While onshore field hands in the southern US have likely seen many armadillos around oilfields, Flexlife is responsible for deploying the Armadillo offshore. In this case, however, it’s not the quirky-looking animal with an armor-like shell but rather a technology designed to repair damage to the outer sheath of flexible risers by creating a seal that will prevent sea water from entering the riser and leading to corrosion.
Flexlife, with local operational partner Oceânica Diving Services, completed both on- and offshore trials of the Armadillo technology for Petrobras Brasil.
The onshore trial at Oceânica’s base in Macaé occurred in a diving test tank and was witnessed by Petrobras R&D and operation specialists. The test was intended to confirm the technology’s capability and demonstrate what could be achieved during an offshore trial. During the initial test, the Armadillo was installed on a pipe section in the test tank; nitrogen was then injected into the annulus to prove the integrity of the repair.
The offshore operational demonstration of the technology followed in June 2012 with installation on a gas-lift riser in a semi production platform in the Campos Basin offshore Brazil. Flexlife’s Armadillo was installed in about 4000m water depth. A pressure test of 2.5bar in the annulus proved the repair and tested annulus integrity to a depth of 25m, according to Flexlife.
The modular Armadillo system is constructed in bespoke lengths and diameters to encapsulate and seal known outer sheath damages. It allows continued operation of the flexible pipe, preventing the ingress of oxygenated seawater and consequently arresting corrosion, allowing life expansion techniques, increase of integrity awareness and operational safety. Flexlife, which estimates that some 35% of risers have outer sheath damage, has invested around £200,000 in the Armadillo technology to date.
According to Leonardo Dias, the company’s executive manager in Brazil, the trial ‘demonstrated that the pioneering repair system, using this kind of technology, is the most reliable solution for outer sheath repair and damage identification, available and field proven in the most strict offshore market in the world’.
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