Cable glands cope with hazardous extremes

Edited by the Engineeringtalk editorial team Aug 29, 2005

As the 1768km Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan pipeline enters service, key systems will rely on cable glands from Hawke International for safe cable termination in Zone 1 and Zone 2 hazardous environments.

As the 1768km Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan (BTC) pipeline enters service, key systems will rely on cable glands from Hawke International for safe cable termination in Zone 1 and Zone 2 hazardous environments.

Around 50,000 Hawke units are in use on the $3 billion project to export oil from the landlocked Caspian Sea to the Mediterranean and on to world markets.

The underground pipeline passes from Azerbaijan, through Georgia and on to Turkey.

It has eight pumping stations to maintain flow, with block valves at intervals of approximately 20km to provide isolation for safety and maintenance purposes.

Most of these locations are unmanned, with automated processes that are subject to remote surveillance and monitoring.

Hawke equipment provides the high integrity electrical connections to these critical systems for control, instrumentation and power.

Electrical systems on the pipeline use lead sheathed cable for most applications.

Hawke provide a complete range of cable glands for all cable diameters, from the smallest wiring for instrumentation to the largest power cables.

Climate extremes characterise this region.

The cable glands are therefore built and certified to maintain seal integrity over a temperature range of -60 to +80C which exceed the actual installed temperature requirements of -40 to +40C.

Subject to intense international competition, the business - worth around $540,000 - was won on Hawke's technical ability and reputation with key pipeline stakeholders.

The company has already supplied cable glands to the value of over $2 million to Azerbaijan International Operating Company (AIOC), the consortium developing the Azeri-Chirag-deepwater Gunashli field in the Caspian Sea.

BP, for which Hawke is a preferred supplier, is the operator of both the AIOC and the BTC pipeline.

The delivery programme has been phased with pipeline development.

Cable glands are manufactured to order and delivered on a typical four to six week lead-time.

Main contractor for the pipeline was Petrofac, with a multitude of other contractors providing various subsystems.

Hawke has provided training to support this community of suppliers and ensure that cable glands are correctly installed in each geographical area.

Within the oilfield development, Hawke is responding to different technical challenges.

Electrical cables on the production platforms are mainly flame retardant types.

Under compression, this material can be subject to cold flow, so that the effectiveness of a cable gland seal may be compromised over time.

To solve this problem, Hawke have developed the Universal, a cable gland that has patent protected components to give controlled and distributed pressure to avoid cold flow.

These glands are also easy to inspect so that the seal integrity can be verified and have deluge protection to cope with extreme weather.

Commenting on the achievement, Hawke's Development Director, Phil O'Connor explained: "Experts predict the oil and gas reserves of the Caspian Sea to be equal to the North Sea, or the Gulf of Mexico".

"We are pleased to be involved as the first phase of the production and distribution infrastructure comes live".

"Further development will present new technical and logistical challenges and we are confident that we can meet and exceed the requirement of our clients".