Aubin’s EVO-Pig was successfully deployed for an independent upstream company in Canada, to remove produced water and clean the gathering lines in their system.
The Challenge
The client faced many challenges from the outset, including:
The system had never been pigged before
Minimal records of underground pipeline configuration due to acquiring the assets
Challenging pipeline network, with various sizes interconnecting throughout the field, up to 50% piping reductions, unknown bend radius and fullbore branch connections
The system did not have traditional launchers or receivers
There were unknown quantities of debris and deposit in the system
Due to the above factors, traditional pigging would have been either extremely costly or not possible - as the client would have had to expose all piping at all size transitions and launch traditional pigs to void the lines, or flood the entire system with water with no guarantee of displacement. There would also have been a high risk of a traditional pig getting stuck.
The company contacted Blackstone Pipeline and Environmental Solutions ( formerly Trican Pipeline and Industrial Services), our partner in Canada, to develop an engineered solution to ensure effective water displacement.
In addition to the brief outlined above, there were further requirements stated by the client:
Have less than 400ppm chloride content remaining in the system to meet requirements
Maximum allowed pressure of the system was 1,000kPag
The system was lined with HDPE due to sour service, therefore solution has to be suited to this environment
What Happened?
Trican presented Aubin’s unique EVO-Pig range of gel pigs as a solution for dewatering and cleaning the client’s gathering lines. The solution was as follows:
Run cleaning batch of water/chemistry displaced by Aubin’s EVO-Pig
Flush with fresh water
De-water with Aubin’s EVO-Pig driven by nitrogen
The Result
The job was completed successfully, and the results were as follows:
The EVO-Pig was successfully launched and received, and able to effectively clear the lines
The solution was deployed with a fast turnaround time
The client was happy with the results, and said they would consider using the EVO-Pig range again in the future
To learn more about EVO-Pig, please click here.
