry budgets of circa $2.5bn.
· A traditional steel riser SLOR system is 75% more expensive than an m-pipe® m-SLOR riser system.
· Many aspects of an m-pipe® riser system significantly reduce project risk and its associated cost overruns, predominantly due to the lighter weight and superior strength of m-pipe®.
Commenting on the findings of the Calash report, Martin Jones, Magma Global’s CEO, said:
“We welcome this thorough study by Calash, which clearly highlights the significant benefits m-pipe® brings to subsea riser projects. This comes at a time when the oil and gas industry is striving to reduce the cost of the growing number of deepwater developments needed to meet global energy demands.”
“Another key aspect highlighted by the Calash report is the significantly reduced risk associated with m-pipe® riser deployments, which translates into greater project certainty in respect of budgets and timescales. This is even more important in the light of a recent oil and gas capital project survey by Accenture, which highlighted that only a third of all the participants had managed to deliver their deepwater projects within 25% of their approved budget and within the approved time schedule.”
Report summary conclusions
The main m-pipe® riser applications are likely to be for deep water, where the low weight and near neutral buoyancy of m-pipe® bring significant technical benefits, as well as substantially lower cost of installation.
As many m-pipe® key technical and performance characteristics are better suited to a subsea environment than steel pipe, m-pipe® is also likely to be beneficial over a steel riser system at shallower water depths.
Compared with an eight riser SLOR system in traditional steel pipe at $565m, the cost of deployment of an m-pipe® m-SLOR system is calculated to be $323m, a saving of $242m with m-pipe®, as summarised below.
Deep Water SLOR Cost Summary and Comparison – Steel versus m-pipe® Riser System
· Negligible differential of steel SLOR versus m-SLOR riser, jumper and pipe material costs ($225m vs. £226m).
· Total fabrication costs for an m-pipe® m-SLOR riser are a third that of a steel SLOR riser ($17m versus $$52m)
· An m-pipe® m-SLOR does not require an Upper Riser Assembly (URA), a $62m cost saving versus steel pipe.
· The eight flexible jumpers are less than a third of the pipe length with an m-pipe® m-SLOR versus steel SLOR.
· Magma m-pipe® m-SLOR riser offshore construction costs are one tenth that of a steel SLOR riser.
Other benefits of Magma m-pipe® riser systems highlighted by the Calash report
With m-pipe® it is expected riser construction can be undertaken in as short as three months versus seven months for steel SLORs, reducing cost and risk.
Potential cost overruns due to construction delays and missing weather windows are significantly greater due to heavy-lift vessels required for steel SLOR risers.
The type and size of vessel needed to transport and deploy steel SLOR risers are ten times the cost of transporting and deploying an m-pipe® m-SLOR.
There is a reduced requirement of project staff for m-pipe® m-SLOR deployment due to its lighter weight and easier handling (30 staff for m-pipe ® versus 50 staff for steel).
The much smaller air cans required for an m-pipe® m-SLOR riser should result in significant reductions in inspection, repair and maintenance during operation.
There is the option for an m-pipe® riser manufacturing base to be established at relatively low cost in the local deployment region to increase local project content.
m-pipe® m-SLOR risers are able to utilise smaller, more readily available locally sourced vessels for more flexibility on the timing of riser deployment projects.
Unlike conventional non-bonded flexible jumpers, m-pipe® jumpers have a long design life that should exceed the life of the field, avoiding the need for replacement.
