SeaTap System a Hot Prospect

 

ABERDEEN company Clear Well Subsea has developed the SeaTap System - a new and innovative approach to subsea "hot tapping" operations. In hot tapping operations, a connection point is made to a pressurised, flowing pipeline to link two pipeline systems.

 

Clear Well Subsea says SeaTap includes design features that allow a range of tooling options to be used and which enable tapping operations to be performed safely and efficiently. Hot tapping can be used in several key areas:

 

• Tie-back of small satellite developments to existing subsea infrastructure.
• Utilisation of surplus trunk line capacity by enabling cost effective tie-in of third-party export/import pipelines.
• Reconfiguration of trunk and interfield pipelines.
• Decommissioning of trunk and interfiled pipelines.

 

The SeaTap development programme has been under way since February, 2000, and a prototype unit has been built at Wilkie Engineering at Newburgh and this has been demonstrated to a number of oil companies and subsea construction firms. Part of the SeaTap development received a Scottish Executive SMART award worth £45,000.

 

Keith Evans, Clear Well managing director said, "We even had one company from the US – Quality Connector Systems (Houston), who came to see the system.”

 

"We hope that companies will be interested in purchasing a full service package or, possibly, a licence agreement to exploit the technology.”