T.D. Williamson SA (TDW) has successfully completed a series of operations to increase liquid natural gas (LNG) supply to Nigeria for the Nigerian Agip Oil Company Ltd (NAOC), a joint venture between Agip and the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC).

In 2009, Saipem Contracting Nigeria Limited awarded TDW a contract to supply a comprehensive range of hot tapping and STOPPLE® plugging operations to substantially increase much needed gas supply as part of the upgrading of the Obiafu/Obrikom Gas Plant T4/5 Project. To achieve this, TDW connected two production units by carrying out a series of hot tapping and STOPPLE plugging operations at the Obiafu/Obrikom onshore gas plant, which is located 80 km from Port Harcourt, Nigeria. A total of 64 hot taps ranging in size from 10-inches to 32-inches, and 27 STOPPLE plugging operations were carried out by TDW. These operations took place in two distinct phases in 2009 and 2010. As a result, the gas supply will be increased by 312 million standard cubic feet per day (MNSCFD), which represents a 15% increase in volume. The entire work scope at the Obiafu/Obrikom onshore gas plant was carried out safely without shutting down a single production unit, representing a considerable costsavings.

While the onsite hot tapping and STOPPLE plugging operations were completed efficiently in just 90 days, TDW invested considerable time and attention to plan and prepare for the site activities in collaboration with Saipem Contracting Site Management. Extensive surveys and assessments were conducted onsite to ensure that the technical specifications of the equipment planned for use were feasible. In fact, TDW designed and manufactured several customized plugging heads in order to complete the operation as planned.

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