Moscow, January 24 - Neftegaz.RU. According to WorldPipelines, Transneft Diascan performed inspections of 55 400 km of Transneft trunk pipelines in 2019. Over the past year, the company completed inspections of 45 100 km of oil trunk pipelines (OTP) and 10 300 km of Transneft petroleum products trunk pipelines (PPTP).
Transneft Diascan also inspected over 500 oil and petroleum products storage tanks, both with decommissioning and without decommissioning. The inspection was carried out using ultrasonic, acoustic-emission and x-ray examination methods.
The volume of inline inspection services in the international market last year amounted to 3900 km of oil trunk pipelines as the company performed inline inspections for customers in Kazakhstan, Saudi Arabia and other countries. In 2020, Transneft Diascan will continue to expand the geography of its international inline inspection projects. The company plans to perform pipeline inspections for customers in Kazakhstan, Saudi Arabia, Algeria, Malaysia, and Colombia.
The company has recently put into operation a new type of inline inspection tool, an ultrasonic flaw detector with a measuring system based on phased arrays. It was designed to inspect pipelines with diameters of 40 in., 42 in., and 48 in., and allows for the detecting of crack-like flaws at early stages. The measuring system of the tool includes phased array sensors, which conduct inspections of pipe walls and welds using a dynamically controlled multi-angle examination process in the longitudinal and transverse directions.
Transneft Diascan has also commissioned a new combined magnetic inspection tool with speed control, which will expand its in-line inspection capabilities for the oil and gas sector. The inspection tool provides for inline inspection of oil and petroleum products pipelines, as well as gas pipelines with outer diameters of 32 in. and 34 in., according to the API standard.
The speed control feature of the tool enables it to be used for gas pipelines inspections. The tool consists of a battery section and three magnetic sections: one with longitudinal magnetisation (MFL), and two with circumferential magnetisation (TFI). Combined inspection technology allows Transneft Diascan to detect flaws of different types in one run.
The company has also put into operation a power supply system for inline inspection tools based on rechargeable batteries. From now on, flaw detectors will use the energy from rechargeable batteries that can be recharged with a special charger. Before, the ILI tools used disposable power supplies. The new power supply system reduces the cost of inline inspection and increases the reliability of ILI tools.
In another important development in 2019, Transneft Diascan’s chemical laboratory successfully confirmed its international certification. The laboratory ensures the quality of production processes of polyurethane and composite materials for inspection tools and conducts environmental monitoring.
Transneft Diascan and Transneft have become owners of the Eurasian patent No. 031338 for the invention of the magnetic measuring system for an inspection tool with axial magnetisation.
