Tideway BV's Rollingstone, specially equipped with a 900 m fall-pipe and working off the Philippines, has begun what the company says is the world's deepest pipeline rock placement. Photo from Dredging, Environmental & Marine Engineering NV, The Netherlands.
Royal Dutch/Shell unit Shell Philippines Exploration BV and Texaco Inc. have awarded a pipeline protection contract to Tideway BV, The Netherlands, for their Malampaya natural gas project off the Philippines. The company is the offshore and landfall engineering unit of Dredging, Environmental & Marine Engineering NV (DEME), Zwijndrecht, Belgium.
Having begun in late April, Tideway is using its 12,000-tonne fall-pipe vessel Rollingstone to perform rock placement along the 500-km Malampaya gas trunk line, still under construction (see photo). The rock covering will protect and stabilize the line.
The vessel has been specially modified for the task to reach a maximum depth of 900 m and is placing rocks at depths of up to 850 m, the deepest placement ever for a pipeline, says DEME. Upon completion of the job by mid-September, Rollingstone will have placed a total of 200,000 tonnes of rock at strategic locations atop the line.
The vessel will follow the main pipelay contractor for the project, Allseas Pipeline Contractors SA, which is laying the pipe with its layship Solitaire.
The pipeline connects Shell's Malampaya platform in the South China Sea with the Batangas terminal on the southwestern coast of Luzon, about 90 km from Manila.
