Beach-pull Case Study
Delivering more for less
Converting a barge into a pipelayer in India
The client was looking to link up an offshore processing terminal with a subsea distribution unit (SDU) in the Krishna-Godavari basin, offshore India. The project team was looking to efficiently expand production from the field - minimising the operation costs where possible.

The project was the first job for the MDL TTS-4/310 Series Tensioner - the market's first road-transportable pipelay tensioner of this capacity at the time (before the arrival of its larger MDL sibling). The tensioner was mobilised onboard an anchored barge and used to transition 24.6km of umbilical from the beach to seabed at 160m water depth.

Deploying the system from a barge eliminated the need for a dedicated pipelay vessel or a PSV to carry out the installation, while the system's 5m track contact length ensured greater control over the safety of the product, without having to deploy a bulky dual-tensioner solution. Upon completion of the project, the MDL tensioner was dismantled and transported back to the UK by road, further contributing to a reduction on project costs.
