Massive Gazprom gas line stays snug with Pentair heat trace system 17 December 2013

Thermal protection for nine compressor stations along a gas transmission line from the huge Bovanenkovo natural gas field, in the far north of Siberia, has been successfully installed by Pentair Thermal Management.

The firm built an electric trace heating system to protect pipes and equipment against ambient temperatures that drop to -40ºC for the energy project, which is operated through Gazprom subsidiary Yamalgazinvest and is the largest in Russia's history.

Natural gas is transported along a 1,100km pipeline to a processing plant in the city of Ukhta, so the project called for a sophisticated electric trace heating solution to monitor pipes and vessels for water, sewage and anti-condensate gas, which must be kept at 5º-8ºC.

Systems were required for pipelines with diameters from 15 to 400mm and lengths ranging from 0.1m to several kilometres. Heat-tracing was needed for vessels both above and below ground, totalling 4,050 circuits.

Pentair used TraceCalc Pro software at its engineering centre in St Petersburg to create the system, which combines Raychem self-regulating and polymer-insulated heating cables.

Raychem heating cables were also specified for the vessels, while for the longest pipelines, Pentair chose Raychem STS skin-effect systems – over 200km of which were specified in multiple circuits of between 10 and 20km spread over the nine compressor stations.

Control and monitoring of the complete heat-tracing system on the compressor stations is provided by DigiTrace NGC-30 systems, with central control via DigiTrace user interface terminals, and remote configuration and monitoring via DigiTrace Supervisor software.

Brian Tinham

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