Pigging
Pulling Off the Near-Impossible: Stalled Pig Rescue Mission Returns Pipeline to Normal
When a stalled cleaning pig threatened to disrupt essential valve replacements in an offshore gas export pipeline, T.D. Williamson stepped in with innovative engineering. Discover how their customized recovery tool and SmartPlug technology overcame significant challenges to restore normal pipeline operations, saving millions in potential losses and minimizing environmental impact.
Pigging Technology: Market Sees Burgeoning Areas for Opportunities
The pipeline-pigging service market is projected by Nestor to reach $12 billion by year-end 2036, thriving at a CAGR of 6% during the forecast period. The industry size of pipeline pigging garnered $9 billion in the year 2023.
Stalled Pig Rescue Mission Returns Clogged Pipeline to Normal
For the most part, the equipment meant to keep pipelines up and running remains up and running itself. When something goes wrong, a routine repair is often all it takes to set things right.
The Pigging Products & Services Association’s (PPSA) Buyers’ Guide
A breakdown of the products and services provided by the PPSA members will be found by clicking the link below. The PPSA members can help you with sourcing pigs and carrying out pigging projects.
Meeting Challenges of Safely Repairing Online Pipelines
Oil and gas operators the world over face the same set of challenges, best summed up as requiring that they identify and implement the safest and most cost-effective way of maximizing hydrocarbon output.
Hydrogen-Blend Pipelines: Integrity Readiness and the Role of ILI Inspection
In this Pipeline & Gas Journal exclusive, delve into the evolution and current state of in-line inspection (ILI) technologies for hydrogen-blend pipelines, focusing on the advancements in crack detection, material flaw identification, and corrosion monitoring.
Geospatial Analytics: Predictions, Trends, and A.I. Applications for Pipeline Management
Geospatial analytics is revolutionizing pipeline management for oil and gas companies, enabling efficient monitoring of vast infrastructure. Utilizing A.I.-powered technologies, this approach detects potential leaks, encroachments, and chemical traces, ensuring early detection and minimizing environmental impact.
Navigating Small Diameter ILI Challenges in Crude Oil Gathering Systems
Bridger Pipeline operates a crude oil gathering system, of approximately 3,500 miles, in the Williston Basin of western North Dakota, eastern Montana and the Powder River Basin of Wyoming. The system contains many small-diameter (3-inch to 6-inch) gathering lines that are a challenge to inspect with ILI tools.
Experts See Polymers Among Keys to Better Pipe Protection
Leaders within the coatings industry have indicated that there are a number of innovative products and services that have been developed recently, which enhance corrosion control and provide better pipeline coatings.
Common Challenges with Field-Applied Liquid Epoxy Pipeline Coatings
Coatings are an incredibly important part of maintaining safe pipeline operations and asset integrity, including being a first line of defense against corrosion and corrosion-induced failures.
Coating Versatility Can Assist with Better Flow Efficiency
Corrosion control is an important factor when it comes to maintaining the integrity and safety of pipelines. Given the growing need for energy transportation it's crucial to shield pipelines from corrosion in order to ensure their longevity and prevent any leaks or failures.
Evacuation Technologies to Reduce Methane Releases During Pigging
Due to the strong global warming potential (GWP) of methane (CH4), there is increasing attention on reducing its releases (both unintentional and intentional) into the atmosphere.
Oxygen Corrosion Control for Multiphase, Gas Phase Pipelines
(P&GJ) — The oil and gas industry is committed to driving greater production and transportation from existing infrastructure, and ensuring effective asset integrity and flow assurance is essential to this objective.
US Pipeline Regulator Awards $15 Million Grants to Improve Safety
The U.S. Department of Transportation's Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration (PHMSA) on Wednesday awarded $14.8 million in grants for pipeline safety training and technological research.
Non-Intrusive Pig Signallers: Cutting Costs, Emissions, and Environmental Risks
By their nature, non-intrusive pig signallers do not require a nozzle hole for any type of welded fitting, whether it be a 'counter flange' or a direct fitting like a threadolet. They are simply secured to the pipeline. Simultaneously, this approach saves costs on welding, non-destructive testing, and eliminates the risk associated with potential hydrocarbon leak paths.
Case Study: Rescue Pigging’s Race Against the Clock
(P&GJ) — A routine sphering operation to control liquid hold up on a 30-inch trunk pipeline transporting wet gas was interrupted when a sphere became damaged and stalled in the pipeline following interaction with a subsea isolation valve inadvertently stuck in the partially closed position.
An Operator’s Perspective: How to Comply with New US Gas Gathering, ILI Regulations
(P&GJ) —Traditionally, most gas gathering lines were small-diameter, low-pressure systems traversing sparsely populated areas, posing little risk from a business, safety, and environmental perspective. More recently, the volume of gas transported through gathering systems has increased significantly due to the advancements in horizontal drilling and hydraulic fracturing techniques.
