Borealis, a polyolefins producer specializing in polyethylene (PE) and polypropylene (PP) for pipeline applications, is seeing increasing demand for its services from the offshore industry.
For several years, the company has worked closely with Statoil and Bredero Shaw, the pipeline-coating group, on polyolefin-based solutions for subsea pipelines. The collaboration began with the Åsgard project, for which Borealis developed a five-layer PP pipeline coating to meet demanding requirements for creep (shrinkage), insulation, and mechanical strength. It also delivered a protective jacketing with a very high impact strength for the heating cable in a direct pipeline heating system.
The company has since supplied pipe coating materials for two more Statoil-operated field developments, Kristin and Snøhvit.
Continuing investment in product development and production facilities is a priority, says Tony Lindström, sales manager for the pipe business unit at the company's Stenung- sund, Sweden plant, which is also its innovation center for polyolefins for pipe, wire, and cable applications.
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Borealis is currently installing a cross-head extrusion production line – a technique used frequently for offshore products at its pilot polyolefins plant in Porvoo, Finland. The plant also has in-house testing facilities for steel pipelines with PE and PP coatings. No other raw material supplier can match these facilities, says Lindström.
Many of the company's products are made with Borcoat and Borstar PE polymers manufactured using proprietary bimodal technology, which allows the polymer properties to be tailored to the application's requirements.
The company is currently setting new depth records for polyolefin use offshore. It supplied PP polymers to Bredero Shaw Norway for use in the manufacture of a seven-layer pipe-coating system for BP's Thunder Horse development in 2,000 m of water in the Gulf of Mexico. The system is capable of withstanding pressures of 200 bar and temperatures up to 132° C.
PE is more typically used for onshore applications requiring good mechanical strength, while PP products tend to be more applicable to offshore applications, in part because this material is very resistant to high temperatures and pressures, Lindström says. But PE can also be applied offshore – the most recent delivery, to BP's Sullom Voe terminal in the Shetland Islands, was a pipe to protect subsea flowlines. The pipe, with a 1,400-mm diameter and 100-mm wall thickness, was made from a newly developed PE material. A pipe with this wall thickness and the required properties could not have been made from previous materials.
For more information contact Tony Lindström, Borealis. Tel +46 303 867 17, fax +46 303 817 46, [email protected], www.borealisgroup.com/pipe.
