Crawler Inspection of Long Produced Water Lines

This project involved Hibbard Inshore performing the inspected a series of produced water lines in the Oil and Gas industry. These lines, ranging in diameter from 12” to 18”, were of significant concern to the customer because they could not be pigged using traditional smart pig technology. This was due to a number of the lines having significant bends and changes in diameters of the pipe. There were also concerns for the pipes’ integrity if they were to be put under significant pressure as would potentially occur during pigging. A number of the lines run under stretches of open water, and the crawler allowed the customer to avoid undue stress on those sections.

Crawler Entering Line

With smart pigging not being an option, Hibbard Inshore used an Inuktun crawler vehicle (Link) to inspect the pipelines. Using individually articulated tracks for propulsion and an adjustable chassis, the Inuktun crawlers can crawl out to a range of 5,000 linear feet, and can navigate around bends in even relatively small diameter pipelines. For this inspection, the crawling ROV carried a tilt and rotatable color video camera along with both adjustable spot lighting and flood lighting, stopping to inspect any areas of interest. Prior to the inspection, the lines were purged by the customer to eliminate explosion hazards.

Inspected Pipeline with Elbow

The long distance crawler gave Hibbard Inshore the ability to inspect the entire length of each pipeline, recording video footage of all notable features which were reported to the client along with their locations. The crawler’s versatility along with strength and gripping ability of its tracks allowed it to move through significant bends while maintaining traction even at great distance. The result of the inspection was that the crawler was able to identify areas of interest including light spalling, split gaskets, and hairline cracking in both the longitudinal and circumferential directions allowing the customer to plan maintenance activities accordingly.