Halfwave scoops two inspection contracts with Woodside

Oil and gas inspection services company Halfwave has won two new in-line inspection contracts from Australian energy giant Woodside.

Halfwave said on Friday that Woodside would deploy the company’s ultra-wideband acoustic resonance technology during two new inspections scheduled for 2019.

The awards have been made as part of a master services agreement (MSA) between the two companies.

“Woodside is an early adopter of Halfwave’s ultra-wideband acoustic resonance technology (ART), which provides measurement capabilities beyond those of existing inspection technologies,” the company said.

ART is an acoustic resonance measurement technology, a highly accurate inspection technique. The acoustic signals transmit readily through gas, so there is no need for a liquid coupling medium, and they penetrate internal coatings and surface deposits, such as wax within the pipe.

The signal transmitters and receivers can stand off several inches from the pipe wall making ART pipeline pigs capable of negotiating pipelines with constrictions and internal diameter changes.

The ART Scan is a non-contact, low friction, lightweight technology, and only the polyurethane is in contact with the pipe wall.

The two operations are planned to be carried out in 2019 on the 20″x 54km Pluto Flowline and the 40″x 134km 1TL Trunkline.

Woodside’s Pluto LNG processes gas from the offshore Pluto and Xena gas fields in Western Australia. Gas is piped through a 180 km trunkline to a single onshore LNG-processing train.

Since beginning operations, Pluto’s average annualized capacity has increased from 4.3 mtpa to 4.7 mtpa.

According to Woodside, planning continues for the expansion of Pluto LNG based on the acceleration of Pluto gas and the potential development of the Scarborough gas field via the Pluto LNG facility.