Facilities for manufacturing the reinforced thermoplastic pipe (RTP) Coflexlite, installed by a Technip-Cosmoplast joint venture, were formally inaugurated at a ceremony in Mussafah, Abu Dhabi, in the last fortnight of April.
Coflexlite is wholly non-metallic, making it entirely resistant to virtually all corrosive agents typically found in an oil or gas production environment. Agents such as water, H2S, CO2, aromatics, acids and bases do not affect the mechanical integrity of the product over its design life.
The product’s polymeric construction helps provide the additional benefit of resistance to erosion. The damage tolerance of the liner material means that particulate and multi-phase flow will not compromise the structure in any way.
“These properties serve the end user to dramatically reduce operational expenditure and costs associated with pipeline inspection and maintenance and therefore provide huge cost saving benefits over the design life of the pipeline,” a joint Technip-Cosmoplast statement said.
The product is lightweight and flexible and is supplied on road transportable coils in lengths of up to 600 m.
“This inherent property means that all logistics associated with installation are greatly simplified and, as a result, pipes can be rapidly installed with minimum expense,” the statement said. Technip-Cosmoplast also said it was possible to lay Coflexlite directly on to the ground without the need for supports, expansion loops, 45-degree or 90-degree bends or burial.
The Coflexlite facilities cover more than 13,000 sq m and all products are manufactured to stock, meaning they can be delivered with extremely short delivery times. The manufacturing and quality systems comply with ISO 9001 and product designs are qualified in accordance with ASTM.
Coflexlite pipe coils are hydrotested to 1.5 times operating pressure prior to delivery. When the product arrives on site it is then re-hydrotested to 1.25 times the operating pressure once installed to check the pipeline system integrity.
With a workforce of about 19,000 persons, Technip ranks among the top five corporations in the field of oil, gas and petrochemical engineering, construction and services. Headquartered in Paris, the Group is listed in New York and Paris. Its main engineering and business centres are located in France, Italy, Germany, the UK, Norway, Finland, the Netherlands, the US, Brazil, Abu-Dhabi, China, India, Malaysia and Australia. The Group has high-quality industrial and construction facilities in France, Brazil, the UK, the USA, Finland and Angola as well as a world-class fleet of offshore construction vessels.
Technip’s Coflexip flexible pipe products are synonymous with the historic developments in the oil and gas production and drilling industry since the early 1970s. The Coflexip drilling, refining and onshore applications division has taken the pipeline technology of unbonded offshore production risers and flowlines to provide a product range which is particularly well adapted to critical applications where safety and environmental concern is of the utmost importance.
Cosmoplast is a fully owned subsidiary of Interplast and a primary member of the Harwal group of companies. The Harwal group is a multinational company with manufacturing operations spread throughout the Middle East, Europe and North America. From within the group, Interplast-Cosmoplast, with a combined conversion capacity of 120,000 tonnes per year, supply a large variety of thermoplastic products to 56 countries across the world.
The Cosmoplast division has specialised in pipeline systems, fittings and customised application pipes for 28 years. Today it is among a few manufacturers in the world with the capability of producing 1,200 mm diameter thermoplastic pipes. Other products it makes include pressure and non-pressure water and gas distribution systems, water well casings, hot and cold water plumbing systems, insulated district cooling, manholes and many other unique pipeline products.
