48” Hot Tap on Drinking Water Pipeline Successfully Completed with Zero Interruption to Supply

Client	Government Water Distribution Company
Country	Oman
Service Details	Wellube’s Hot tapping and Line stopping service is a cost-effective way of enabling repairs, maintenance, modifications, or reconfiguration work on existing piping systems – on either a planned or emergency basis. Our solution prevents unwanted shutdowns and keeps critical piping and pipeline systems online during tie-ins, relocations, repairs, retrofits, and routine maintenance. Get in touch with us at enquiries@wellube.com

Summary of the Project:

Wellube completed a hot tap operation on a 48” ductile iron water pipeline to install two new connections without shutdown or depressurization of the lines.

Client Requirement

Our client is a leading provider of potable water within Oman, due to the growing demand for water they needed to increase the supply in few regions. To facilitate this addition of new pipelines, the client requested Wellube to provide a solution that involved no shutdown of the pipeline.

Challenges faced

• No shutdown or depressurization of the pipelines was allowed
• Utmost care had to be taken to avoid contamination as the pipeline carried drinking water
• As the pipeline material was ductile iron, our usual welding of a hot tap tee was not feasible.

Unique Solution delivered

As part of our complete turnkey solution after evaluating the client’s requirements, we recommended the client to proceed with hot tapping as it is an effective method to create a tie-in connection to existing piping or vessels without interruption or depressurizing that section of pipe or vessel.
However, in this project owing to the pipeline material we custom designed and manufactured a mechanical Bolt-on hot tap tee of size 48” X 48” which was rated to 20 bar design pressure.

As we were working on drinking water lines, all the equipment that would interact with the line medium was painted with food-grade paint and was sterilised prior to installation.
Both the hot tap tees were installed, and pressure tested within 2 days, following which the 48” valves were installed and tested. Each 48” tap was completed within 8 hours and the site was handed back to the client for connecting the newly laid lines.
This was the first time hot tapping technology was used by the client, they were pleased with the results achieved without a shutdown.

Benefits delivered

As the project has been successfully completed, the client is considering hot tapping to achieve new connections without the need for depressurizing the pipes.

• No interruption to water supply during the project execution
• Completely HSEQ compliant
• Successful completion of the project within the client deadlines.
• All precautions were taken to avoid any contamination to the water supply.