Offshore staff

WASHINGTON, UK -- Hughes Pumps has delivered eight pumping systems to Subsea 7 and Technip for use on pipelay support vessels installing deepwater flexible flowlines off Brazil.

The vessels are working on a $200-million EPIC contract awarded by Petróleo Brasileiro S.A. for a deepwater oil export project in the Campos basin.

Hughes has supplied hydrostatic test and chemical injection systems (HTCIS) for pressure testing of flexible flowlines using seawater, and flushing and hydrostatic test units (FHTU) for umbilicals employing a hydraulic fluid (MacDermid Oceanic HW525) for production control purposes.

The HTCIS deliveries include a filling system rated to 50 cu m/hr (1,766 cu ft/hr) at 10 bar (145 psi), a mid-pressure system rated to 10 cu m/hr (353 cu ft/hr) at 310 bar (4,496 psi), and a high-pressure system to 0.4 cu m/hr (14.1 cu ft/hr) at 517 bar (7,498 psi). There is also a chemical injection system to meter oxygen remover and biologic inhibitor into the process line.

As for the FHTUs, new umbilicals were flushed prior to installation using two HPS650 pumps, each rated to 50 l/min (13.2 gal/min) at 400 bar (5,801 psi). A 3.2 l/min (0.845 gal/min) pump at 690 bar (10,007 psi) was then employed to hydrostatically test the umbilicals. Fluid cleanliness had to meet NAS 1638 Class 6 or better, necessitating a separate filling and filtering system to permanently filter the fluid.

08/30/2010