India

The pipeline transports the gas from the large gas fields in the Bay of Bengal to the east and west coasts of the country. This is a gigantic project, with 38 valve stations and ten compressor booster stations, which have to transport 80 million standard cubic metres of natural gas per day (mmscmd) at a maximum pressure of 98 barg to various customers. The section had some particularly challenging aspects, including river crossings and a mountain. Various methods were used for the river crossings, e.g. microtunnelling and horizontal directional drilling.

The involvement of A.Hak International Contractors B.V. consisted in advising on the engineering, the construction of the pipeline and compressor stations, precommissioning and commissioning, and writing the operational procedures. We contributed a lot of knowledge to the basic engineering, including the draughting of process and instrumentation diagrams. During the detailed engineering and construction we also carried out large numbers of field inspections and provided a good deal of advice. On-the-job training courses were another important part of the project.

Second project
A second megaproject is currently in preparation, involving the laying of a 2,000 km-long high pressure gas pipeline from the east coast of India to the south. Here again the client is Reliance Industries.