Tideway Completes Works on Deep Panuke Project

Tideway, the Dutch offshore expert for the oil and gas industry, completes its activities for the Deep Panuke Gas Development Project near Canada. The project, which took two months, entails a turnover of 10 million Euro.

Tideway used the new Inclined Fallpipe System (IFPS) for the first time on this project. This technology now renders it possible to operate highly accurately even in the most demanding circumstances.

Deep Panuke is a project of the Canadian gas producer EnCana, 250 kilometres to the south-east of the Canadian Halifax, off the coast of Nova Scotia. This area is characterised by the most demanding circumstances such as mountainous waves and strong currents on the seabed. Pressured by the increasing shortage of energy in the world, the offshore industry is looking for new and alternative sources, which are increasingly frequently to be found at locations that are very difficult to reach. Deep Panuke is an example of this development. The first gas will be transported this year still from Deep Panuke to Goldboro on the mainland via a submarine pipeline.

An Accuracy of up to 0.1 Metre

Offshore expert Tideway was responsible for the stone fill on the seabed around the gas platform and for the protection of pipelines in the area. Thanks to the new Inclined Fallpipe System (IFPS), this work could be done using the fifty-metre long fall pipe with a sufficient degree of accuracy with stone fills up to an accuracy of 01. m. This gives the EnCana-platform sufficient stability and ensures that it meets the highest possible safety requirements.

Also for the Highest Wind Turbines

Tideway expects to apply the IFPS also in other ways in the future, for instance for the installation of stones around the foundations of windmills at sea. The high turbines must remain stable, even in the most extreme circumstances and on a difficult seabed. Indeed, the strong current quickly results in erosion around the legs. The new Tideway precision technology makes it possible to offer more stability under water and consequently more safety.

About Tideway

With its parent group of companies, the Belgian dredging and environmental group Dredging, Environmental and Marine Engineering (DEME), Tideway focuses on the oil and gas industry, by constructing land accretions (pipeline installations, earthwork in shallow water, civilengineering works, transition land-water) of oil and gas pipelines (landfalls), pre-sweeping, (deep water) dredging, excavating trenches, stone and sand fills and other intervention activities in and on the seabed. Tideway employs more than 250 people.

(iro)

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Source: IRO, August 23, 2011;