Covering TurkStream: 1,224m² of Industrial Shrink Wrap on Subsea Pipeline Stacks

Industrial Covers · Pipeline Storage

Key Facts

• Client: South Stream Transport BV (Gazprom / TurkStream project)
• Project: UV-protective industrial covers for subsea line pipe stacks
• Scope: 1,224 m² per stack — 48m × 15m × 4m
• Material: 300 micron shrink wrap, 6m × 25m rolls
• Location: Pipe storage yard, Black Sea coast

The Problem

TurkStream is a major offshore gas pipeline under the Black Sea, built to connect Russian gas reserves to the Turkish distribution network and on to south-east Europe. The subsea line pipe that forms the pipeline — large-diameter steel pipe with specialist anti-corrosion coating applied to the exterior — was manufactured and stored ashore at a coastal yard before being laid on the seabed.

Although subsea line pipe is an exceptionally robust product once installed, its external coating is sensitive to prolonged UV exposure during storage. South Stream Transport BV, the project operator, needed large stacks of pipe protected against UV degradation for storage periods of up to two years — long enough that the difference between adequate and inadequate covering could determine whether the coating remained within specification for installation.

The obvious solution, tarpaulins, had already been tried. Trial installations had proved problematic: large tarps are heavy and awkward to position over a stack 48 metres long, 15 metres wide and 4 metres high, and several had been displaced by wind. A weighted tarpaulin is difficult to fit tightly to an irregular curved surface, and loose material that flaps in coastal winds abrades and eventually fails. South Stream Transport contacted Rhino Shrink Wrap to explore whether industrial shrink wrap could provide a more reliable alternative.

The Solution

The first challenge was anchoring. The pipe stacks sat on long timber bearers — the sheeting could not be fed underneath — and the 48-metre length made conventional strapping around the perimeter impractical to tension sufficiently. The solution was to encapsulate the lowest pipe on each side of the stack with a band of 300 micron shrink wrap running the full 48-metre length. This created a welded anchor point at ground level to which the main cover sheet could be heat-welded and locked down — no additional weights, ballast or mechanical tie-downs required.

At the open ends of each stack, where South Stream Transport wanted access maintained, woven strapping of 3.5-tonne break strength was tensioned across the 15-metre width at 4-metre height to create a termination perimeter. The cover sheet was wrapped around this strapping and welded back to itself.

The cover itself was installed in 6-metre-wide strips using 300 micron shrink wrap in 6m × 25m rolls — a roll size chosen to balance coverage area against the practical weight a two-man team could handle safely on top of a four-metre stack. Each strip was overlapped onto the previous by 30 centimetres and heat-welded along the full length. Ratchet straps were installed over each strip at 4-metre intervals before the next strip was laid, keeping the installation under control in any wind and providing additional mechanical retention above the shrunk membrane.

Once all strips were welded, the full surface was heat-shrunk drum-tight using hand-held propane gas guns. The anchor pipe welds and strapping perimeter meant the membrane had no free edge to lift — once shrunk, it was mechanically locked and thermally tightened on all sides. Self-adhesive weatherproof vents were installed at one per 25 square metres across the top and sides to allow cross-ventilation and prevent pressure build-up when wind entered the open ends.

The Result

The first 1,224-square-metre cover was completed in four working days by a two-man team. The covers performed through the storage period, including a severe winter that brought significant snow loading to the site — visible in site photographs taken after snowfall, with the membrane intact and load distributed cleanly across the drum-tight surface.

Where snow loading caused localised stress at the top corners of the stacks, the method was refined: reinforcing patches were heat-welded over the vulnerable areas, and the strapping clamp system at the pipe ends was improved — purpose-made clamps fixed to the bottom row of open pipe ends at two-metre intervals provided a more positive anchor for the perimeter strapping in subsequent installations.

The project demonstrated that industrial shrink wrap is a reliable alternative to tarpaulins for long-term pipe stack protection in exposed coastal environments: lighter to install, more resistant to wind displacement, fully field-repairable by heat welding, and fully recyclable at end of use.

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