Pipeline Inspection campaign

Reach Subsea – Survey division, together with IKM Subsea AS and the vessel charterer, were contracted by Norske Shell to provide the Siem Pride, fully equipped with survey spread and ROV, to conduct the Annual Pipeline Inspection program of the Ormen Lange 120km gas export pipeline.


Project details

Location:Ormen Lange
Water depth:25 – 950 meters
Date:Summer 2020
Client:AS Norske Shell

Scope of work

Reach Subsea – Survey division, together with IKM Subsea AS and the vessel charterer, were contracted by Norske Shell to provide the Siem Pride, fully equipped with survey spread and ROV, to conduct the Annual Pipeline Inspection program of the Ormen Lange 120km gas export pipeline. The survey also included inspection of umbilical’s and spool pieces between near-shore Nyhamna, Norway to the Ormen Lange field.

As the survey subcontractor on board Siem Pride we was tasked with performing the following:
• Mobilising the Siem Pride and IKM Merlin Ultra Compact Vehicle (UCV)
• Data acquisition, processing, eventing and reporting
• Final deliverables to Shell Norway and DNV GL

Survey spread

• Dual DGNSS Surface Positioning
• Kongsberg Seapath 300+
• HiPap 502 Cymbal processing
• Sonardyne Sprint INS
• R2Sonic 2024 Dual Head Multi-beam Echo Sounder
• TSS 440 Pipe tracker
• Three HD channel camera logging system
• Lasers
• Gemini 720is Forward Looking Sonar

The operation was conducted with a focus on gathering high quality multi-beam and video data, to assess the integrity of the pipelines and spools.

The work is performed on a relatively small vessel, with low carbon emissions and is a proven, cost effective solution – the same scope having been carried out for several clients over the past 5 years.

Final deliverables are processed and reported onshore upon completion of data acquisition.

The final delivery to Shell includes:
• EIVA NaviModel projects, including all events
• Visualworks deliverables, including video and all events
• DTM with 10cm resolution
• Three channel HD Video
• Processed IBIS deliverables for all assets surveyed
• One survey inspection report per asset

Pipeline inspection track record:

• 2016: 185km for Shell
• 2017: 395km for Shell
• 2018: 133km for Shell
• 2019: 416km for Shell, OKEA & Neptune Energy
• 2020: 165km for Shell