Following a calculated manufacturing and logistics execution, Tenaris has successfully produced its largest and most complex coiled tubing string for delivery to Alaska.
In February of 2021, the team at Tenaris’s coiled tubing facility in Houston, TX, received a call for its most challenging order: two 2.375”, 33,000 ft. long HT-110 grade strings, with an estimated weight of 85 short tons each. The project would require unique engineering and an out-of-the-box approach to logistics, while racing against the clock, to make sure the string could reach its Alaskan home before roads froze over during the winter season.
The string was ordered by a major oil and gas customer with a preference for BlueCoil® technology, a heat-treated coiled tubing developed using proprietary steel designs and manufacturing processes.
The massive strings had to be transported to Alaska via road and barge. With the reels themselves too tall to stand vertically on a trailer, the team decided to use a proprietary solution – a patented steel frame, designed by Tenaris engineers, that could be raised and lowered on a trailer. The spools then began their 5,000-mile journey from Houston to Alaska.
Through 2021, the team worked to prepare for the production of the string. They developed alternative routing for the production process that eliminated the use of cranes when transferring the string from the mill to the HT line, expanded the steel accumulator by three feet in diameter, and added higher capacity lifting bags to the Air Float used in the process.
“This was a demanding undertaking, technically, operationally and in managing the logistics, and our team met it with creative resolve to meet our customers’ need.”
Martin Urcola, vice president of Coiled Tubes at Tenaris
Following months of preparation, the first string was produced October 2021, with the second following just a few weeks later. Using a new 350-foot long inspection line, the team was able to spool directly outside onto a final foundation, where the 500-ton crane lifted the spools onto the specialty frames for transport.
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