TDW Offshore Services AS has carried out a record-breaking 27 pipeline isolation operations with its SmartPlug® pipeline pressure isolation technology this year. The vast majority of operations were carried out for the purpose of replacing topside valves and most of the operations took place in the North Sea and Asia Pacific. The primary benefit of TDW’s SmartPlug pipeline pressure isolation method is that it makes it possible to safely isolate the area targeted for work from hydrocarbons without bleeding down the entire work zone. In addition to its customized SmartPlug tools, TDW’s SmartTrack™ technology is used in highly complex isolation operations. The SmartTrack system makes it possible to track pigs, whether they are subsea, topside or inside underground pipelines located onshore. It played a central role in a recent TDW isolation operation in the Mediterranean Sea where an anchor drag caused catastrophic failure when it severed a 26-inch high pressure subsea gas pipeline. TDW worked in cooperation with the pipeline repair contractor, using a combination of its SmartTrack remote tracking and pressure-monitoring system, pipeline recovery tools (PRTs), and SmartPlug pipeline pressure isolation tools to effectively isolate the affected sections of the pipeline. It was the first time that TDW had been called in to facilitate repair of a pipeline that was completely severed.
