Saudi Aramco project teams from the Oil and Gas Upstream Pipelines Division (O&GUPD) and the Offshore Projects Division (OPD) working at Berri and Abu Ali Island recently accomplished two environmentally significant feats. The first was the completion of Saudi Aramco's longest underground pipeline sections installed using Horizontal Directional Drilling (HDD) methods. The 3,200-meter sections of 24-inch crude pipeline and 30-inch water-injection pipeline were installed as deep as 32 meters beneath the seabed between Abu Ali Island and the end of Berri Causeway, using state-of-the-art drilling equipment. The other major accomplishment was the first use by Saudi Aramco of HDD technology in the installation of a pipeline running from the shoreline into the sea. The 30-inch water-injection pipeline contained an underground section that stretched from the edge of Abu Ali Island to an exit point more than 1,500 meters into the Berri offshore oil field, according to a report carried by Saudi Aramco's web-site.
