Technology/R&D
Photos of Ruptured West Coast Pipeline Offer Clues of Reason for Leak
LOS ANGELES (AP) — Photos of the pipeline that spilled oil on the Santa Barbara coast show extensive corrosion and provide clues about the cause of the rupture, experts said. Corrosion visible around the crack, coupled with wear documented inside the pipe, led Robert Bea, a civil engineering professor emeritus at the University of California, Berkeley, to believe the pipe burst during a pressure spike when the operator restarted pumps that had failed the morning of the May 19 spill.
Developing Engineering-Based Integrity Programs for Pipelines, Plants
Integrity assessment has always been a part of operations and maintenance activities. As plant piping and pipeline infrastructure has aged, industry first developed basic tools, and as their importance became apparent, these tools improved to meet those increasing needs.
Control Room Management Best Practices
<em>(Editor’s note: This is the second article of two articles.)</em> Pipeline controllers work in an environment with continuous interruptions and distractions. With every new SCADA upgrade there is the potential to increase the amount of information presented on the displays, causing the amount of distraction to grow side by side with industry innovation. Such distractions can become “noise,” confusing or distracting a pipeline controller from making timely decisions that affect the safe operation of the pipeline.
Energy Transfer Partners Building 100 Miles of Rich Gas Pipeline
Energy Transfer Partners has entered into long-term gas gathering, processing, and fractionation agreements with EdgeMarc Energy. To facilitate these agreements, ETP has purchased 20 miles of high-pressure pipeline from EdgeMarc and will build a new cryogenic gas processing plant, a new fractionator and additional gas gathering pipelines.
Developing Engineering-Based Integrity Programs for Pipelines, Plants
Integrity assessment has always been a part of operations and maintenance activities. As plant piping and pipeline infrastructure has aged, industry first developed basic tools, and as their importance became apparent, these tools improved to meet those increasing needs.
Pipeline Firm Told California Oil Spill 'Extremely Unlikely'
LOS ANGELES (AP) — A Texas company whose ruptured pipeline created the largest coastal oil spill in California in 25 years had assured the government that a break in the line while possible was "extremely unlikely" and state-of-the-art monitoring could quickly detect possible leaks and alert operators, documents show. Nearly 1,200 pages of records, filed with state regulators by Plains All American Pipeline, detail a range of defenses the company established to guard against crude oil spills and, at the same time, prepare for the worst should a spill occur.
High-Speed Compressors Spawn Need for Better Guidelines
With the growing use of high-speed separable reciprocating compressors in natural gas storage and transmission applications, the Gas Machinery Research Council (GMRC) sees the need for better guidelines and practices to govern the specification, design and application of this class of compression equipment.
Trenchless Technologies Solve Marine Crossing Challenge
Based in Queensland, Australia, the GLNG project involves gas field developments in southeast Queensland and an LNG plant on Curtis Island, near Gladstone. Sanctioned in January 2011, GLNG includes the development of coal seam gas (CSG) resources in the Bowen and Surat Basins, construction of a 420-km underground gas transmission pipeline to Gladstone, and two LNG trains with a combined nameplate capacity of 7.8 mtpa on Curtis Island. The project has an estimated gross capital cost of US$18.5 billion and is on track for first LNG in the second half of 2015.
Whats New: May 2015
New products and services from McElroy, CDI, Blastwrap, ESAB, National Safety Apparel and more.
Accu-Bore Meets Time-Sensitive HDD Project Head On
The job began as a relatively straightforward directionally drilled creek crossing to install 600 feet of steel gas pipe. However, a change in the size of pipe, unexpected site restrictions, difficult soil conditions, and limited hours to work made this project far from routine. It was exactly the type of project suited for California contractor Accu-Bore Directional Drilling, a horizontal directional drilling contractor that also provides engineering services and complete turnkey and design-build capabilities.
