Suspended Pipe Bundle
If you saw yesterdays blog post showing the video of the four pipe bundle burrowing its way into the deep, dark earth; you might have been wondering "ok, so where was the pipe just before it entered the bore?" Good question and thankfully - one I can answer pretty easily.
The situation I described yesterday was one in which as the pipe is on its journey to the center of the earth, at least one of those pipe sections absolutely MUST be surfing on the other pipelines. Yes, surfing. 52" of pipe will absolutely not fit straight across in a 48" OD hole. It simply can't happen.
Well, will it surprise you to learn that just before burrowing and surfing, these pipelines were flying through the air! It was like the X-Games of natural gas out on that pipeline spread! In order to get the right angles and in order to prevent any unnecessary stress on those pipelines, they were bundled together and suspended by side booms so that they'd have a good angle down into the hole. These are not your Father's directional drilling applications, people!
First: The side booms
Then: Pipe pulled into the mud...never to be seen again.
Fortunately, all involved were able to rest easy knowing that the Joint Specialists BBS bumper system was properly installed assuring that the pipe would get to its final resting place undamaged and secure.
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