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Brown & Root Energy Services Issues Subcontract For The Fabrication Of The Malampaya Topsides
Dallas, Texas - In one of the largest undertakings of its type in the world, and the most extensive on the South American continent, Brown & Root Energy Services, a business unit of Halliburton Company (NYSE: HAL), with partners Murphy Bros. Inc, Camargo Correa S.A., and other local companies, completed construction of the first 1,130 kilometers of the 2,000 kilometer Bolivia-Brazil Gas Pipeline.
The pipeline, which opens today, will transport Bolivian gas to Brazil for a consortium of public and private companies that includes Petrobras Gasoducto (Brazilian Petroleum), YPFB (Bolivian National Oil), Enron Development Corporation and Shell Oil. With Brown & Root crews numbering more than 2,000 employees in Bolivia and 1,700 in Brazil, the pipeline was completed on schedule and connects the Bolivian city of Santa Cruz de La Sierra to the city of Campinas, in São Paulo.
A celebratory event is being held today at the border of Brazil and Bolivia to mark the opening of the pipeline.
"The Bolivia-Brazil pipeline is an energy integration milestone for South America and we are proud to be part of such an important project, " said Dave Lesar, president and chief operating officer, Halliburton Company.
The pipeline opens a new and important market for the existing Bolivian natural gas reserves as it incorporates an additional source of power to the Brazilian energy matrix. The Brown & Root projects that helped complete sections I through IV of the pipeline include: right-of-way (ROW) survey and marking, clearing and grading, ditching, transportation, distribution and handling of pipe, bending, concrete coating, welding, NDT inspection, lowering, backfilling, river and road crossing, ROW signaling, assembly and installation of valve trap stations, hydrostatic testing, and preparation of as-built drawings.
The first four sections of the pipeline begin in Santa Cruz, Bolivia and arc eastward through the city of Puerto Suarez and cross the Brazilian border at Corumbá. From there, the pipeline crosses the states of Mato Grosso do Sul, São Paulo, Paraná and Santa Catarina. It will end its journey in the Canoas refinery in the state of Rio Grande do Sul.
Along the way, it transverses an expansive indigenous Indian habitat and 60 kilometers of the Pantanal, one of the largest wetlands in the world, made up of a giant mosaic of flooded savannas and wetlands along the Paraguay River.
As a result, the two pipeline jobs in Bolivia and Brazil have posed tremendous geographic, logistical and environmental challenges. Besides the wetlands, the pipeline was constructed through terrain that includes rolling hills, slate, marble and powdery red sand known as sugar sand. There is also a lack of infrastructure in Bolivia, making for extremely difficult conditions that have been complicated by heavy rains from El Niño.
The Project employed a unique automated welding process, which reduced the standard manual welding time by one-third. The extensive wetlands installation also required that Brown & Root coat these sections of the pipe with concrete for buoyancy control. The coated pipes (weighing 10 tons each) were fitted with flotation barrels, strung together and pushed down through canals that were dug out of the earth. Once the pipe was in place, the barrels were removed, allowing the pipes to sink into the canal. More than 11,000 such joints were used in Brazil alone.
Respect for the environment was a priority element of the process of placing the gas pipeline, described as a model of environmental preservation by the World Bank (BIRD). Detours had to be made to several sections of the original pipeline route to avoid any environmental impact.
Brown & Root Energy Services supplies engineering, construction, operations and maintenance services to the upstream oil and gas industry worldwide. Its primary role is the engineering, project management, construction and operation of the facilities that are utilized for the production and transportation of oil and gas. Brown & Root Energy Services is a business unit of Halliburton Company, headquartered in Dallas, Texas.
Halliburton Company is the world's leading diversified energy services, engineering, construction, maintenance and energy equipment company. Founded in 1919, Halliburton provides a broad range of energy services and products, industrial and marine engineering and construction services. In 1997, Halliburton's consolidated revenues were $16.3 billion and it conducted business with a workforce of approximately 100,000 in more than 120 countries.
Editor's Note: Live Broadcast
The opening event of the opening of the Gas Pipeline will be broadcast live via the Internet at 9 a.m. (cst), on the site www.petrobras.com.br using Real Network/Embratel technology, and by satellite, with reception via parabolic antenna:
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Tuning for digital receivers:
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on the 3910 MHZ satellite frequency band |
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on intermediate frequency or Band L 1240 MHZ |
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Tuning for analog receivers:
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first channel above Rede Vida (Vida Network) with the same polarization of Globo Network (horizontal) |
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Contact
Wendy Hall-Nantz
Halliburton Company
Americas
(p) 713.676.5227
Bill Clewes
Halliburton Company
Europe/Africa
(p) 44.181.544.6678
Rell Hannah
Halliburton Company
Asia Pacific
(p) 61.3.9828.5331
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