Sea Tap system a Hot Prospect

ABERDEEN company Clear Well Subsea says it has developed a new and innovative approach to subsea "hot tapping" operations.

The SeaTap system is targeted at the demands of the subsea sector. In hot tapping operations, a connection point can be made to a pressurised pipeline underflowing conditions to link two pipes. SeaTap was developed with the aid of a Scottish Executive SMART award worth £45,000. SMART awards support Scotland’s most innovative small firms.

Clear Well Subsea says SeaTap includes design features which enable tapping operations to be performed in a safe and efficient manner while providing a range of tooling options to be utilised. The company says hot tapping can be used in several key areas:

• Tie-back of small satellite developments to existing subsea infrastructure.
• Utilisation of surplus trunk line capacity by enabling cost effective tie-in of third-party export/import pipelines.
• Reconfiguration of trunk and interfield pipelines.
• Decommissioning of trunk and interfiled pipelines.

The SeaTap development programme has been under way since February, 2000, and a prototype unit has now been built. Clear Well Subsea has been showing off SeaTap to a number of oil companies and subsea construction firms at Wilkie Engineering at Newburgh.

Keith Evans, managing director said, "We even had one company from the US – Big Inch Marine Systems, from Houston – which came to see the system.

"We are very hopeful that companies will be interested in purchasing a full service package or, possible, a licence agreement to exploit the technology. This is our first product and we are looking to develop other innovative products."

Press Release - Press and Journal

Clear Well managing director Keith Evans, left, and Bruce Morris, senior vice-president of Big Inch Marine Systems. With the new SeaTap equipment.