Pipeline Gels

CLEAN, PROTECT & MAINTAIN

From onshore pipelines to flexible risers and subsea flowlines, ensuring pipeline integrity is key to safety, environmental protection and optimising flow assurance.

Over their life span, pipelines accumulate debris, corrosion materials, water loading and other contaminants. Coupled with planned physical interventions such as bypasses and jumpers etc this leads to the creation of unpiggable pipelines or pipelines that present a risk of blockage.

Liquid Pipeline Gels provide cost-effective and adaptable solutions for pipeline maintenance, pre-com and decom processes. Their ability to conform to complex pipeline conditions and geometries makes them a must-have option where traditional pigging techniques cannot be used safely or at all.

WHAT ARE PIPELINE GELS?

Pipeline Gels are specially formulated high viscosity thixotropic liquids designed to perform key functions such as deoiling, debris removal and spool protection to name but a few.

Unlike conventional methods, Pipeline Gels offer highly customisable ways to protect, maintain or retire pipelines, minimising risk and maximising efficiency.

They can be used on their own in some cases and also with Gel Pigs, foams and mechanical pigs.

KEY BENEFITS OF PIPELINE GELS

CUSTOM FORMULATIONS

While our standard gels are highly effective at the bulk removal of other liquids or contaminants we often design in additional functionalities, such as chemical cleaning, lubrication, reaction chemistry and more, ensuring precise application and optimal results.

COST-EFFECTIVE

Reduce the number of line volume water flushes and the associated costs, including labor and vessel time.

ECO-FRIENDLY OPTIONS

Most of our liquid Pipeline Gels are OCNS category E thereby minimising environmental impact during the cleaning of complex pipelines. Many are safe to pass through the production process, meaning they do not have to be separately recovered and disposed of after use.

PRODUCT INFORMATION

Pipelines Range

Gel technology is very versatile and can be applied anytime during the lifetime of a field from helping to remove hydrotest fluids when commissioning to the bulk removal of hydrocarbons and solids prior to maintenance or when preparing a pipeline for responsible decommissioning.

Aqualift Gel

Aqualift Gel is a non-crosslinked water based gel. The rheology of Aqualift Gel has been carefully tailored to be highly thixotropic so it provides very high viscosity at low shear rates which make it exceptional at suspending captured debris.

Petrolink Gel

Petrolink Gel is an oil based crosslinked pipeline and fracturing gel. It is typically used in pipelines where the presence of water is undesirable due to the risk of hydrate formation or corrosion.

Glycolube Gel

Glycolube Gel is a linear gel made from a blend of natural polysaccharides in a Monoethylene Glycol solution with lubricating properties. It will reduce the friction on a mechanical pig by half on average.

Aqualube Gel

Aqualube Gel is a blend of natural polysaccharides in aqueous solution with lubricating properties. It will reduce the friction on a mechanical pig by half on average.

Aquasurf Gel

AquaSurf Gel is a non-crosslinked water-based gel containing deoiling surfactants. Aquasurf Gel is an excellent combination product for deoiling pipelines where the oil in water requirement is less stringent and avoids having to pump several chemicals in sequence.

Aquazyme Breaker

Aquazyme Breaker is an enzyme based chemical breaker for Aqualift Gel and Aqualink Gel. Aquazyme Breaker attacks the polymers that form the gel chopping them into very small pieces which kills the viscosity of the gel.

Glycostat Gel

Glycostat Gel is a non-crosslinked pipeline gel based on monoethylene glycol. The viscosity profile of Glycostat Gel has been specifically designed to have an extremely high viscosity at low shear rates and a high static gel strength.

Glycotrace Gel

Glycotrace Gel is a non-crosslinked pipeline gel based on monoethylene glycol. Strong & slump resistant gel coloured in pink, making it visible by diver or ROV for leak detection in the subsea environment.

Glycotrace Clear

Glycotrace Clear is a non-crosslinked pipeline gel based on monoethylene glycol. Strong & slump resistant fluorescent gel which glows green under UV light, making it visible by diver or ROV for leak detection in the subsea environment.

Glycosol Gel

GlycoSol Gel is a non-crosslinked pipeline gel based on a mixture of Monoethylene Glycol and Butyl Glycol. It is lighter than seawater so when a spool is hoisted over the edge of a vessel to just below the water level for the flange caps to be removed it will remain in place in a vertical orientation.

Aqualink Gel

Aqualink Gel is an environmentally friendly crosslinked pipeline gel - great all rounder with self-healing ability. On the completion of a job, Aqualink Gel can be chemically broken down and be ejected directly to the sea as long as there is no liquid hydrocarbon contamination.

Solclean Gel

SolClean Gel is a pipeline gel specifically designed to clean oil and other hydrocarbons from pipe walls leaving them water wet. It is especially useful during maintenance or decommissioning where strictly low oil in water targets are expected.

Petrosurf

Petrosurf is a blend of oil soluble surfactants in an aromatic hydrocarbon carrier fluid. It is added to hydrocarbons such as diesel or kerosene to provide surface tension reduction to help destabilise and break crude oil emulsions.

Pyrogel

Pyrogel is a non-crosslinked water based gel. The rheology of Pyrogel has been carefully tailored to be highly thixotropic so it provides very high viscosity at low shear rates which makes it exceptional at suspending Black Powder (Iron Sulphide) allowing it to be treated. Read More

H-Gel

H-Gel is a non-crosslinked water based gel. The rheology of H-Gel has been carefully tailored to be highly thixotropic so it provides very high viscosity at low shear rates which makes it exceptional at suspending the active material which treats and converts captured Mercury.

Mezzo Gel

Mezzo Gel is a non-crosslinked pipeline gel designed to be neutrally buoyant in seawater. The blend is adjusted by our technical team to maintain this neutral density at different seabed temperatures.