The International Pipe Line and Offshore Contractors Association (IPLOCA) convention, which began in Sydney yesterday, was told helium balloons could be used to do heavy lifting on pipeline projects over environmentally sensitive lands.

"As part of the research being undertaken we are now looking at using very large helium balloons to move long, heavy pipes over great distances," said AJ Lucas Group executive director Andy Lukas.

While pipelines would still need to be laid out and welded onsite, transportation to the site using airships would minimise the environmental impact, according to Lukas.

"Each section of large steel pipe can weigh between five and nine tonnes so transportation on terrestrial vehicles is going to have an impact on the environment far greater than lighter vehicles that carry people," he said.

“The airships could potentially change the way we currently carry these loads – totalling up to 30 tonnes – with little or no impact on environmentally sensitive lands.”

IPLOCA was established in Paris in 1966 as a not-for-profit international trade association. Lukas is the association’s president.

Other new ideas being studied through IPLOCA working groups and expected to be discussed during the Sydney conference include:

• contracts and risk sharing;

• data acquisition and control;

• planning and design;

• trenching and backfilling;

• pipe handling and facing;

• pipe and field joint coating, anticorrosion;

• alignment & welding; and

• lower and lay.

“The general consensus is that these eight ideas could bring significant improvements in productivity, safety, environment and cost-performance, which are the four main objectives IPLOCA has for this initiative,” Lukas said.