Pipeline Integrity Management

Increasing age of the existing crude oil pipelines and growing pressure of regulatory bodies with respect to safety of long distance pipelines create unprecedented pressure on pipeline operators, forcing them to invest in safety and reliability of pipeline systems.

The trends in the industry show clearly the direction towards:

• stricter regulation imposed on pipeline operators by regulatory bodies
• adoption of international standards
• higher expectations from the general public
• higher flexibility / shorter shutdowns
• more demanding planning and costs of rehabilitation.

Pipeline operators respond to these challenges by:

• improved planning and management procedures
• inspection strategies based on risk analysis
• improved inspection and monitoring technologies
• improved analysis of the collected data

Causes of pipeline accidents in the USA:

Cause of accident	%
Third party interference	40
Construction / material defects	20
Inner corrosion	16
Outer corrosion	7
Other	17

The table shows that the accidents have not always been caused by the pipeline operation itself.

In any case, however, they may have serious consequences related to:

• injury or death
• decontamination costs
• loss of profit
• damage to the environment
• harmed reputation and image of the company.

The lay public as well as the media are becoming more sensitive towards environmental issues. Naturally, the operators themselves want to keep the best possible relations with the community.

With respect to these facts, it is economically crucial to maintain the pipelines in the optimum condition and to CONTINUOUSLY monitor ALL parameters, which might affect the pipeline integrity and which might reduce or eliminate completely the risk of accident which would have mostly very serious impacts.

In the future, the pipeline integrity management systems will mostly be formal ones, based on analysis and risk assessment. These systems seem to be the most cost-effective and the most economical in the long run. And, last but not least, these management systems have been required increasingly by the regulatory bodies all over the world.

Pipeline Integrity Management (PIM) must incorporate all aspects of pipeline operation and management, which influence the pipeline operation or which could be important in a potential emergency situation. These aspects include an aerial view of the entire pipeline route and nearby areas with the pipeline route indicated, pipeline construction data, outcomes of monitoring of inner and outer corrosion, records of the repairs performed, records of the defects detected by visual controls of exposed parts of the pipeline, records of accidents and quasi-accidents and others.

PIM currently forms an integral part of strategies of numerous pipeline system operators. The reason for this is not only increased awareness and intolerance of residents to hydrocarbon leaks in the environment, but mainly new regulations for pipeline system operation, such as the “Code of Federal Regulations Amendment 49 CFR 195.452 Pipeline Integrity Management in High Consequence Areas. Publisher Office of Pipeline Safety” and the “API1160 Managing System Integrity for Hazardous Liquid Pipelines, First edition November 2001. American Petroleum Institute” in the United States.

The new regulation 49 CFR 195.452, implemented in the USA by the Office of Pipeline Safety, which is currently being implemented in the US Code of Federal Regulations and which defines conditions for operation and maintenance of hazardous liquid pipeline systems, imposes on pipeline system operators the gradual implementation of the integrity management system based on risk analysis. It is mainly focused on operating units located close to residential or environmentally sensitive areas.

The PIM system must include evaluation criteria derived from the risk analysis to determine both inspection and rehabilitation actions. The PIM system with its risk analysis, new methods of data processing and advanced visual presentation of results and their correlations together with improved methods of current pipeline management significantly increase the certainty that the pipeline will meet operational and safety requirements and requirements related to the pipeline integrity.

The inner logic of PIM based on the risk analysis may be briefly described using the following flowchart:

Significant increase in the quantity of the processed data is, due to fast development of formal management of technological complexes based on the risk analysis, inevitable.