Company Report: Floating Pipeline Company Inc
Building on a pipe-dream A new manufacturing facility in Saint John, N.B. becomes essential piece in company's virtual pipeline

The Floating Pipeline Company Incorporated (FPC) focuses on offering safe, practical, and economical physical solutions for the transport of Compressed Natural Gas (CNG), by ship, rail and road. They promise safety and speed in all these areas.

Len Thompson, President of FPC began his business career with Canadian Airlines in 1983, moving to Air Atlantic of St. John’s and Hali¬fax. With the company he quickly moved up the ranks to increasingly senior positions, until he was appointed to the post of Regional Sales Manager in 1988. By 1995, he joined Fabco Industries Ltd as Senior Vice President of the Dartmouth, N.S.-based firm..

In 1990 Len joined one of Atlantic Canada’s leading travel related companies with offices throughout Atlantic Canada as Vice President and General Manager Operations. By 1995 Len had accepted a senior position with Halifax based marine, oil and natural gas fabrication company Fabco Industries limited. Len was Senior Vice President Fabco Industries Limited of Dartmouth, Nova Scotia.

He is presently the President of Floating Pipeline Company Inc. which develops lightweight pressurized containers known as Gas Transport Modules (GTMs) that are made from composite metals, and supported in a protective structure designed for the specific transportation needs of its customers.

The company was incorporated on May, 2002. It is with innovation, technology, and a knack for eye pleasing design that FPC has established itself as a major player in the compressed gas industry.

Operating out of Nova Scotia, the company works with major producers of natural gas across Canada and the United States.

FPC has constructed a brand-new manu¬facturing facility to produce three separate and fully integrated Compressed Natural Gas (CNG) transport and storage systems for marine and land applications. The Gas Transport Modules™ (GTMs) are manufactured by FPC Inc. under license from NCF Industries Inc. through TransCanada CNG Technologies Ltd.

At FPC’s 120,000 sq. ft GTM manufactur¬ing facility, in the deepwater Port of Saint John, New Brunswick, they have found that their loca¬tion is ideal for the manufacture and integration of these systems on ships, barges, rail cars or ISO containers.

By developing a partnership with TransCNG International FPC is able to offer its three gas con¬tainment systems:

FPC ‘Integrated CNG system (ICNG)’ for Road and Rail applications;

TCI Compressed Natural Gas system’ for Marine applications; and,

TransCanada integrated CNG storage’ for land based storage of natural gas.

All three systems include piping, manifold, and valving systems developed specifically for their clients and their chosen method of transport. Flex¬ibility in their methods has become a cornerstone to FPC’s success. Their systems allow customers to transport large quantities of compressed natural gas, without worry or hassle.

BY SEA
With the TCI Compressed Natural Gas system, a number of ships shuttle back and forth in a circuit between loading and unloading areas. This creates a seamless “virtual pipeline” of continuous flow. The CNG is fed to the ship through a high pres¬sure feed. This is the same process that is used to fill a regular tank but on a larger scale.

In order to create this “virtual pipeline”, Float¬ing Pipeline has a ship docked at all times. When it nears capacity, a second ship will take up position, is connected, and begins filling as soon as the first ship completes loading.

A similar process is maintained on the oppo¬site end, where a second ship is connected while the first is still unloading. This method allows for the continuous transportation of compressed natural gas without the use of a physical pipe.

Using a similar system on a smaller scale as the ship system, FPC uses a combination of tugs and barges to create another “virtual pipeline”. The compressed natural gas is filled on the barges, again, while one is loaded another waits close behind in both loading and unloading stations.

BY LAND
Floating Pipeline uses an innovative design and placement of either two or three pressure vessels. The units are mounted on a specially designed frame that is compliant to both North American and international standards. With safety and ease of use in mind, controls are secured, and can only be opened by a secure key.

This system is ideal for:

Wellhead flare gas collection

Coal bed methane

Supply to isolated customers

Customers off the pipeline route.

BY RAIL
Rail transport is built along similar lines as FPC’s road system. A specially designed rail car frame is loaded with the product for ease of use and security.

In the TransCanada Integrated CNG Storage system FPC uses the same pressure vessel, sup¬port, and manifolding technology as they use in the road, rail, and marine applications, but are deployed for a land based system designed to meet peaking-loads of gas fired processes.

For storage applications, sets of pressure ves¬sels can be stacked above or below ground and manifolded together in a similar manner to the ship-board systems. In storage, the vessels are charged during times of low load, and discharged at times of high-load to feed energy demands. This allows plants to purchase gas when needed and keeps their costs low.

BUCKING THE TREND
While many companies are reducing their work forces, Floating Pipeline Company has been expanding its employee base and opera¬tions in the Maritimes. Recently, they expanded their Saint John, N.B operations in 2008, to the applause of local politicians and business people, with up to 75 new jobs. Ed Doherty, the Minister of Post-Secondary Education, Training and Labour, said that the “company [would] be an important addition to the Saint John business community and to the Port of Saint John.”

Thompson commented that “we look for¬ward to fully developing the capacity of our Port of Saint John production facility, and are expect¬ing that additional workforce resources will be required in the near future. This will continue to enhance the benefits to the Port of Saint John by increasing trans-shipments of raw materials and finished product, which will result in significantly more ship visits to the port, and will have a posi¬tive effect on the local economy as a result of the capital spending that will occur.”

Expanding their markets and services is another goal for Floating Pipeline, who in the future, hope to get into shipping for themselves. They are currently engaged in developing two international projects in Thailand, and Columbia. Thompson spends a large amount of time visiting these facilities and is taking a very personal approach to their oversight.

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