English

Third-party interference is widely documented as being a major cause of damage to buried pipelines. In addition to routine surveillance, maintaining a minimum depth of cover is recognized as a key means of mitigation against third-party interference. We know that the depth of cover over pipelines can change with time. Current techniques available...

Data-driven approaches are gaining momentum in the pipeline industry. Proactive pipeline maintenance requires the collection and management of data from cleaning programs for future use. This paper illustrates an approach which allows pipeline operators the opportunity to build up a database of information on their assets from standard cleaning...

The 40 bar regional gas transportation network of Gasunie Transport Services (GTS) consists of, in addition to pipelines, valve stations, pressure regulating and metering stations and gas receiving stations. The majority of these stations have been built in the period 1960-1980. This raises questions on the remaining technical life-time of these...

For pipelines with successive ILI runs the detected population of corrosion defects can be compared to identify both internal and external corrosion growth. Depending on the number of defects to be compared, the assessment can demand significant effort and expertise to ensure accurate and meaningful correlations between often very large ILI data...

The main goal of this paper is to estimate onshore buried pipeline failure probability based on Magnetic Flux Leakage (MFL) inspection data. Degradation of an underground steel structures during their service life leads to reduction of the pipe wall thickness. Periodic in-line inspections are performed by grid operators to detect corrosion...

Pipelines are the veins of a worldwide energy system, serving industry and clients with all kinds of liquids and hazardous fluids and gases. In the 1920s to 1950s they have been built with a commercial lifetime of 25 to 30 years, but today some of the systems are reaching their 100 years of operation anniversary. The main bulk of high pressure...

Leaks from oil pipelines, storage tank and other facilities can be disruptive, expensive and can cause significant damage to the environment. The consequences of such leaks have been well published in recent years, leading to increased political pressure on the industry to find improved ways of monitoring for leaks. According to data published by...

Knowledge transfer from senior to junior pipeline specialists and attracting young pipeliners to our industry is a topic on the agenda of many Pipeline Events. The few events that the writer of this article has attended have at least addressed these challenges. During one of the venues, a participant stated that his company could not attract some...

The transfer of business-critical knowledge from key technical staff to the next generation workforce is of significant concern to the energy pipeline industry. For T.D. Williamson (TDW), the issue is nothing new. As a global pipeline solutions provider with a history reaching back nearly a century, the company implements formal knowledge transfer...

The paper deals with Life Long Learning (Vocational Education and Training (VET) system) by providing adaptive learning resources for work-based learning in the water industry. The emphasis is on the presentation of concepts, methodology and media examples. The necessity to develop such a concept is directly connected to the huge qualification...

Companies that operate technical systems, e.g. the German gas transmission system operator ONTRAS Gastransport GmbH, must ensure operational safety at all times, that all associated procedures and processes comply with the applicable laws and regulations, and that the company is also prepared to react in case of emergencies. Haphazard trial and...

All professional engineers make a commitment to maintain and enhance their competence by undertaking ‘Continuing Professional Development (CPD)’. CPD is the process of managing, and documenting the skills, knowledge and experience that a member of staff gains, both formally and informally. It is not simply training (learning how to do something...

Studies indicate that we in the international pipeline industry are heading for a shortage of well-trained engineers and scientists. On the one hand, this is due to the fact that in recent years there have been fewer and fewer young people starting engineering or scientific studies, and on the other hand to the fact that the scope of tasks has...

Gas pipeline systems are not necessarily designed and constructed in such a way that modern inline inspection methods can be used successfully. This applies in particular to older lines constructed around the second half of the last century. The consequences of this are expensive problems for many pipeline operators because the mechanical...

Pipeline DN 400 Opatovac-Slobodnica of the total length of 105 km, was constructed in 1968 and its original purpose was to transport oil from Opatovac terminal to an oil refinery near Slavonski Brod, Croatia. When it was constructed it was made in five sections. Four of them was already converted to pipeline for natural gas transmission but the...