Pig Removal: Recovering an Obstruction in Pressurized 48-Inch Pipeline
(P&GJ) —Following the completion of an offshore pipeline isolation project, STATS were asked by the client if they could offer a solution to a problem of an obstruction in their 48-inch gas export pipeline. During routine launching of an inline inspection tool, a slipper tray was accidently carried into the pipeline and lodged in the first pipeline bend, above grade, about 39 meters from the launcher door.
Tech Notes: Unpiggable In-Line Inspection Completed in South America
(P&GJ) — A team of Dexon pipeline engineers recently completed the inspection of a 20-mile (32-km), 3-inch diameter unpiggable or “challenging” underground petrochemical distribution pipeline, running from an onshore processing facility to a port on the South American coast.
New Approach to Digital Pipeline Integrity Management
(P&GJ) — Pigging is an operation that is regularly required by pipeline operators for both cleaning and data collection (intelligent pigging). Managing pigging schedules and risks is a significant challenge to operators/pigging vendors without an intimate knowledge of the pipeline.
Nanoparticles Transform Pipeline Cleaning, Integrity Management
(P&GJ) — Oil, gas, and multi-phase pipelines can be fouled with several types of deposits or internally restrictive debris. The actual type of fouling is dependent upon several factors including: the production fluid characteristics such as hydrocarbon product, water, and gas composition; the presence and composition of common oilfield contaminants, such as hydrogen sulfide, carbon dioxide, mercury, arsenic, zinc, lead, iron, and manganese and operating conditions (e.g., temperature, pressure, pH, flow regimes, etc.).
Proper Cleaning and Storage of Pipeline Pigs
Proper storage and maintenance are important to ensure the optimal performance and condition of urethane pigs.
Using Isolation Plug in Remote Area Pipeline Rerouting Project
A multinational pipeline company in Canada recently contacted STATS Group to provide leak-tight double block isolation of a 24-inch crude oil line that required to be rerouted because of terrain stability issues.
Proper Cleaning and Storage of Pipeline Pigs
Proper storage and maintenance are important to ensure the optimal performance and condition of urethane pigs.
Halliburton Develops Non Intrusive Pipeline Inspection Method for Unpiggable Lines
Halliburton’s technology team have been developing InnerVue non-intrusive diagnostics technology for several years. Advances in computing power and experience gained through numerous data collections in the field have moved the technology to a point where it can now be considered as an alternative for traditional intrusive ILI techniques.
Options for Internal Inspection of Difficult-to-Check Pipelines
Pipelines are essentially cylindrical pressure vessels. Any medium transported must not leak out. Each built to a specific design pressure, they must be operated efficiently and effectively to ensure not just safety and environmental protection but also optimum performance.
Managing Integrity for Subsea Pipelines Without Pigging
The Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration estimates that 40% of the world’s pipelines are difficult to pig or are deemed “unpiggable,” which means they cannot be inspected via inline inspection, but their integrity still needs to be maintained.
Overcoming Challenges of Pigging the “Unpiggable”
Accurate measurement and evaluation of the physical condition of oil and gas pipelines is critical to effective integrity management, as well as to the assurance of sustained pipeline safety.
Can Implementing AI Make a Smart Pig Smarter?
A windfall may be looming for pipeline operators who've taken advantage of cheap digital storage to save data from their SCADA systems, smart pigs, smart balls and maintenance.
Russia's Lukoil Suspends Uzbek Gas Exports to China Due to Weak Demand
An official from Russia's Lukoil said in a conference call on Friday the company has suspended gas deliveries to China from its projects in Uzbekistan due to weak demand amid the coronavirus pandemic.
- Williams' $1 Billion Gas Pipeline Blocked by U.S. Appeals Court, Derailing Five-State Project
- Texas Waha Hub Gas Prices Plunge to Record Lows, Hit Negative Territory
- U.S. Buys Nearly 5 Million Barrels of Oil for Emergency Stockpile
- Williams Begins Louisiana Pipeline Construction Despite Ongoing Legal Dispute with Energy Transfer
- U.S. Appeals Court Strikes Down Controversial Biden Pipeline Safety Rules
- U.S. to Buy 4.5 Million Barrels of Oil to Replenish Strategic Petroleum Reserve
- Kurdish Oil Smuggling to Iran Flourishes
- U.S. Court Overturns Alaska Oil Lease Sale, Halting Energy Development
- Second Gas Pipeline Rupture in Texas’ Reeves County Raises Environmental Concerns
- Mid-Year Global Forecast: Midstream Responding to Demand from LNG Projects
