Pipeline industry

For NDT of new construction this implies that, the more one knows about the material properties and operational conditions, the better the acceptance criteria for weld defects can be based on the required weld integrity and fine-tuned to a specific application. In pipeline industry, this is already going to happen. 

The development of soil corrosivity assessment techniques has largely been due to the pipeline industry s requirements for better corrosion risk assessment and the reduction of pipeline failures. Corrosion in soil is a complex process and over the years several parameters have been identified as having a significant effect on the corrosion rate in a given soil. 

Perhaps the most widely known measurement technique is that adopted by the West German Gas Industry and developed by Steinrath for buried pipework. This assigns a value (See Table 2.20) to each parameter measured the summation of these values determines the corrosivity of the soil. The parameters measured are shown in Table 2.20. Although this technique was developed for the pipeline industry it can be used with some success for general soil corrosivity assessment. 

Overland Pipelines. Detailed maps of gas pipelines in the United States and other parts of the world can be found in several references, particularly among the periodicals serving the pipeline industry. Notable among these references is the international petroleum encyclopedia and atlas issued periodically by Petroleum Publishing Co., Tulsa, Oklahoma. Numerous trade associations serving the pipeline industry are also excellent sources on pipeline statistics, There are so many pipelines that presentation of this type of information is beyond the scope of this encyclopedia. 

As with other sectors of our society, the operating environment of the pipeline industry has been profoundly altered by September 11, 2001. Security has been elevated to a priority that previously had not been required when the major threat was an occasional and usually minor act of vandalism. In most cases, the threat with gas pipelines may be economic disruption more than public or environmental safety for most incident locations. The lines are buried through most of their runs and there may be more attractive surface targets. However, the threat is real and is being addressed. It is beyond the scope of this entry to elaborate in detail, but enhanced security measures are being evaluated and implemented throughout the industry. 

General Accounting Office (GAO). The Office of Pipeline Safety is Changing, How it Oversees the Pipeline Industry United States General Accounting Office Pipeline Safety, GAO/ RCED-00-128, May 2000. 

If we substitute / = 0.0080/(pipe diameter in inches) in this equation, we obtain the Weymouth equation, which was widely used in the design of early natural-gas pipelines. The historical trend of the gas pipeline industry is to use higher and higher gas pressures as the pressure increases, the gas departs further and furtl er from the ideal-gas state. Later workers have corrected the Weymouth equation to take this departure into-account [9]. 

There are two reasons for the mystery. First, the world s major pipelines make rather lousy natural monopolies. On first examination pipelines do exhibit one traditional indicator of a natural monopoly, namely declining unit costs (larger pipelines will have lower unit costs than smaller ones). It is less clear if declining unit costs (or natural monopoly) plays a significant role in the structure of actual pipeline markets. The second problem concerns economists preoccupation with analyzing the pipeline industry in isolation. Pipelines themselves have utterly no value on their own - they... 

This level of customer/supplier dominance in the ownership of a regulated industry is perhaps unique to the petroleum pipeline industry [in the United States]. In other regulated industries, the clash between those regulated and their immediate customers provides the necessary tension to achieve effective and even-handed regulatory scrutiny. Here, however, the absence of adverseness requires the regulator to take affirmative steps to regulate effectively. ... 

External corrosion problems in oil and gas production normally are similar to those found in the pipeline industry, but as the lines are shorter and smaller in diameter, their economic impact on the total cost of production is limited. Atmospheric corrosion of structures and vessels is a problem for offshore fields and those operating near marine environments. 

C. Ringas, J.M. Leeds, P. Osthuizen, The appKcation of DC voltage-gradient technology to accurately determine buried pipehne rehabilitation requirements, in Pipeline Risk Assessment, Rehabilitation and Repair Conference, Houston, Texas, September 12-15, 1994, organized by Pipeline Industry and Pipes Pipelines International. 

The era of central planning in Eastern European economies facilitated some major investments in infrastructural necessities such as energy, transport and irrigation. For instance, Russia possesses by far the largest gas supply company - inherited from Soviet intentions to exploit their huge reserves of natural gas. A pipeline industry therefore exists but like many other basic economic features it was for many years starved of technology and investment linked to multi-national companies. The opportunities in Eastern Europe involve decisions to renovate large, ill-maintained systems or to invest in new installations. 

There are generic types of equipment that are used in the various industries (e.g., pumps, valves, pipelines). Industry-average failure frequency rates are available for these pieces of equipment. However, not all facilities experience failures at the same rate. These rates can vary considerably depending on site or company conditions, such as ... 

A combination of composite materials in conjunction with steel was introduced into the pipeline industry in the 1980s, when the application of composites overlaying steel sleeve became a standard for pipeline repairs. One of the most notable applications is that resulting from the collaborative efforts of Emon and the Gas Researeh Institute (GRl) in 1991, which resulted in installation of SSLP in their system. After eight years in service, the SSLP was inspected, and was verified to be in the same condition as in its initial state. Later on, TransCanada Pipelines Inc. also ventured into the use of SSLP pipes in several projects in 1998, 2001 and 2002 (Stephen, 2005). 

Nowadays, the use of FRP materials instead of the traditionally used steel sleeves for repair and rehabilitation of pipes has become quite popular. The most commonly used FRP pipeline repair materials consist of fibers such as glass and carbon, whereas the most commonly used resin is epoxy. FRP, with a combination of glass fibers and epoxy resin, is mostly used in the pipeline industry due to the following characteristics ... 

As a result of regulatoiy changes in the U.S., the pipeline industry needed an alternative method to pressure testing on in-line tool inspection to assess buried pipelines [33], EDCA is a four-step process consisting of ... 

Figure 1.1 shows the impressive improvements that have occurred in occupational safety over the last two decades. It is difficult to develop comparable data with respect to process safety events because such events occur much more rarely, and because there are no broadly-agreed upon measurement parameters for them. However, process safety does not appear to be improving at the same rate—at least for the offshore and pipeline industries. 

The transmission pipeline industry is an irreplaceable component of modern infrastructures. Pipelines have historically been the safest means of transporting natural gas and hazardous liquids. However, recent pipeline failures have heightened the awareness of transmission pipeline systems. In particular, in many parts of the world cities have grown and are now located close to pipeline systems that have been operating for decades [18]. 

The pipeline industry uses considerable resources to minimize the likelihood of failures. A study recently completed by the DOT Federal Highway Administration (FFfWA) estimates that the pipeline industry... 

External corrosion direct assessment (ECDA) is a structured process that consists of four key steps preassessment, indirect examination, direct examination, and post assessment (Fig. 12.16). ECDA is intended to assist pipeline operators in establishing the integrity of pipelines. The process uses aboveground cathodic protection (CP) survey methods, many of which have been used in the pipeline industry for decades. ECDA further defines the process, validation, and data integration for these survey methods [18]. The ECDA process incorporates standard techniques for compiling historical information, pipeline and soil surveys, external pipeline inspections, and data analyses. 

---