Articles
English
DVGW
An extensive gas infrastructure system crisscrossing Germany ensures the high reliability of supply of heat and electricity to the civilian population, of process heat/heat energy and natural gas as a raw material for organic chemistry to the industry, of highly efficient primary energies to power plants, and of alternative environmentally…
CSE
Gas transmission pipelines belong to the critical infrastructure – they are essential for the energy supply of the industry and public households. International and national statistics1,2 show a continuous decrease in the number of events per 1000 km pipeline length as a result of a permanent increase in Technical Safety during the last thirty…
Open Grid Europe
The construction, operation and maintenance of high-pressure gas pipelines require conscientious planning and execution, taking numerous aspects into account. The focus must always be on ensuring that the surrounding is not impaired and that the safety of people and the environment is not endangered. In order to guarantee this, the DVGW rules and…
Rosen
Risk management is an essential element in the pipeline integrity management process. Risk management involves not only the estimation of risk profiles and comparison against tolerable criterion but also ensuring that measures to treat the risk are effectively assessed and implemented. Performing risk assessments can assist operators and engineers…
BIL
The foundation of BIL eG by 17 German pipeline companies from the chemical, high-pressure gas and mineral oil sectors on 15 June 2015 cleared the path for developing the national information system for pipeline enquiries, BIL. With the implementation of an internet portal and a database backend, at the start of 2016 BIL will provide the first cost…
TÜV NORD Systems
In the construction of pipelines for the transport and storage of combustible, corrosive or toxic gases and water-polluting fluids, independent inspections by experts is an essential aspect of quality assurance which contributes significantly to the safety of these systems. This does not only apply to new projects, but also to modifications,…
DVGW
The guarantee of a high safety standard of the gas infrastructure must be the highest goal of economic and operational action within the framework of proceeding national and European regulation and the organisational changes interrelated in the companies [1].
At the beginning of the 1990th DVGW, the German Association for Gas and Water, developed…
ONTRAS
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…
Editorial 4-2018
What an outstandingly warm summer this had been. We hope you could enjoy the sun and recharge your energy levels. Maybe some of you spent time on the water, including passing wind turbines and crossing offshore pipelines. However, despite the warmth, parts of Europe have suffered from severe weather, like dryness, thunderstorms, and flooding. It…
DNV GL
Pipelines in ultra-deep water depth are generally associated with design and installation technical challenges. Research and development efforts to improve reliability and efficiency of subsea pipelines, keeping the associated risks within an accepted range, are still a must. Improvement of the pipe steel grade quality, manufacturing innovations,…
Oleoducto Central S.A
Applicability of a simplified pipe-soil interaction model on determining pipeline’s dynamic behaviour, once seabed support is lost due to seabed liquefaction, is evaluated over Oleoducto Central-Ocensa (central oil pipeline). Located in Colombia, South-America, this transportation line has 12.5km of subsea pipeline in the Gulf of Morrosquillo-…
EUROPIPE & Nord Stream 2 AG
The Nord Stream 2 pipeline will transport natural gas into the European Union (EU) to enhance the security of supply, support climate goals and strengthen the internal energy market. Running through the Baltic Sea, Nord Stream 2 will deliver natural gas directly from some of the world’s largest known reserves in Russia to the neighbouring EU gas…
IPEC & Pipeline and Process Services
Safety is a crucial issue in operational activities. When performing a hot work operation on a live pipeline, it is very important to isolate the pipeline to prevent any dangerous event. In this paper, a newly and innovatively designed approach has been presented which has been used to isolate a 32” and an 18” offshore and infield pipelines from…
Total Exploration & Production & 3P Services
The paper describes development of In-Line Inspection (ILI) tools and equipment for deployment in 500+m water depth offshore oil production pipelines. Various design challenges were posed by the operational conditions and the pipeline operator.
A joint development project is described in which 3P Services and Total E&P define the necessary…
Editorial 3-2018
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…
Rosen
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…
GAZ-SYSTEM
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…
Baker Hughes, a GE Company
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…
DNV GL & Gasunie Transport Services
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…
Direct-C
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…
Rosen & National Grid
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…
Editorial 2-2018
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…
Rosen
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,…
T.D.Williamson
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…
IRM Systems & Young Pipeline Professionals Europe
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…