Subsea 7, UK, has opened its new pipeline fabrication spoolbase in Port Isabel, Texas, USA.
The spoolbase was officially opened by Joe Vega, the Mayor of Port Isabel and Ian Cobban, Vice President – North America for Subsea 7, at a ceremony held at the base.
The US$30 million spoolbase covers an area of 58 acres and is 2km in length. The spoolbase will fabricate and store oil and gas pipelines of up to 20" (50.8cm) diameter in lengths of up to 1.2km for spooling onto reeled pipelay vessels.
The facility will be equipped to weld any steel line pipe material from traditional carbon steel to duplex and clad pipe. In addition, the base will be able to complete the fabrication of plastic-lined pipelines, pipe-in-pipe systems and steel catenary risers (SCRs).
When in full production the base will be able to hold approximately 18,000 tonnes of pipe stalks.
The base employs up to 100 people when working at normal capacity.
The first project to be undertaken at the spoolbase is the fabrication and installation of two 8" (20.3cm) flowlines totalling 58km for the Marathon Oil Corporation's Droshky field development. The Droshky development is located approximately 180km south of Houma, Louisiana, USA with water depths ranging from 411 metres to 914 metres. in Green Canyon block 244.
Pipeline fabrication is already underway at the new Port Isabel facility, with pipeline installation scheduled for the fourth quarter of 2009.
