HOT OIL FLOWS IN SHELL KING SUBSEA PIPELINE WITH CUMING CORPORATION C-THERM INSULATION

(Avon, MA) Cuming Corporation announces that it has been informed by Shell that the subsea flowline recently coated by Cuming with its proprietary C-THERM syntactic foam insulation is now operational. The flowline is part of the Shell operated King Subsea Project located in Mississippi Canyon Block 807 in the Gulf of Mexico.

The King flowline is significant in that it is the first major subsea piping system to be insulated by the C-THERM cast-on-pipe process. Over six miles of flowline were coated with syntactic foam tested and rated for twenty years of service at a depth of 3,300 feet and a temperature of 170º F. Syntactic foam offers the advantages of higher thermal efficiency and better resistance to hydrostatic pressure than conventional plastic foam insulation materials.

The insulation was applied to the pipe at Cuming's newly built factory in New Iberia, Louisiana, located adjacent to Bayou Coating's facility in the Port of Iberia. The pipe joints were assembled at Bayou and then barged offshore for J-lay installation by McDermott's Derrick Barge 50. The pipes went into the water without incident late in 1999. Cuming also supplied syntactic foam insulation for the PLEM sleds which terminate each length of King pipe.

Cuming Corporation is continuing to develop improved forms of syntactic foam insulation for higher temperatures and greater depths, and salutes Shell for its leadership in promoting new technologies in deepwater oil and gas production. The company believes the experience of the King field will lead to the use of these advanced materials in many more projects.

Cuming Corporation was founded in 1980 by noted materials scientist Dr. William R. Cuming. For the last 20 years, the company has manufactured quality syntactic foam products for the offshore oil and gas industry from its headquarters in Avon, Massachusetts and more recently, from a plant in New Iberia, Louisiana. As the offshore industry has moved into greater depths, Cuming Corporation has provided cost-effective solutions for meeting the technical challenges of deep sea exploration and production in increasingly difficult conditions.