Cybersecurity 2015: Connected Pipelines and Proliferation of Threats to Infrastructure
On Aug. 5, 2008, the 1,099-mile-long Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan (BTC) pipeline, which is frequently used by many of the world’s largest oil and gas companies to transport crude oil across Europe, exploded outside of Refahiye, Turkey. Shortly after the incident, the ethnic group, known in Western Asia as Kurdish separatists, claimed responsibility for the explosion.
EFM and Real-Time Control Data Considerations
As the worldwide demand for energy drives new investments in oil & gas exploration, production, and transportation, an increased need for visibility into flow measurement across the enterprise comes with it. The market not only requires accurate flow metering for upstream, midstream, and downstream applications, but also needs to be able to access this information across the enterprise.
What's New: April 2015
What's new from Rotork, Ajax TOCCO, Crest Industrial, Transducers Direct, Tulsa Rig Iron and more.
Growing PRCI Membership Tackles Inline Inspection, Regulatory Concerns
Pipeline Research Council International (PRCI), which has led the drive for more reliable pipeline technologies since 1952, recently selected new research projects to fund for the coming year. In an energy environment increasingly focused on safety and driven by regulatory concerns, its members chose to concentrate on improving inline inspection (ILI), preventing third-party intrusions along rights-of-way and compiling data that could enable changes from the EPA over compressor pump regulations.
Designing, Building Pipeline Infrastructure for CO2 Transport
With energy security and climate change at the top of the global agenda, carbon capture utilization and storage (CCUS) is gaining momentum. CCUS technology offers a solution supporting production of incremental hydrocarbon reserves from existing fields while storing CO2 away from the atmosphere.
Road to NGVs Hopefully Paved with Good Inventions to Match Intentions
Even in the midst of an oil price crash globally, alternative fuels for transportation stimulate conversation at just about any business or public policy gathering, and increasingly natural gas has had a ringside seat for those discussions. In fact, even sustainability advocates who see zero-emission as the ultimate goal give the natural gas sector credit for creating more interest in alternative fuels, particularly among businesses.
Use of Ultrasonics for Measuring Sludge, Sediment Levels
In 2013, SGS PfiNDE received a call from a client pipeline company which transports a light hydrocarbon product with entrained particulate and sediment through a 150-mile section of pipeline in Minnesota. The company encountered a challenge when, after cleaning the first 20-mile section of the pipeline, the cleaning tool became blocked by, what was determined to be, the excessive buildup of sediment in front of the cleaning tool. Due to the large amount of sediment in this particular line, the tool had gathered enough sludge to completely stop any further progress of the cleaning pig.
Developing Crack Size Detection Criteria for Unpiggable Gas Pipelines
NYSEARCH/Northeast Gas Association (NGA) and development partner Invodane Engineering have introduced the Explorer series of robotic internal inspection platforms and sensors which can perform integrity assessments on natural gas pipelines now incapable of using conventional inline inspection (ILI) technology. The commercial partner on the project is Pipetel Technologies Inc.
Pipeline Integrity: Its An Imperative, Not A Choice
The late 19th century’s most brilliant businessman, J.D. Rockefeller, was an oil tycoon who discovered that the best way to take advantage of his country’s growing thirst for oil was to control distribution. Although the pipeline that Rockefeller built in the 1870s wouldn’t look like much compared to today’s sophisticated pipeline networks, it was an engineering feat that helped his company ensure oil got to the clients who needed it most.
Tackling Valve Misalignment Problems
Valve misalignments are a real issue in the petrochemical industry where misalignments in tank fields and blending areas can result in financial losses from product quality and environmental safety issues. This article describes an electronic pin board software solution developed by Matrix Technologies, Inc., a certified member of the Control System Integrators Association (CSIA), to mitigate valve misalignments and improve efficiency in the alignment process. It also details some of the underlying technologies used in the software and the gains that have resulted from its use.
