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Port ideally placed to retrieve pipeline
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WHEN a blended rubber pipeline costs between three and four hundred euros a metre it makes sense to get as much use as possible out of it.
The Xcite Energy company had pipeline to remove from the Bentley Oilfield to refurbish, and approached Mooring Systems Ltd to undertake the shore work.
Mooring Systems’ head office is in Aberdeen, but the work is done in Montrose.
Operations manager Dave Duncan told the Review there is a protruding ‘elbow’ in the South Quay which enables support vessels such as the ‘Island Valiant’ to reverse up to an unloading bay. Coupled with superb storage areas this makes Montrose an ideal base.
The massive yellow spool pictured was positioned to pull the pipe off the rear of the vessel. The pipe was 1,800 metres long and in three sections.
The first shipment of two scheduled was of pipeline that still had water and dye in it, which could not be released into the river. The pipe was carefully brought ashore and the contents pumped into a tanker for disposal elsewhere.
This “good learning curve” was accomplished without a hitch, which was ideal because it was a dress rehearsal for the second shipment of pipes, which still had oil residue in them.
Mr Duncan explained that there were no more than four days in which to clear the deck and the dock. The work was completed with 12 hours to spare.
He said that the massive spool has been transported to other countries, such as Holland, and has been used for cables for the wind-farm industry.
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Weather for Montrose
Wednesday 19 June 2013
Today
Sunny spells
Temperature: 9 C to 17 C
Wind Speed: 17 mph
Wind direction: South west
Tomorrow
Cloudy
Temperature: 10 C to 14 C
Wind Speed: 15 mph
Wind direction: South
