Saudi Aramco operates a massive network to enable its position as world leading hydrocarbon producer, approximately 371 downstream cross-country pipelines with 446-sections, totaling 23,878 kilometers as at January 2020. Typical pipelines range in diameter from 4-inches to 56-inches, the average length of the pipelines ranges from less than one kilometer to above 1,000 kilometers.

Some of the pipelines have been in operation since 1960 s, while new ones are continuously being installed. A good number of the pipelines are still in relatively good condition, while some have deteriorated in integrity as a result of various factors that include the environment, fluid property, flow conditions, etc. The pipelines transport different grades of hydrocarbons that includes stabilized and un-stabilized crude oil, associated and non-associated gas as well as sales gas, and various grades of refined products. Stati stically, 64 percent of existing pipelines are now more than 20 years with-more-than 49% above 30 years in operation.

Some of the pipelines are operating under adverse conditions (low-flow, sabkha, etc.) that demands close corrosion monitoring. It was imperative to capitalize on Saudi Aramco int egrity management processes to maintain safer reliable pipeline network. The ability to accurately determine the rate of corrosion growth along a pipeline is an essential input into a number of key integrity management decisions.

The main enabler process for Saudi Aramco pipeline integrity management is pipelines integrity plans. A key enabler of integrity plans is corrosion growth modeling. For that Saudi Aramco has utilized a huge amount of resources to manage the pipeline network integrity.