DNV GL has launched a recommended practice (RP) that allows operators to choose thermoplastic composite pipes instead of steel or traditional flexibles, enabling substantial cost reductions throughout the project lifecycle.
Lightweight thermoplastic composite pipes affect field layout, installation methods and can reduce costs. Thermoplastic composite pipes offer advantages across all stages of the lifecycle of a pipeline or riser:
- Design: easy-to-tailor strength and good fatigue capacity, sufficient for the deepest waters and resilience to fluids and elevated temperatures.
- Manufacture: cost-effective continuous spoolable lengths and fully bonded, and the same thermoplastic material can be used for the liner, composite layers and outer coating.
- Installation and decommissioning: cost-effective; lightweight and spoolable.
- Operation: no metal corrosion, high thermal and pressure tolerance and minimal flow resistance.
DNVGL-RP-F119 Thermoplastic Composite Pipes (TCP) was developed through a DNV GL-led joint industry project involving eighteen companies covering the whole supply chain; from polymer producers, via TCP manufacturers, to oil companies as the end users.
TCP have a variety of application areas offshore, including: flowlines, risers, jumpers, choke and kill lines, expansion spools, access lines, and chemical injection lines, as well as commissioning and intervention lines.
Picture: The inside of a flexible pipe (by DNV GL).
