Thermal Insulation for Subsea Operations

Our Offshore Nitrogen Injection Jackets were developed in order to tackle the various challenges faced when producing oil offshore – maintaining a constant oil temperature throughout the production column above the paraffin crystallisation temperature or of carbohydrates formation.

Since sea water temperature decreases with depth, this provides oil extraction  operations with an even greater challenge. What makes this challenge even greater is that any thermal insulators utilised need to be especially thin, durable and lightweight. Such thermal insulators need to be ultra thin to reduce drag and vortex driven vibrations caused by sea currents on the production column. Any thermal aids used also need be lightweight to avoid compromising manoeuvres needed during the installation phase.

Sião is very aware of all such challenges that you face and has worked with all our partners to perfect our Thermal Insulator Columns. Today, after several years of research and development, we believe we have developed one of the best Thermal Insulator Columns in the industry.

Sião has invented a highly efficient thermal insulator with low density elastomeric characteristics. The low density property used in our Thermal Insulator Columns actually decrease the weight of the production column as it is less dense than the sea mater it operates in, this makes for easy manoeuvres and less strain on the entire production line.

More importantly, our Thermal Insulators also ensure the oil temperature remains above the wax crystallisation and carbohydrate formation temperature throughout the entire production line.

The Thermal Insulator is divided into two parts, a fixed part applied on the tube’s surface, except for its ends, which has a movable part. By providing the end of the tube with a moveable thermal insulator it allows for easier assembly of the production column, without compromising on thermal insulation effectiveness. All of our Thermal Insulators are completely bespoke made to measure depending on our client’s needs. Thermal insulation, based upon elastomeric composite, applied on the surface, typically has the below dimensions:

INTERNAL DIAMETER: 5.791 “ (147.091 mm)

EXTERNAL DIAMETER: 6.625 “ (168.275 mm)

INSULATION THICKNESS: 0.71” (18mm)
LENGTH: Range 2 or 3, up to 45 ft (13 m)