Pipe down Hot-tap welding has been achieved at a record depth

摘要

The remote subsea welding of pipelines has been demonstrated at a record depth of 940 metres of sea-water (msw) in a field test in Norway. It is the first time that hot-tap welding, a way of connecting pipes, has been done at such depths and is the culmination of around 10 years' research by Cranfield University and industrial partner Statoil. The work could have a major impact on the offshore oil and gas industries, as Neil Woodward, a Statoil engineer who is based at Cranfield, told The Engineer. 'Say there's a pipeline already on the sea bed; it might have been there 20 or 30 years, and for whatever reason it's more economical to tap into that pipeline and divert a bit of flow somewhere to make the oilfield more profitable, rather than lay a new pipe.