Multi-Product Pipelines: Western Canadian Experience

The focus of this paper is to discuss the special design and operating considerations on receipt of materials at a terminal from a pipeline that is used to transport both crude oil and refined petroleum products. The paper includes a history of the closures of refineries in British Columbia and Alberta, Canada resulting in the need for multi-product pipeline movements. The discussions include the importance of interface detection technologies (e.g. densitometers, colourimeters, sound velocity, and batch tracking), batch configuration, proper dynamic modeling of the receipt facilities, re-processing techniques, and operating procedures. The intent is to give an overview of the success achieved by using a crude oil pipeline for multi-product shipments.