Making deepwater oil extraction possible
Until alternative sources of energy become more developed and widely adopted, oil will remain king. However, as the easier, more accessible oil reserves have already been or are close to being exhausted, new reserves must be found. Nowhere is this more evident than the ocean where various types of riser systems allow the transport of crude oil extracted from the seabed to storage vessels. Shallow-water exploration and exploitation has now been followed by deepwater and more recently ultra-deepwater exploration. As depth increases, now up to several thousand metres below the ocean surface, the demands upon the equipment grow analogously. A EU funded project made some important contributions to increasing the feasibility of deepwater extraction, specifically in the area of pipe insulation. The insulation must protect against the low temperatures and high pressures that exist at such depths. It must also be strong yet flexible. The first thing the engineers did was to sit down and thoroughly analyse these technical requirements. Next, the manufacturing process of polypropylene (PP) foam was fine tuned until the best balance between mechanical and thermal characteristics was achieved. Optimal performance was attained with a combination of stiff PP copolymers and high melt strength (HMS) PP polymers. Precompounding increased homogeneity, leading to better compression strength and superior creep resistance. The prototype, Thermotite TDF, has been tested in real operating conditions. Experimental results compared relatively well with computer models based on finite element (FE) analysis developed during the research phase. This software tool will assist future research efforts. Exploitation of Thermotite TDF is already underway as two substantial contracts have already been signed. More are expected as the results are disseminated and marketing activities continue. Thermotite TDF could help bring us one step closer to retrieving the large stores of oil that await deep in the Earth's oceans.
