Halliburton’s Energy Services Group has won the 2003 Subsea Pipeline Technology Award from the Pipeline Industries Guild. The company won the prize for the development and successful application of its new Hal-AT™ Acoustic Telemetry System. This system is a remote subsea system which allows for more accurate predictions of pig location. This is done by using the pressure monitoring function at the launch point, or the pig tracking/signalling function further along the pipeline. The system can also be of benefit during pre-commissioning/hydrotesting activities by allowing the support vessel to move off-station and continue its work elsewhere while still monitoring the pressure trend within the pipeline under test. It uses an acoustic transponder as the link between a subsea location and a vessel-based monitoring station. The system has two main benefits. By accurately monitoring pipeline pressure during pigging runs, it removes the uncertainty factor relating to pig location and negates the industry-wide practice of pumping overfills for pipelines and flowlines in deepwater environments. This reduces the quantity of chemicals required during a project and potential environmental impact. Second, it can reduce vessel time by eliminating “best guess” estimates.
