KUPE Gas Project Spoolbase Part 2 of 2

Origin Technip Alliance awarded McConnell Dowell the contract for the establishment and operation of a temporary spoolbase, to support the overall Kupe Gas Project in New Zealand.

The Kupe field provides the New Zealand gas network with approximately 253 petajoules of natural gas, as well as liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) and 15 million barrels of light oil (condensate).

The spoolbase contract was an important part of the Kupe Project and included civil works, structural and spoolbase fabrication comprising:

-- establishment of a spoolbase operation at Picton, on the northern tip of New Zealand's South Island;
-- bridging a 60m storm water pond for the pipe to be carried over;
-- welding a total of 28km of pipes into 70 individual 400m long strings (pipe stalks);
-- welding the tie-ins as the pipe was spooled onto Technip's Apache Reel Barge.

Coated line pipe was delivered in 12 m sections to the spoolbase and were welded together to create 400 m long pipe strings. The pipeline was 12" in diameter, 25mm thick and had trilaminate parent coating.

McConnell Dowell used an automatic welding process and inspected each weld using AUT (Automatic Ultrasonic Testing). When the Apache reel barge arrived, the pipe strings were reeled onto the vessel and additional tie-in welds completed by MacDow, until the total reel length was approximately 10km long.

Technip then transported the 10km lengths to South Taranaki for laying on the seabed floor. This was the first time a subsea gas pipeline was laid in New Zealand using this method. The Kupe Gas Project brought many economic benefits to the Marlborough region. At peak, the spoolbase employed 40 people in fabrication and 10 management staff.

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• pipelines
• civil
• gas
• infrastructure
• new zealand