Bayou has recently expanded its line of products to include concrete weight coating. During the past several years, the company began offering services that were required so as to facilitate the installation of pipelines in deep-water environments (water depths 1000' and greater); services such as quadruple jointing (for J-lay or vertical installation), insulation and pipe-in-a-pipe fabrication are completed at the company's fixed base operation at the Port of Iberia prior to the pipe length being picked up by the lay contractor. These newer services provided over 60^ of the company's revenue in 1999, with the traditional corrosion control coating services making up the balance. In an effort to continue the marketing strategy of providing "one-stop shopping" to its customer base, the Management of Bayou made the decision to enter the concrete weight coating business in mid 1999. While concrete coating ins not usually required for deep-water pipelines (it is not flexible enough), it can be routinely required for pipelines in shallow water depths
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The purpose of putting concrete on the outside of a pipeline is to help keep the line in place once it is installed on the ocean floor or in marsh / lake environments. Large diameter flowlines (12" and above) will have a tendency to float (especially if they are being used to transport natural gas) if additional weight is not added to the line. Concrete is usually applied in thickness' of 1" to 5" (depending on the pipe diameter and weight) to provide this "negative buoyancy". During the past two decades there have been only two major suppliers of concrete weight coating and Bayou had worked closely with the smaller of the two companies when customers wanted both fusion-bonded corrosion coating and concrete coating. In 1998 the two concrete suppliers merged leaving Bayou in the comprising position of having to get concrete sub-contract prices from a company who was also competing against them on the corrosion coatings. Management viewed the entering into the concrete market as an absolute necessity if the company was to continue to bid on package projects. The new concrete plant was built by the Bauhuis Company located in Goor, Holland. Jimmy Shea, Managing Partner of Operations for Bayou, along with Bob Andre (Engineer), Tom Moncla (General manager) and Bert Munoz (Quality Assurance) made the trip to Holland in December of 1999 to inspect the construction of the portable facility, as well as, to receive in-depth training on the coating process. Once completed, the equipment was transported to the state via ship.
The equipment is located on a newly acquired 15-acre tract of land at the Company's Port of Iberia yard. The process will blend the two traditional concrete application processes, wrap and impingement, and the Management of Bayou feels that the end product will be superior to those offered by the existing competition. The plant is comprised of belt conveyers (for transporting the raw materials), concrete mixing equipment, roller conveyors (for transporting the pipe through the process), and both the concrete wrap and impingement application heads. The key to applying a quality product lies in the proper mix or "recipe" of the raw materials which include sand, water, cement and pea gravel or iron ore (iron ore is used if more density per cubic foot of material is required); once the ratios are determined, computers are used to dispense and monitor the proper amount of materials. The first layer of concrete is installed by "wrapping" the dry-mix material around the pipe as it rotates. Wire reinforcing is automatically fed over the first layer and the remaining concrete thickness is then applied using centrifugal wheels which throws (or impinges) the material onto the first layer. Uniform thickness is attained as the concrete is compressed onto the pipe via two twenty-four inch rollers which rotate at 1800 rpm; and a smooth surface is achieved through the use of a scraper head positioned just after the impingement chamber. A polyurethane outer wrap is applied which facilitates the curing of the material while it is held in storage. The concrete coating reaches full compressive strength within seven days.
Once fully operable, the facility should be able to process 200 to 250 joints of pipe per shift ranging in size from 12" to 36". The company has two projects totaling 58 miles of 20" pipe for the Gulf of Mexico, which we are currently working on. Several other domestic projects are also currently being bid, one involving over 750 miles of pipe. Since the equipment is portable, Bayou may also consider bidding on projects in international markets at some time in the future. Concrete coating - another effort on the part of the Bayou Companies to meet the needs of their customers.
