A new deepwater marine construction record has been claimed by McDermott offshore Malaysia for installation of a reeled rigid pipe-in-pipe (PIP) system as part of the Siakap North Petai project.

McDermott said it is the first contractor to install a rigid PIP system using reel lay methods, and did this while operating in a water depth of 1,190 m (3,900 ft). President and CEO David Dickson said the successful installation of rigid reeled PIP line was a first for the region.

Installation was performed by the North Ocean 105 offshore construction vessel, which is equipped with a 400 metric tonne top tension lay capacity, a pipeline end terminal handling system as well as a 2,750 metric tonne rigid pipe payload.

Operator Murphy Oil announced first oil from the Siakap North Petai development in March after the field came onstream on February 27. The field is located in a water depth of 1,341 m (4,400 ft), and has been developed with eight production and six water injection wells tied back subsea to an FPSO on the deepwater Kikeh Field. By mid-year Murphy is predicting field production should reach 35,000 b/d of oil.

This development comprises discoveries at Siakap North in Block K and Petai in adjacent Block G. Murphy’s project partners are Shell, ConocoPhillips, and Petronas Carigali.

Asked why this particular pipelay technique was applied to the project on behalf of Murphy, a McDermott spokesman told DI: “Pipe-in-pipe was specified by the client due to the nature of the Siakap field. The project required pipe-in-pipe production flowlines to provide sufficient insulation to obtain a low overall heat–transfer coefficient to ensure flow assurance, and enough cool down time during start-up or shut-down of operations as the wellheads are located at a water depth of approximately 1,493 m (4,900 ft).

“The layout of the field, linking a number of subsea wells requiring multiple pipeline structures to be incorporated, meant that reel-lay over traditional S-lay offered a more efficient solution for installation. Infield pipeline installation, including welding of in-line Tees, is much faster using a reel-lay method as compared to conventional S-lay for small diameter pipelines,” said a spokesperson.