The Challenge

A Canadian operator installed two 3100-meter lines of FlexSteel 6-inch, 1500 psi line pipe in the Montney Shale play. During the installation, the company used horizontal directional drilling (HDD) to bore ten sections of the pipe to protect the surrounding land. After the installation was complete, the company conducted a hydro test, and a ShieldSure® Annulus Test for both pipelines to confirm the integrity of the pipe’s shield. The results of the ShieldSure Annulus Test showed that the outer shield of one of the pipelines had been breached during installation. 

The Solution

Working together, the operator’s team, the contractor, and FlexSteel’s technical staff devised a plan to locate the area where the pipe shield was damaged. As a part of the repair plan, the company pumped Mercaptan into the annulus space of the FlexSteel pipeline to locate the breached shield. Once the damaged area was discovered, the section was cut out and replaced with a midline connection. 

The Result

The operator’s decision to use FlexSteel’s ShieldSure Annulus Test allowed them to confirm the integrity of the pipeline and devise a plan to identify issues before the line was commissioned. Using ShieldSure Annulus Testing combined with real-time annulus monitoring provided several key benefits: 

• Improved overall operational safety and reliability of the pipelines; 

• Enabled 24/7 leak detection for the pipelines through real-time annulus pressure monitoring; 

• Provided an early warning system to detect pipeline issues, unlike material balance leak detection systems, which have problems detecting small leaks in pipelines and only indicate a warning after a failure has occurred; and 

• Gained support from the regional regulatory authority for using pipelines with built-in safety features.