yard is a highly specialized facility and susceptible to the boom-bust 

 syndrome that may accompany oil and gas development. Therefore a pipe- 

 coating yard is usually situated in a region where underwater oil and 

 gas pipelines are to be constructed in abundance. If the yard is located 

 too far from the intended use area, it probably will not be economical 

 to ship coated pipe long distances, particularly because of the increased 

 weight of the coated pipe. The ideal situation is to take the coated 

 pipe directly from the yard to the lay-barge where the pipe-laying 

 operations are being conducted. 



While logistically and economically convenient, the shorefront 

 location of a pipe-coating yard is not a necessity. Not all of the 

 pipe-coating operations need to be conducted on the shoreline. A marine 

 terminal with a roadway connection to the main facility will allow the 

 coated pipe to be shipped to the lay-barge. For a future yard the extra 

 costs of transportation might be offset by the savings on the purchase 

 of less expensive inland real estate. A one-hundred acre site can store 

 approximately 300 miles of pipe and can represent an $8 to $10 million 

 investment [26]. Because of the demand for large quantities of fresh 

 water, both for the preparation of cement and for the cooling of newly 

 treated pipe, local supplies must be adequate, and there must be 

 assurances of a continuous supply. 



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