October 2009 Vol. 236 No. 10

Projects

NRI Syntho-Glass repairs damaged Thai pipeline

Officials in Thailand in mid-October were forced to shut down a damaged pipeline located on an offshore oil rig which supplied the nation’s power plants with fuel. The shutdown cost the country roughly $125,000 an hour, or $3 million a day.

Rather than attempting to replace the pipeline wholesale, state-run gas company PTT called a small South Florida company for help.

NRI, Neptune Research Incorporated, is the creator of Syntho-Glass XT, which can quickly seal breaches in carbon steel piping so that the repaired section actually becomes stronger than the original.

“This was a monumental problem for the people of Thailand. This single, broken pipeline could have been financially crippling,” says NRI President Chris Lazzara.

With over 80% wall loss to a section of the pipeline, a large scale disaster was imminent. NRI sent Ryan Schwarz, Vice President of Sales and Marketing, armed with 250 rolls of Syntho-Glass XT. In less than 36 hours, Schwarz was able to fix a pipeline that otherwise could have taken months.

“The process was simple,” says Schwarz. “We filled the corrosion with SubSea Epoxy, then took our Syntho-Glass XT and wrapped it around the pipe. Twenty-four hours later, the pipe was made even stronger”– NRI completed the pressure testing of the repair at 177bar/1700PSI for four hours–“and Thailand was back in business.”