Currently, Tela imports various oil products by marine tanker to their terminal at Sihanoukville port in the south of Cambodia. From there, the products are transported by road tanker to fuel stations around the country. This includes approximately 130 road tanker journeys every day between Sihanoukville and Phnom Penh.
To reduce the environmental impact of the road tankers, optimize long term operational costs and enhance supply security, Tela propose to construct an oil pipeline to transport Diesel, Gasoline and Kerosene products between Sihanoukville and a new distribution depot under construction on the outskirts of Phnom Penh.
Offtakes from the pipeline are also planned to supply intermediate depots in the future.
Tela has engaged a FEED contractor to carry out the basic design of the proposed multi-product oil pipeline and facilities comprising:
- 220 km pipeline
- Initial Pump Station and pipeline dispatch facilities at Sihanoukville Terminal
- Intermediate Block Valves
- Intermediate Pump Station (future)
- Pipeline Receipt Facilities at Phnom Penh Depot
The FEED and related cost estimate will be used in establishing whether the project meets the required financial investment threshold to proceed.
Brightstar Scope of Work:
Tela appointed Brightstar, in conjunction with our partners DRW, to provide Owner Engineer services during the FEED, including:
- Representation of Tela at Kick off and Progress meetings
- Pipeline route selection
- Review and approve FEED Contractor’s design submissions
- Represent Tela at formal Design Reviews
- Represent Tela at project HAZOP
- Project management and progress reporting
In addition to the above, Brightstar is providing advice on project definition, tendering and implementation strategies for Tela.
Value Added:
As the first long distance pipeline in Cambodia, this project has presented a number of challenges which Brightstar’s engineering team have been able to address.
Project Optimisation
At the project outset, Brightstar worked closely with Tela to ensure the project objectives and requirements were clearly defined and understood.
The project was to adopt a value approach to avoid over-engineering and unnecessary cost escalation which are too often features of emerging market projects..
This approach was carried forward into the design brief provided to the FEED Contractor and was applied during design development.
The result is a project which has been optimized to deliver Tela’s objectives in the most cost effective way. Particular aspects subjected to optimization include:
- Pipe diameter vs operating pressure
- Pipe material vs. wall thickness
- Addition of future intermediate pump stations to minimize initial capex and achieve phased throughput increases
- Flowrate vs. interface generation
- Consideration of flow enhancing additives for additional future capacity increases
Community Relations
It is to be expected that the project will encounter a level of apprehension and perhaps resistance, during construction, from the public who are not familiar with pipeline construction.
At this design stage, the pipeline route and the proposed construction methodologies have therefore been selected to minimize the impact on communities wherever possible.
In advance of construction public participation and information campaigns will be implemented to explain the project, its benefits and to address the concerns of the communities.
Constructability
The pipeline route includes some challenging areas for construction including limited access, congested road intersections, swampy areas, river crossings, etc.
Considering that specialist pipeline construction equipment and operators will need to be imported, Brightstar has placed particular emphasis on ensuring the proposed construction methodologies make effective use of imported machinery and maximise use of locally available equipment and skill levels.
Security
The security of the pipeline and protection from attempted fuel theft are especially important in locations such as this; Brightstar’s engineering team has ensured that an effective pipeline leak detection system has been specified, suitable for the location and environment, which will support the operational campaigns and pipeline patrols in identifying any attempt to tap into the pipeline and to avoid the disastrous consequences that can result from such illegal activities.
Batch Tracking
In operating a multi-product pipeline, the need to plan and develop an effective batch cycle is critical, as is the monitoring of the cycle and the progress of the product batches through the pipeline, to ensure that switching of receipt tanks is performed effectively and to minimize the volume of interface (‘transmix’) generated in the pipeline, which must be reinjected within tight product contamination limits.
As this will be the first pipeline to be operated by Tela, Brightstar have ensured that a proprietary batch tracking system is included in the scope of the contract to enable Tela’s operations team to effectively manage the pipeline inventory and batch cycle from the commencement of pipeline operations.