Leakage history

As a means of maintaining the integrity of its pipeline system, each operating company shall establish and implement procedures for continuing surveillance of its facilities. Studies shall be initiated and action shall be taken where unusual operating and maintenance conditions occur, such as failures, leakage history, drop in flow efficiency due to internal corrosion, or substantial changes in cathodic protection requirements. 

This section examinees gas system performance monitoring largely in the context of the Waterloo accident Federal regulations (49 CFR 192.613 and 192.617) require that gas pipeline system operators have procedures in place for monitoring the performance of their gas systems. These procedures must cover surveillance of gas system failures and leakage history, analysis of failures, submission of failed samples for laboratory examination (to determine the causes of failure), and minimizing the possibility of failure recurrences. 

Before the Waterloo, Iowa, accidenf the systems used by Midwest Gas Company for tracking, identifying, and statistically characterizing plastic piping failures did not permit an effective analysis of system failures and leakage history. 

Pumps with a history of bearing failure or seal leakage (where engineering revisions have been unsuccessful at eliminating these as significant potential fuel sources). 

The accident involving the generation of heat and the leakage of methyl isocyanate (MIC) that happened in Bhopal, India, from midnight of December 2 through Dec. 3, 1984, developed into the greatest industrial disaster in history. The death toll was reportedly 2,500, and it was said that more than 10,000 people suffered health-disorders as after-effects. Approximately 200,000 people in total were affected by the leaked gas. 

A proper understanding of the above items, including maturation and filling history, formation pressure distributions, intra-reservoir communications, fault and top seal potentials, and leakage mechanisms, is considered essential for resource assessment, safe drilling of further explora-tion/delineation and production wells, and for reservoir management and production planning of the Njord Field. 

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