Case studies

Intero integrity Services was awarded a decommissioning and commissioning scope of work by an industrial chemical provider to carry out multiple services.

This paper describes PG&E’s use of Non-Traditional robotic ILI technology to inspect numerous cased pipelines located in High Consequence Areas in the highly populated and dense urban area between the San Francisco International Airport (SFO) and central San Francisco.

Across the globe, there are pipelines that prove difficult to inspect using traditional methods. Whether the infrastructure has challenging features, impassable components, or little to no flow; launching and receiving inline inspection pigs may be impractical or impossible. Since 2011, we have been working to mitigate the challenges of traditional pigging by utilizing their fleet of tetherless robotic crawlers known as Explorer iLi.

This Case study/paper reviews the process, execution, and data from the use of Explorer iLi for long distance inspections that are several miles in length.

This Case study/paper will provide information on Colonial’s tank line integrity program and the operations and preparation required for conducting a robotic pipeline inspection at a tank farm. The authors will discuss the results obtained from robotic inline inspection including the accuracy of the data collected.

A Subsea Operator needed Inline Inspection (ILI) services for a subsea pipeline that had no history of mechanical/intelligent pigging. The probability risk-factor of a mechanical/intelligent tool becoming stuck or immobile in the pipeline was significant.

This time our client asked us to first, remove a stuck pig; and second, inspect a 42” pipeline as a pilot project, to then indicate the overall condition of fifty similar pipelines.

Aviation fuel supply lines on an airfield mostly consist out of a ring supply line with branches to the fuel supply hydrant, Intero developed a customized solution to inspect such a system without any modification to the 4” pipeline or 2” branches.

Intero’s customer asked us to find a cost-effective solution to inspect the pipeline, remove of the 4” sections, and commission it for the customer’s operations.

This customer previously detected Corrosion Under Insulation (CUI) on their pipeline. They found severe corrosion at several pipe supports. They needed to quickly complete a Risk Based Inspection (RBI) program. The customer asked Intero to determine the best inspection program, providing high-resolution wall thickness data for the entire pipeline.

An East Asia client awarded Intero a pipeline cleaning and inspection project for an aviation fuel supply line. The client needed detailed information regarding the pipeline’s location and possible anomalies, so Intero included XYZ mapping and placed above ground markers for integrated mapping references.

In this case study you can read how Intero supported a client starting up a second bio-methanol production line by providing additional nitrogen with a minimum flow of 3.000m3/hr.

Often we receive request to provide a solution for the most difficult to inspect pipelines. The pipeline in this case study was never pigged before and had bend restrictions such as forged bends (<1.0D) and mitre bends (R=5D). No off the shelf ILI tool was available but with our R&D capabilities we were able to develop a tailor made solution. Click the below link to download the case study and learn more about our innovative solution.

Most operators and service providers can easily clean and inspect standard furnaces with a single diameter tubes and u-bends. More specialized configurations such as plug headers, boxes, horseshoes and reducers require more detailed evaluation and planning. Intero modified its current intelligent inspection tools to successfully complete the project.

This inspection was Asia’s first online/no man entry inspection of a low flashpoint (ATEX zone 0) product tank. With this also being Vopak’s first time, it was imperative that Intero maintained a solid collaboration between ourselves, the product owner and local authorities.

We were requested to perform the pre-commissioning activities for a major offshore pipelay and subsea construction company of the offshore part of the Baltic Connector pipeline. This newly constructed pipeline starts in Inkoo, Finland and ends in Paldiski, Estonia.

A client in the Middle East contacted Intero Integrity Services to clean and inspect a 48-year-old non-piggable 30” gas flare line offshore. The pipeline has never been pigged since it’s commissioning in 1971. A customized solution was required to make this challenging pipeline piggable, cleaned and inspected with high resolution ultrasound before handing it back to operations.

Furnace tubes in heaters are inspected during turn-arounds to determine their condition in order to decide for replacement or repair. Degradation in most situations is limited to general corrosion but in rare cases pitting like corrosion can occur. Detection and sizing of general corrosion is a usual capability of furnace inspection tools based on ultrasound technology. However, detection of pitting corrosion requires high resolution ultrasonic inspection equipment, advanced data analysis capabilities and highly experienced alert data analysts.

Intero was requested to support an exploration and production company with a Pipeline abandonment and re-direction project. Decommissioning and recommissioning a pipeline safely and cost effectively through cleaning and flooding operations with establish hydrocarbon levels of less than 30 ppm discharged from the pipeline.

A large diameter pipeline was inspected using the highly innovative ultrasonic inline phased array technology. This product was specifically developed for large diameter pipeline, in product, at a Tank Terminal in the Netherlands. This client’s key focus was to obtain a high resolution inspection with the most accurate data possible.