Major New O&G Pipelines Raising Environmental Concerns

Recently Petrobras, the Brazilian national O&G operator announced that it had awarded Technip a 5-year frame agreement contract for the supply of around 1,400 kilometers of flexible pipes, with supply starting in 2013 and orders are guaranteed for at least 50% of the total value, which is currently estimated to be worth around US$2.1 billion.

The scope of the contract includes the manufacture of over 150 types and diameters of risers, flowlines and associated equipment and accessories

Flexible pipes for the contract will be produced both at Technip's existing manufacturing site in Vitoria, and also at our new manufacturing facility under construction in Açu, Brazil.

This agreement is a direct spinoff of the investment Technip made last year in building a second state-of-the-art flexible pipe plant in Brazil, which promises to apply a wide range of technological advances in manufacturing, targeting efficient and safe flex-pipe products for the deep-water plays.

This is just an example of the magnitude of pipelines being laid on the seabed and floating up to FPSOs and production rigs. In terms of seabed mounted pipelines we are talking of tens of thousands of kilometers of pipes crisscrossing the Brazilian offshore seabed and linking oil and gas to the coastal refineries. Although today most of the produce transported by pipes to refineries is composed of gas, the amount of oil carrying pipelines will dramatically increase with the new pre-salt fields coming online.

Presently, there are no effective and independent monitoring schemes for these rigid and flexible pipelines except by the monitoring done by the operators themselves. There is also no effective legislation or even guidelines as to where these pipelines may be laid.

Any environmental concerns are foreshadowed by logistics needs of the operators. Obviously these pipelines, rigid or flexible are vital to the growth of the Brazilian O&G marked but with such a huge amount of pipelines being laid it appears to be necessary to have greater transparency as to how decisions are made as to where the pipelines will be placed and what resources are available to contain possible leaks caused by ruptures is these pipelines.

Will it be necessary for a major spill to happen before authorities decide to monitor these thousands of kilometers of pipelines?

Claudio Paschoa