Pipeline failures attributed to internal corrosion are increasing throughout the oil and gas producing industry(1) suggesting that commonly accepted practices continue to allow failures to occur. The article describes a “Maintenance Management System” for prevention of internal corrosion of pipelines that provides advances compared with conventional management strategies. The “System” recognizes and addresses root-cause issues that contribute to internal pipeline damage and failures. It provides a genuine improvement in pipeline confidence to the Management of operating companies, and the Regulatory bodies.
The “System” combines pipeline hydraulic simulation technology with corrosion engineering science to assess the severity of the operational hazards within each pipeline segment. Besides providing a numerical ranking of the operational risk, the “System” generates a maintenance schedule appropriate to the assessment. What is more important, the day-to-day schedule is updated immediately upon any change in the corrosion hazard profile.
By means of a Case Study, the article demonstrates how, in our opinion, improvements in both information management, and scheduling of maintenance activities can narrow the scope of investigative projects, while at the same time provide enhanced confidence in pipeline integrity.
