PU foam protects BP pipeline

BP has started to use polyurethane foam erosion dams instead of sand bags to protect its major oil and gas pipelines. The moulded foam dams, which stabilise earth on steep sloping terrain, are initially being used on the oil company’s 1768km Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan (BTC) pipeline that will take oil from the Caspian Sea to the Mediterranean.

UK company Industrial Foam Systems (IFS) is supplying the PU chemical system for the BTC pipeline. The specially developed low-density, open-celled, rigid foam system, called Cellafoam 35, is manufactured at the company’s facility in Kings Lynn, Norfolk, and exported to a BP location in Georgia. The PU system is moulded in-situ around sections of the pipeline as they are being laid in the ground.

PU foam erosion breakers are designed to give the pipeline the support and protection vital to its survival, whilst enabling it to flex and move freely when exposed to storm conditions or seismic activity, according to IFS. The pipeline consists of 150,000 lengths of 12 metre long pipes and has been designed for flexibility to cope with unstable terrain and altitudes of 2,800 metres as it passes from Azerbaijan to Ceyhan, Turkey.

“This is a most exciting project for IFS Group ” said Dr Barrie Colvin, the company’s managing director, in a press release.  “The pipeline has been designed to have a life of 40 years, and it will fulfil a major role in supplying the world’s growing energy requirements. Cellafoam 35 is a unique product which will undoubtedly play a fundamental part in the achievement of this aim.”

The BTC pipeline will tap into Caspian Sea oil reserves estimated at 4.5 billion barrels and will have a capability of up to 1 million barrels per day when the line begins pumping later this year, according to BP.