Caspian Pipeline Consortium has temporarily suspended operations at single point mooring 3 (SPM-3) after detecting a displacement of a flexible hose string frame during a survey.
Such surveys are routinely carried out after periods of unfavourable weather when single point moorings are operating under extreme conditions.
Discovering a defect in SPM-1 led to additional surveys of other single point moorings at CPC, SPM-1 and SPM-2. As a result, defects of two inner flexible pipes were discovered in SPM-2.
According to CPC, such faults are critical and do not allow of safe operations, so operations at SPM-2 had to be suspended as well.
The operator does have the necessary flexible pipelines to replace the faulty ones on the spot. However, contracting supply of spare parts may present difficulty in the current market situation, the company warned.
‘Under this situation, the Consortium has to advise that the volume of oil transportation may have to be reduced down to one third of the customers’ requests in the near future’, CPC said.