Pipeline Safety

The global oil and gas industry is at a pivotal point in its development. Climate imperatives, regulatory scrutiny, and technological advances are forcing a re-evaluation of long-established operational practices. At the core of this shift lies methane, the primary component of natural gas, which remains both a critical commodity and a major...

Pipeline curvature and displacement refer to the unintended movement of pipelines from their original positioning, often due to external forces such as soil erosion, seismic activity or landslides. These geo-hazards pose significant risks to the integrity and safety of pipeline systems, potentially leading to leaks, ruptures, and environmental...

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...

Third-party interference, particularly construction-related damages, is a critical risk for gas pipeline infrastructure. To address these risks, CSE PreFerenceE, a specialized module within the Pipeline Integrity Management System (PIMS), provides high-precision GIS-based threat analysis and recommends mitigation strategies. Using machine learning...

Quantitative Risk Assessments (QRAs) are a vital tool for managing risks on the onshore gas network. They provide objective, data-driven evaluations of potential hazards, allowing operators to prioritise high-risk areas and allocate resources effectively. QRAs support regulatory compliance, inform decision-making, and help assess the impact of...

Subsea pipelines, such as in-field flowlines, trunklines, etc., are an integral part of all offshore field developments. Pipeline damage can occur either during construction phase or during the life of field. Critical pipeline damage such as leak, rupture, or crack requires repair to be performed on an emergency basis. Repair readiness is being...

Repairing a subsea pipeline has its own special challenges. It goes from levelling the pipeline inner pressure with seabed pressure at depth of damage, to cutting the line, installation of smart flanges and spool pieces, and finally going through pre-commissioning steps and miscellaneous pigging operations. During all these steps, it is inevitable...

Defect severity classification holds significant importance within industries that prioritize quality control. This study proposes a novel approach that applies machine learning with Stress Concentration Tomography (SCT) to effectively categorize defects’ severity. Through the utilization of machine learning algorithms, the objective is to enhance...

Pipeline networks traverse modern societies' national territories and can be located in areas difficult to access, such as river crossings, making maintenance logistically challenging and potentially dangerous for field personnel. In order to resolve this problem, Skipper NDT has developed an unmanned aerial system (UAS) for magnetic mapping which...

Pipelines are typically designed using different practices and codes than in-plant piping. While Risk-based Inspection (RBI) quantitative methodologies have evolved and been applied for in-plant piping, e.g. API RP 581, limited methodology framework has been specified and widely used for pipelines, in a similar approach. Alternatively, for...

Hard spots are a type of threat many operators are managing as part of their integrity management plan. Hard spots are areas on the pipeline that are more susceptible to cracking or could pose an integrity concern in combination with other threats. The United States gas transmission regulation, 49 CFR 192.3, defines a hard spot as “an area on steel...

For years, pipeline operators have relied on human observers flying at low altitude to perform visual inspection of their ROW, without any automatic documentation or detection system. This paper presents the first real-life results of a test campaign performed by Flyscan Systems, integrating detection algorithms developed by Enbridge, over ROWs of...

Before the operator of a gas export pipeline offshore Asia could isolate the line and replace leaking pig trap valves on their platform and perform in-line inspection (ILI), they had to remove a serious obstacle: a cleaning pig that had stalled just beyond the pig launcher. Because there is no standard tool for recovering a stalled pig, at least...