Pipe and Cable

Offshore pipeline, cable and fibre installations are hugely expensive undertakings where costs are increasingly being calculated in terms of a whole life basis including eventual decommissioning. 

Attaching SonarBell® at the point of installation provides benefits for all four stages of the pipeline/cable/fibre lifecycle including:

• Pipe or cable installation on the seabed – SonarBell® can assist in marking the route for dredging, cross-over etc and touch-down monitoring
• It is ideally placed to support ROV and AUV pipe and cable through life monitoring by providing easy to follow markers
• When swift intervention is critical, for example when a pipe is leaking or a cable is broken, knowing where it is rather than where it should be matters
• Finally when it comes time to decommission the pipe or cable, SonarBell® assists in the location of the whole assembly as well as the component parts.

Given the benefits of fitting the SonarBell®, the cost per km will  be marginal when its ability to assist in the reduction of  through-life cost at each of the installation, monitoring, intervention  and decommissioning stages are considered.

SonarBell® provides a low cost and low maintenance solution and SALT Ltd are now examining other ways in which it can contribute to reducing offshore operational costs, this could include the provision of a very simple, efficient method of monitoring undercut of pipes and cables.