Indian officials cite a broad spectrum of major challenges for the ambitious $5 billion, 1,100 km, 24 in., dual pipeline system linking Oman with India.
Chief among those challenges are mapping a revised pipeline route, shifting the landfall site at the point of origin in Oman, and obtaining pipe capable of withstanding constantly high hydrostatic pressures.
Oman Oil Co. plans to lay the two pipelines across the Arabian Sea in water depths that could reach 11,487 ft. This is said to be four times the record depth reported for a subsea pipeline.
A first phase calls for laying one of the lines by July 1999 to establish an initial 1 bcfd throughput capacity (OGJ, Oct. 10, 1994,p. 30). A second 24 in. line would be laid by 2001.
The first route to be considered called for laying the lines in shallower waters by skirting the northern coastline of the Arabian Sea. That was rejected for security reasons and possible construction problems expected in traversing the Indus basin off the Ran of Kutch (Gulf of Kutch).
Current plans call for laying the line about 150 km southeast to Oman's continental slope and across the Arabian Sea's abyssal plain before intercepting the original route. At that point, the pipeline route would pivot near Pakistan's 320 km territorial limit, then extend to landfall near the Ran of Kutch.
In addition to being technically less difficult, the new route is 20 km shorter and offers a savings of $2 million compared with the original route.
The original site for landfall in Oman was Sur, which offered relatively easy access to Oman's gas fields and proximity to infrastructure for construction and operation of the pipeline's onshore compressor station.
A survey, however, showed a rough seabed with abrupt changes in topography that would have made pipelaying difficult. Now Oman is looking at landfall at Ras Al Hadd, 40 km farther from the gas fields but featuring less difficult nearshore seabed terrain.
Perhaps the biggest obstacle, say Indian officials, is finding steel pipe for the project. They contend there is no steel mill in the world currently capable of producing 24 in. steel pipe that can survive such deepwater pressures at the rate needed during construction.
Four steel manufacturers are looking at the problem and preparing pipe samples for testing at a U.S. Navy facility in Baltimore.
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