The 430km long Scarborough pipeline project is considered critical to Australia’s energy distribution requirements and the LNG production and export industries.
The NATA accreditation is for non-destructive testing (NDT) of the underwater pipe weld seals and will be conducted on the Saipem vessel ‘Castorone’ one of the largest and most technologically advanced pipelay vessels in the world.
The NDT process involves numerous testing and analysis techniques to evaluate the properties of a material, component, structure or system without causing damage or influencing the serviceability of the original part.
It can be applied during original manufacture and construction to detect defects or during the service life to detect degradation and damage.
The majority of NDT in Australia involves testing of the welding and installation of pipelines for the offshore oil and gas industry.
The testing for this project will primarily utilise automated ultrasonic scanning equipment able to reliably detect and size welding defects during construction and installation of the pipeline.
As part of the accreditation, NATA will travel to the vessel during pipeline construction to conduct surveillance audit of the NDT operations.
More to come on this remarkable project…
