Geohazards

Geohazard-induced ground movement remains a significant integrity threat for pipelines. Effective management requires reliable identification, assessment, and monitoring of pipeline loading conditions. While various methods are available to support these activities, uncertainties often remain regarding the actual stress and strain state of the...

Landslides, subsidence, and slow ground movement are among the least visible threats to pipeline integrity. Unlike corrosion or mechanical damage, which show up as measurable metal loss, ground movement builds strain on a pipe gradually, often invisibly, until a weld or wall section gives way. Conventional inspection tools were never built to catch...

Pipeline integrity has focused on defects inside the steel, leaving the buried environment; backfill quality, saturation, soil stiffness, and early stage hydrocarbon intrusion, largely unmeasured. For years, we’ve treated the buried environment as something we could only estimate, but the soil around the pipe drives strain, support, leak migration...

High-pressure gas pipelines often cross potentially unstable slopes under static and/or seismic conditions. Consequently, their structural integrity may be detrimentally affected by Permanent Ground Displacements (PGDs) due to landslides, leading to pipe failures. Since pipeline rerouting is often unfeasible due to various techno-economic...

Most operators are aware of the threat that geohazards present to pipelines routed through hilly terrain or subsidence areas and those at river crossings. A range of management systems and tools is available to investigate and address these risks. Climate change is having an increasing but unpredictable impact on the development of pipeline...

Over the past decade, CENIT has strengthened its risk-informed approach to managing pipeline geohazards, focusing on early warnings for hydrometeorological threats. With a network of 90 monitoring sensors along pipeline rights-of-way, the system provides near-real-time data on rainfall and river levels, enabling proactive responses. By integrating...