Socotherm Americas, the Argentinean subsidiary of Socotherm Spa, Italian company leader in the field of pipe coatings for the energy transportation, has developed a new coating application process to serve the Bu Hasa Project coatings in U.A.E.

 

 

 

 

The new coating application process, performed at Escobar and Campana facilities in Argentina, consists in the external application of a new developed dual layer FBE + White Polyester Top Coat. Moreover Fusion Bonded Epoxy will be applied internally.

This new product, developed by SOCOTHERM AMERICAS R & D unit, is applied in lieu of the usual liquid paints of difficult application and without appropriate controls and allows an absolute control and an easy application.

The application of high coating thicknesses which should be flexible, anticorrosive, resistant to handling, resistant to UV and suitable for high temperatures were only obtained at that time by applying several layers of liquid base paints.

Nowadays, this new development enhances and combines the previous mentioned characteristics without the necessity of several passes.

The development of this new product can be considered as a potential solution for one of the most laborious and complicated pipeline construction areas: the aerial installations. Besides eliminating all risks deriving by the use of solvents and paint vapours, it produces a considerable cost saving, having a contained raw material cost and, at the same time, a better productivity.

The Abu Dhabi National Oil Company is on course to lift the UAE's crude oil production capacity to 3 million barrels per day (bpd) by 2006. Major investments pumped into several onshore and offshore projects over the last five years are now set to yield dividends. Current oil production is about 2.3 million bpd although the UAE has spare capacity of nearly 200,000 bpd.

These projects include expansion projects, as in Habshan, and technological initiatives at onshore fields such as Bu Hasa and Bab to increase capacity from one million bpd to 1.4m bpd. Pipeline Magazine provides an overview of some of the projects under implementation.

Bu Hasa extraction plant has two trains and carries the distinction of being the first Gasco Plant in operation as of December 1980. It receives associated gas from the neighboring oil fields and has a feed capacity of 600 mmscfd.

The Bu Hasa Facilities Upgrade Project (HUP) entails upgrading and modifying the gas gathering facilities at the onshore Bu Hasa oilfield. It calls for the supply and installation of gas receiving units, a flare system, compressors and related pipelines at plant A's four boot-blower stations. The HUP project is aimed at handling the additional volumes of gas planned to be produced from the proposed ADCO facilities' upgrade and reservoir development project, also planned at Bu Hasa.

Five international companies - Snamprogetti, Saipem, Fluor Daniel / Petrofac Intl, JGC Corporation, Technip-Coflexip and NPCC - submitted commercial bids by end-May 2003. The scope of works on the 32-month contract includes the construction of new degassification plant with nameplate capacity of 730,000 barrels per day and the replacement of the existing two-phase gas separators, each of 50,000 b/d with four new three-phase separators each of 120,000 b/d. The project will also entail the installation of facilities for the reinjection of 95 million cubic feet a day of gas and 120,000 b/d of water into the G, F and D reservoirs.

The five-year achievement report of ADNOC released last week says the UAE's proven oil reserves now stand at about 98 billion barrels, representing just under 10 per cent of world oil reserves. This makes the UAE the fourth largest OPEC producer after Saudi Arabia, Iran and Venezuela.
Abu Dhabi's proven oil reserves have doubled in the last decade and now account for 94 per cent of the UAE's crude reserves. "This is the result of significantly increasing the rate of recovery and continuing to identify new finds, especially offshore.

"ADNOC's oil production capacity has risen to over 2 million bpd, ranking it among the world's top 10 oil producers. This has been achieved through major investments in a number of recent and ongoing development projects," said the report.

Among these investments are US$300 million (Dh1.10 billion) to increase capacity of the onshore Bu Hasa field from 100,000 to 480,000 bpd, a natural gas re-injection project for the onshore Bab field and US$480 million (Dh1.76 billion) to increase capacity of the Ruwais refinery from 145,000 to 500,000 bpd.

"These form part of the overall goal of raising the UAE's production capacity to 3 million bpd by 2006." Specifically, the major onshore oil developments in the last five years include the North East Bab phase I (NEB-I), designed to increase production from the Al Dhabb'iya, Rumaitha and Shanayel fields to 110 million bpd by early 2006.

This includes the implementation of the Water Alternating Gas process for the first time in the Gulf to attain maximum production while sustaining reservoir pressure. The major offshore developments include the Umm Shaif field crestal gas injection, the Upper and Lower Zakum fields pilot gas injection, Umm Al Anbar flared sour gas re-injection and Bunduq associated gas injection projects.

Socotherm, established in Vicenza (Italy) on 1859 and listed on STAR Segment of the Italian Stock Exchange (SCTM.MI), is a world wide pipe coating contractor with plants in Italy, Argentina, Brazil, Venezuela, Nigeria, Qatar, Malaysia, China e Australia.

The Group offers all kinds of pipe coating services to world wide Oil and Gas industry from External/Internal Anticorrosion Coatings to Concrete Weight Coating and Thermal Insulation. Socotherm is specialized in Deep Water insulations and provides various systems responding to specific needs of each project.

Socotherm is also active in the design, assembly and sell of pipe coating turn-key plant and district heating system, in the field of special insulation for ship carriers transporting liquid gas and in the asphalt road maintenance offering the most advanced systems