News
Viking Johnson A Aquagrip Used For Gas Storage Project
Posted on 01st Oct 2005
Viking Johnson AquaGrips are helping to create an unusual facility that will provide additional gas storage for the UK energy industry.
Scottish and Southern Energy is working on a five-year project to create nine caverns that will store up to 420 million cubic metres of gas in the salt deposits beneath Aldbrough on the East Yorkshire coast.
The caverns are created by pumping seawater down boreholes to dissolve the salt. The 500mm OD AquaGrip is used to connect the two pipelines that draw the feed water from the North Sea and return it as concentrated brine.
Specialist marine contractor Van Oord towed 350m pipe strings 30 kilometres up the coast from Grimsby harbour before connecting them with back-to-back AquaGrip and sinking the completed pipeline into position.
“Butt fusing the strings on the open sea was obviously out of the question, but we have used Aquagrip before, so we knew it would cope with the exceptional conditions at Aldbrough,” said Van Oord’s Edwin Ottenheim.
“As well as being designed specifically for connecting PE pipes, they can be installed under wet conditions – and another plus point was that the flange can be rotated, which made it easier to align the bolt holes.”
AquaGrip is used extensively by the UK water industry due to its ability to grip PE pipe and resist pullout in accordance with WIS 4-24-01.
AquaGrip allows axial adjustment of the pipe by as much as 50mm, which is ideal for inserting pipes, valves and other fittings into an existing line without the need for precise cutting of the pipe.
2005 is Viking Johnson’s 75th anniversary. The company is proud to have been associated with many prestigious projects world wide and plans to continue this tradition by continually improving and refining its products and services.
