gas leak

9* 40' N
101* 20' E
heading 000*
Speed 4.6 knots (on passage)
Wind:- Lite Airs
Temp 82* @ 0530

On our way 55 miles "ooop north" to start a new pipe line.


Music today one of Mrs B and Miss B's favourite dance tunes by Mr Scruff
Let your hips do the work for a few minutes

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ik--d9Nhcb8&feature=share


Can you Smell gas?


Apart from DP self propelled pipe laying barges there are those that rely on anchors to drag themselves forward as they lay the pipe.
They have an array of anchors set out 4 in front and 4 behind and are tended by three anchor handling tugs working 24/7 that pick up and drop the anchors to a pre surveyed pattern that enable the vessel to claw its way forward without pause.
There is also a mid cable buoy tug that pulls buoys into the middle section of the wire that have a strop and sheeve below them and keep the belly of the anchor wire clear of the sea bed and prevent it from fouling any sub sea infrastructure when inside a field.

If the correct procedure is not followed the results can be expensive as shown below when this incident caused the shut down of supply of 15% of Thailand's gas supply.
This had the run on effect of serious gas shortages for compression into fuel for cars and many taxi drivers in Bankok had to revert their engines back to petrol in order to keep on the road.

if you look straight astern form the barge you can see the mid buoy of the anchor of which there should have been three when negotiating around a sub sea main gas manifold. The wire is connected to the anchor handling tug seen.

http://i455.photobucket.com/albums/qq279/rusticbentley/P1030804.jpg

http://i455.photobucket.com/albums/qq279/rusticbentley/IMG_0186.jpg

Because procedure wasn't followed the cable sagged and then snagged on the sub sea manifold and with the tug speeding of to the new anchor location the wire ripped through the manifold causing a fracture which then blew the 32 inch gas pipeline that runs 150 kilometers the shore. The gas is pumped in the pipeline at 150 psi so as you can imagine even if they managed to close the shore end valve after a while it is a lot of gas under a lot of pressure.
The photo you can see of it erupting pout of the surface is coming form 70 meters deep and it stood up to about 5 meters plus high.

http://i455.photobucket.com/albums/qq279/rusticbentley/P1030805.jpg

One spark and it would have been like a nuke going off and destroyed the vessels and all those on board.
The sea turned to a frothy stinking scum and was so aerated that it threatened the buoyancy of the vessels nearby. In fact when it fiorst went off the anchor tug did loose bouyancy and nearly went under with half her back deck submerged but by pilling on the power she managed to escape however by piling on the power it probably just did more damage sub sea.

It was over an hour before the alarm was raised sand they stopped welding in the firing line of the barge.
The company client observers we helicoptered of the vessel within hours. The anchor was pulled in and an old fishing net attached and let back out again. It was then put forward that the fishing net had snagged the manifold and not the anchor wire.
There is suspicion that large suitcases full of dollar bills were arranged by the parent company to be delivered to various Thai government officials and inspectors.
The fabricated story was accepted as fact and no blame was apportioned and the official story never made it to press.

Funny old world innit?

Love and Peace
Bentley