Bumper pipeline work for Technip

Petrobras America has awarded Technip, the Paris-based engineering, technologies and construction services company, two contracts totalling more than $300m to develop gas fields in the Gulf of Mexico.

The contracts cover the development of the Cascade and Chinook gas fields located in the Walker Ridge area of the Gulf, in 2,500m and 2,700m of water, respectively.

The first contract includes the engineering, procurement, construction and installation of five free-standing hybrid riser systems for both fields. These are a type of riser, pipes used to transfer produced fluids from the seabed to surface facilities, consisting of a vertical rigid pipe section between the seabed and a submerged buoy and a catenary flexible pipe jumper between the submerged buoy and the floater.

The second contract includes the installation of the Cascade infield flowline, the installation of a gas export pipeline and the welding of 120km of 15cm and 23cm steel pipelines.

Offshore installation is scheduled to start in the third quarter of 2009 using Technip’s vessels Deep Blue and Constructor.

Separately, Shell has awarded Technip a contract for the ultra-deep water Perdido oil field development in the Gulf of Mexico.

The terms of the contract covers engineering, fabrication and installation of one flowline (a pipe laid on the seabed that transports substances) and one steel catenary riser, with a total length of 13.26km. The maximum water depth of the pipelines along the route will be 2,956m.

Technip’s operating centre in Houston, Texas, will carry out the contract, while the pipelines will be welded at its spoolbase in Mobile, Alabama. Technip’s deepwater pipelay vessel Deep Blue will complete the offshore installation.

Shell, which has a 35 per cent interest in Perdido, is the oil field’s operator, with other partners including Chevron and BP.