To understand the effects of defects and their role in the mechanical performance of thermoplastic composite pipes. Advanced quality control criteria will provide superior products and reduce complex qualification programmes.

This project will qualify a carbon fibre subsea jumper for deep water oil and gas production. Jumpers that connect the subsea infrastructure are key enablers for these projects. However existing steel products have become very large to accommodate the positional uncertainties, relative motion and environmental loading. Furthermore these products have limited life and require complex integrity management programmes leading to high costs and energy demands from vessel operations. The m-Jumper programme partners have identified an opportunity to qualify a standard lightweight carbon fibre jumper that can be installed by a much smaller installation vessel. This will reduce the installation time, the size and energy consumption of the vessel and the overall cost of the installation. The longevity of the composite jumper will increase the product lifetime, further reducing energy consumption from integrity management vessel operations as well as reducing the cost and impact of repair and replacement.

The UK’s world class Oil & Gas industry, comprising both production and essential support services, is a vital part of the UK economy and the Government’s future industrial strategy. Magma Global Ltd (Magma) epitomises this technology lead with its unique m-pipe development from which it is now expanding its product portfolio. The proposed ‘m-Riser’ Project is one such development. The key aims and objectives are to: 1) Develop a subsea ‘production riser’ (i.e. sectional pipe to link a sea bed oil well to a surface collection vessel); 2) Design and implement a rigorous test regime and test equipment to prove operational capability (e.g. pressure, bending, torsion) and compliance with UK and industry standards 3) Initiate field trials with a leading UK FTSE 250 independent oilfield operator on a marginal (i.e. previously uneconomic) North Sea oil well using an early production vessel. The innovation and novel aspects will include: 1) The first production riser manufactured from Magma’s unique and innovative PEEK/Carbon m-pipe; 2) Engineering unique jointing methodology between the m-pipe and industry standard coupling components; 3) Developing a unique testing regime to substantiate a riser solution with significant performance benefits over steel and other current alternatives. The main benefits will include: 1) The ability to economically extract further oil reserves from marginal (previously uneconomic) North Sea wells and provide a valuable early production and reservoir data gathering facility from newly drilled wells world-wide; 2) The ability of an early production vessel to stay on station through adverse Met-Ocean conditions. A typical early production vessel will only achieve 85-90 % utilisation. Magma is targeting 95% giving an additional 20-40 production days pa, increasing output values £30- £60m. Magma will introduce unique innovation into the subsea Oil & Gas industry which will deliver significant economic and operational benefits to UK producers

Project 'Falcon' will develop an innovative pultrusion tape manufacturing process from which prototype high integrity monolithic pipes will be produced. The tape will be a unique matrix of polyaryletherketone (PEEK) and T700 carbon fibre. The resultant pipe will have significantly higher performance characteristics an order of magnitude above what is currently practical when used in the manufacturing of subsea risers, flow-lines and jumpers (see diagram in Appendix A) for hydrocarbon extraction in the Oil & Gas industry and Carbon Sequestration. The innovation will create a high performance advanced material and demonstrate the resulting pipe structure will withstand corrosive hydrocarbon products, at significantly higher temperatures and increasing pressures, as demanded by the Industry’s roadmap for subsea production technologies. Existing formulations of PEEK/Carbon are used for Aerospace and Automotive applications but utilise less viscous, lower quality, polymer matrices to encapsulate the carbon fibre. The resulting formulations and manufacturing processes are unable to deliver the material consolidation, process control, production speed and PEEK stratification that will be necessary to manufacture pipes capable of withstanding ultra-deep water environments and operating conditions. A reformulated material structure combined with a unique pultrusion process is required to counteract the high viscosity and high melt temperature of a higher specification of PEEK. The innovations required to address this challenge must encompass: a) fundamental changes to material composition/structure; b) novel forming/extrusion methodologies (particularly die configuration and the introduction/application of higher temperatures and increased pressure); and c) novel cooling techniques to retain desired crystalinity. A successful project will also provide spin off opportunities for high performance PEEK/carbon tape in the Aerospace, Automotive and Defence sectors.