pics from work 9-2-09

Just a few pics from work. Hot tapped a 12" natural gas line w/ 430 lbs on it, moving 18 million. I'm the fat one wearing the green cap. Chris

I'm betting that will stand your hair up a little.

Yea Schmitty, it had my full attention. I made the actual "hot" weld and the other welder helping me helped weld up the reinforcement tee. The wall thickness on the 12" was metered at .219". The things a guy will do for a dollar. Chris

Cool, but Oklahoma doesn't require a metal box or bell around you when down in a pit? Maybe it's not that deep. I lost a good friend and Outlaw Late Model dirt racer Bob Shyrock, years ago in that same situation. It was a freak accident, and should have never happened to him. He was a backhoe operator for a company that was replacing old pipes in Minneapolis-St Paul. It was a Friday afternoon and their welder had went home early that day, and someone noticed that it needed more welding, being Friday afternoon and they needed to finish this before going home, Bob said he would weld it so they could be done faster than to wait for another welder to come. They had a bell there to use, but he didn't want to mess with it to save time. He had finished welding and was ready to come out when it caved in on him, he seen it coming and dove down and stuck his head in an old open sewer pipe before it covered him up. They could talk to him thru a manhole, and immediately started digging him out, he could tell them when he felt the pressure of the backhoe bucket getting close to him, when the pressure of the dirt lightened up enough for him to wiggle free he pulled his head out of the pipe and stood up, but it then caved in a second time and with the dirt covering the pipe opening he had nowhere to go that time, by the time they hand dug down to him he had suffocated. Just remember it only takes a second for an accident to happen.

Rick, it's always in the back of my mind. It was pretty hard dirt there, even though it was wet. You can't really tell from the pics, but it is benched pretty well. I went to excavating school a couple years back, all day class, and you learn alot about the excavating. I always tell the operators when they are done digging, lay under the pipe and look up at the ground and see if they feel safe. It can be a bad deal and it only take a split second. Chris

Looks fun man

Forgive my ignorance, but does Hot Tap mean that the pipe's pressureized and flowing gas while you're welding on it?

Greg, yes the pipe was pressurized while I was welding on it. It had 430 psi and was moving 18 million through it. They brought the pressure and flowrate down because the pipe was so cold, it was sweating really bad. Chris

WOW, that's amazing.

How do they open up the "T" after you guys are done?

Greg

Greg, if you look at the "nipple" I welded on, after we welded the reinforcement tee on, we welded a flange on the nipple. Then a valve is bolted to the flange, close the valve and then on the other side of the valve, a big hydraulic machine is bolted to the valve. The valve is opened and the machine has a shaft and bit on it, like a huge holesaw and they drill the hole in the pipe. When the hole is drilled, they run the bit back out, close the valve, unbolt the machine. You now have the pressure against the valve, in this case, we fabbed an above ground valve setting and bolted to the valve. Once the above ground valve setting was in place, we opened the valve we hot tapped with, coated it, and buried it. Now the above ground valve is what they operate the new section of pipeline with. Chris

That is absolutely amazing. My hat's off to you, sir, for doing a kick ass job that I'd be too dam scared to do.

Thanks Greg, funny thing is that I'm too scared to fly in a plane but do this kind of work all the time. It's all what we are used to doing and what we understand how works. Chris

Pipe dobber 18 mill is a spit in the bucket for me, most times I push 800 million to 1.5 billion @ 900 psi... and yes shoring is an art, and someone knows how to shore a bell hole is good to have on sight...... Nice to know someone else is in the oilfield trash business.....


Randy

Randy, that's cool you're in this business also. What do you do? I don't know what the line normally runs, just that when they came out and d-metered the pipe, that is what they ended up bringing it down to. At first the pipe was moving a lot of gas and we had them bring it down as it was sweating too much to get a good weld on. I was a contract welder for Duke Energy later DCP, for 7 years and last nov. I went to work contract welding for OneOK. Chris

I bet there is a lot of oilfield trash around here. I know I am.

LOL, I was going through Woodward one morning a couple years ago. Pulled up to stoplight behind a brand new F-250 King Ranch, lifted, big tires and 20's with a huge sticker across the back glass "Oilfield Trash Part II".