From Rueil-Malmaison: What could be more up-to-date than ‘going digital’?

Technip’s new Innovation & Technology Centre in this leafy suburb of Paris is not a place to get your hands dirty. While the ‘technology’ might be oilfield, the modus operandi is all very digital, ie computers - ideas, design, training and - just to be very contemporary - ‘virtual content’.

The French company has taken the approach, like others of its size, that it will be technology that will set it apart from both its current competitors and from the up-andcoming new players. In fact, technology is one the ‘six pillars’ of the company’s strategy for the future.

Some of the technology is not exactly new, but are advances within the framework of its existing product lines. That means, of course, considerable work on both umbilicals and flexible pipe.

Much falls into what is now dubbed ‘smart’ products, meaning not just providing something that is the most up-to-date in terms of design and materials, but which will provide feedback on its operational state. This is what is known in modern parlance as ‘condition monitoring’.

So umbilicals will be equipped with sensors, as will trace-heated pipelines of both rigid and flexible types.

Flexible can be provided with a number of ‘new’ features which have been on the drawing board - but not on the lay-up line - for some time. These include carbon fibres for dynamic applications in deep water and H2S ‘scavenging’ sheaths.

Targets
The target market for such designs include Brazil where pre-salt fields in ultra-deep waters (>2,000m) with high-pressure reservoirs present challenges not encountered before.

There will also be a growing focus on manufacturing. The umbilical plant in Newcastle in the UK - not sure whether the name Duco is still being used - will be the centre of excellence for steel-tubed designs, while Asiaflex in Malaysia will focus on thermoplastic designs.

There are other interesting applications of video and virtual content. Marketing people in the company wanted to be able show potential and existing customers from distant countries where their flexible flowlines and risers were was being manufactured. So a video was made of the main plant at Le Trait with others possibly to follow.

This was then translated into videos of vessels when it became apparent that such media - some converted into virtual ‘touring’ programs - could also be used for training and safety purposes.

Project engineers could be shown the vessels that they would be using for installation and probably boarding for trips offshore or even simply to better understand the geometry of lay equipment and craneage.

The latest on vessels is Deep Energy which is about to come to the North Sea after its initial outing in the Gulf of Mexico. It is a dual purpose layvessel - rigid and flexible pipe - but what is of note are its streamlined design and transit speed - 19-20kt. In this era of international activity, getting somewhere fast is definitely a benefit.