In many parts of the world, ships are used to export or import crude oil and refined products. Often the tankers are loaded, or discharge their cargos to Jettys (floating docks that are anchored in navigable water depths) which are connected to shore facilities by pipelines. These Jetty Lines are often fairly short and are not equipped with launch and receive barrels for smart pigs. They also have elbows and internal liners, making their inspection with traditional in-line inspection tools challenging.

Russell's See Snake Tools are designed to inspect lined pipelines, with or without elbows. The RFT technology employed in the See Snake Tools does not require intimate contact with the internal pipe wall and there is often a 7mm or larger gap between the sensors and the pipe wall while accuracy and resolution to pitting and erosion is maintained.

The photos below show a See Snake Tool on a Jetty Line project in Thailand which Russell recently completed.  Three 8", Cement-mortar lined steel pipelines were inspected. Special tow pigs had to be developed to handle the uneven lining that was present in the elbows. The client, a large multi-national oil company, worked with Russell to customize the Tool and tow pigs to accommodate the challenging pipelines.

Features detected by the Tool include: elbows, sea anchors, girth welds, local stress and of course: pits.

For more information on inspection of Jetty Lines contact info@russelltech.com