Alchemy’s range of Pipeline Gels can help you achieve your decommissioning goals far more effectively than other methods such as simply flushing with line volumes of treated water.
Our APG Gel series have been specially formulated to remove hydrocarbons and debris with far greater efficiency – reducing flushing time, and time on station with supply vessels and pumping spreads. The Gel is far more effective at sweeping hydrocarbons from pipelines and our clients generally find that they are able to achieve their target cleanliness after only using two or three small pills.
For example, a 10km 8″ line with a total line volume of 330m3 would only require 3 pills of APG Crosslinked Gel at 3m3 each to provide an excellent cleaning capability – allowing our clients to clean pipelines in a single simple flushing operation, using minimal water and a simpler pump spread, rather than the traditional 6 line volume high-speed flushing.
The result is a better clean of the pipeline with less pumped volume, and less time on location, reducing vessel time and costs for the operation.
In a recent flushing operation, Alchemy APG Crosslinked Gel was successfully used to flush a North Sea subsea field and tie back to a main platform. The APG Gel was injected down a gas lift line, through a subsea manifold, across each of 3 wells in turn, and then back up the production riser to the platform as a round trip flush.
As changes in internal diameter pose no issues for the Gel, the Gel could be pumped down a 3″ line, through several 1 – 2″ crossovers, and then back up the 6″ riser with no issues. The Gel will also successfully navigate obstructions such as barred Ts without issue – it will simply flow past them and reform on the other side.
The outcome of the flushing operation was that the Client reached their target cleanliness after only 2 pumping operations with APG Crosslinked Gel, rather than the expected 3+, and was able to deb-mob from the offshore location several days early.
Alchemy’s range of Sealants can assist during decommissioning operations where a temporary barrier, valve improvement, or sealing operation is required.
Our products are commonly used to seal valves and control lines during plug and abandonment operations, and for sealing or improving the performance of passing wing valves during decommissioning. Our products can also be used to prevent or stop communication between well annulus and are available in both high and low pressure variants.
More information is available on our Sealants Product pages for both the HDCeal and DynaCeal product ranges.