Deep Panuke Project - Bredero Shaw

Deep Panuke Pipe
With 14,000 pieces of
12.2-metre pipe to coat in a
specially formulated concrete
and iron ore mixture by October,
production is rolling along
at Shaw & Shaw’s plant
in Sheet Harbour.
PHOTOS BY PRISMA PRODUCTIONS
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A SECTION OF CONCRETE COATING IS BEING REMOVED SO A SACRIFICIAL ANODE CAN
BE INSTALLED. IT IS TERMED “SACRIFICIAL,” AS IT WILL CORRODE FIRST, ACTING AS A
BARRIER AGAINST CORROSION FOR THE PROTECTED METAL.
About every four and a half minutes, another 12.2-metre
length of pipe rolls off the processing line at Shaw &
Shaw's plant in Sheet Harbour on Nova Scotia’s Eastern
Shore.When it enters the coatings plant, the steel pipe is slightly
less than 56 centimetres in diameter. By the time it exits, it’s
encased in a 60-, 80- or 100-millimetre coating of specially
formulated concrete and iron ore. The thickness of the coating
depends on where the pipe will be located, with the 60mmcoating
applied to the pipes in shallower water, closer to shore.
When the pipe is installed next year, this negative buoyancy
coating will help to hold the 22-inch diameter pipeline safely on
the ocean floor.
“The plant has been operating around the clock, six days a week
on a 10-hour shift basis since early July,” says Mike Kontak,
spokesperson for Shaw & Shaw.“We have a production team of
over 100 people, a large percentage of whom are residents of
Sheet Harbour and the surrounding communities.” Recruitment
for the project began last April. Close to 300 applications were
received, with some 250 interviews conducted. Recruitment ads
were run in various community newspapers throughout the
province, including Port Hawkesbury’s The Reporter, the
Guysborough Journal and the Mi’kmaq Maliseet Nations News.
In addition to hiring locally, Kontak says preference was also
given to acquiring products and services from the local area first.
In all, Shaw & Shaw let contracts valued at $50,000 for goods and
services such cement, loaders, cranes, fuel, trucking, water
services, site preparation and disposal services. “Items such as
waste disposal, hardware supplies, yard preparation and sand for
berms were available in the local community, and we were able
to meet our needs for items such as heavy equipment and
concrete in the greater metro area,” says Kontak.
THE SITE IS A HIVE OF ACTIVITY, WITH PIPE CONTINUALLY BEING LOADED AND UNLOADED.
HERE, IN THE FOREGROUND, A PIECE OF PIPE IS LOADED INTO THE COMPRESSION-COAT CONCRETE WEIGHT COATINGS PLANT.
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CLEANING OF THE PIPE, PRIOR TO INSPECTION.
The first shipment of 5,979 pieces of carbon steel pipe arrived in
Sheet Harbour on July 7, having been manufactured by Ilva S.A.
of Italy. By the time the project concludes this fall, Shaw & Shaw
will have coated over 14,000 pieces of pipe for the 175-kilometre
pipeline that will transport natural gas from the Deep Panuke
Production Field Centre to Goldboro, where it will enter the
Maritimes & Northeast Pipeline
system. The finished pipe will remain
at the Sheet Harbour site until next
spring, when it will be loaded onto
barges for installation offshore.
Shaw & Shaw, owned by Shaw Pipe
Protection., a subsidiary of ShawCor of
Toronto, and The Shaw Group of
Halifax, was awarded the $40 million
pipe coatings contract by EnCana last
January. It also provided pipe coating
services for the Sable Offshore Energy
Tier I and 2 projects in 1998 and 2002,
processing a total of 434 kilometres of
pipe at Sheet Harbour. The site was
restored for the Deep Panuke project,
with Shaw Pipe Protection bringing
one of its compression-coat concrete
weight coatings plants from Texas. The plant will be dismantled
in November, once the project is completed. As with those two
other projects, Shaw Pipe Protection is supplying its pipecoating
expertise, with The Shaw Group providing project support,
liaison with local suppliers, logistics and administrative support.
TAPE IS PUT AROUND THE PIPE TO PROVIDE PROTECTION FOR THE CONCRETE MIX PRIOR TO IT
HARDENING. IT WILL BE REMOVED ONCE LOADED ON THE BARGES, NEXT YEAR. HERE, THE CONCRETE
COATING IS BEING CUT BACK TO PROVIDE SPACE FOR THE LAY BARGE TO WELD THE PIPES TOGETHER.
AFTERWARD, A CONCRETE COATING WILL BE REAPPLIED.
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