Digital Platform Serves as Clearinghouse for Automation Industry
People who work in the oil and gas pipeline industry have a convenient new way to locate experts, equipment and software they need for integrating control systems at their facilities. The Industrial Automation Exchange is an online community introduced last year by the only nonprofit, trade association for system integrators, the Control System Integrators Association (CSIA). The community features profiles of system integrators and industry suppliers as well as a clearinghouse for information about industrial automation.
Inline Inspection, Pigging Methods For Managing Pipeline Integrity
Corrosion, erosion and other forms of material degradation can cause critical damage to steel pipelines and riser systems, potentially resulting in health and safety hazards and costly repairs for oil and gas operators. Inspection technologies are available to evaluate pipeline integrity, and as a result, maximize the economic recovery of oil and gas reserves.
NTSB Study Seeks Changes to Gas Transmission Integrity Programs
A new National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) study calls for major changes to integrity management (IM) programs of gas transmission pipelines in high-consequence areas (HCAs).
Point Integrity Solutions Awarded Patent
Southampton, NJ-based Point Integrity Solutions has been issued a patent for the pipeline probe tool known as the Point Guard. This enhances the ability of pipeline technicians to detect the pipe before damaging the coating or pipe itself. Typically, field engineers and technicians rely on mapping, pipe locators and standard probe rods to determine the location of a pipeline before excavation begins. This allows for a chance of pipe or coating damage if a probe rod is applied with too much force or a probe mistakes a rock or hard surface for a pipeline.
New Concept Based On Big Data To Pipeline Risk Management
In the last several decades, there has been a rapid rise in the use of pipeline risk assessment for managing pipeline safety. It has become an important part of pipeline integrity management, but risk assessment is not an absolute science.
Facility Expansion Underway At CDI
CDI, one of the world’s leaders in pipeline pig detection, recording and locating technology, broke ground recently for its expansion project in Broken Arrow, OK.
How Network Segmentation Improves Operational Security For Pipelines
Network segmentation is a fundamental component of cybersecurity, yet it is so difficult to implement in a gas and pipeline environment. There is flawed thinking in part due to an industry-wide focus on perimeter security, a carryover from the days of air gap protection.
Tablets In The Field: Pipeline Post-Construction Restoration Monitoring Case Study
For over a decade, surveyors across many disciplines (biologists, geologists, archeologists, engineers, etc.) have relied on the same traditional methods for collecting field data, which typically includes carrying a handheld GPS unit for identifying location coordinates, documenting findings in logbooks and taking photos using a digital camera.
Creative Responses To Provide Natural Gas
With the continuing expansion of natural gas development in shale plays across the nation, pipeline infrastructure continues to be built out, with product making the trek from source points to downstream consumers. However, not every end-user has access to affordable natural gas yet.
Achieving Vital Security With Cloud Services
Are your company’s business systems connected in any way to the industrial control systems (ICS), including Supervisory Control and Data Acquisition (SCADA), which are used to manage the company’s critical infrastructure? If they are, and the best guess is they are, then the ICS/SCADA could be vulnerable to cyberattacks in addition to the business side of the networks.

- Kinder Morgan Proposes 290-Mile Gas Pipeline Expansion Spanning Three States
- Enbridge Plans 86-Mile Pipeline Expansion, Bringing 850 Workers to Northern B.C.
- Intensity, Rainbow Energy to Build 344-Mile Gas Pipeline Across North Dakota
- Tallgrass to Build New Permian-to-Rockies Pipeline, Targets 2028 Startup with 2.4 Bcf Capacity
- U.S. Moves to Block Enterprise Products’ Exports to China Over Security Risk
- U.S. Pipeline Expansion to Add 99 Bcf/d, Mostly for LNG Export, Report Finds
- A Systematic Approach To Ensuring Pipeline Integrity
- 275-Mile Texas-to-Oklahoma Gas Pipeline Enters Open Season
- US Poised to Become Net Exporter of Crude Oil in 2023
- EIG’s MidOcean Energy Acquires 20% Stake in Peru LNG, Including 254-Mile Pipeline