There is increasing pressure on the pipeline industry to be able to demonstrate that its asset management and engineering capability management are at a satisfactory level. This is needed to give policymakers, regulators and industry stakeholders confidence in the safety and environmental sustainability of petroleum pipelines. Regulators, in particular, are seeking assurance from pipeline owner/operators that they have capable pipeline engineers designing, constructing, operating and maintaining petroleum pipelines. At present, there are no generally accepted approaches to recognising and developing pipeline engineering capability. The paper will discuss three levels of capability recognition as: (1) registration – as pipeline engineers (not just in mechanical, civil or chemical engineers (overall standing level)) – (2) qualification (sub-discipline/job level) and (3) competency (task level). The most granular and useful of these is competency. This is because it is at the level that is most immediate: the task at hand. Competency, the combination of knowledge and experience that leads to expertise, is increasingly seen as the best practice basis for learning, particularly for professionals. Significantly, once competencies have been defined in competency standards, they can become the building blocks used to define the requirements for both registration and qualification. The Australian Pipelines and Gas Association (APGA) has developed a comprehensive competency system for both onshore and offshore sectors. There are 226 onshore competency standards and 57 offshore competency standards describing, in a succinct format, what is required to be competent. The succinct format of the competency standards avoids the pitfalls of many other systems of competency description, providing enough information to be clear about what is required without unnecessary complexity. In addition to the detailed competency standards, the competency system has tools, resources and a progressive rating scale that make competency standards accessible and easily used. The competency system is characterised by such flexibility that, to date, APGA has identified 15 applications, all of which will add value to engineers and the companies that employ them. The paper will explain, in detail, APGA’s Pipeline Engineer Competency System, how it works and how it can provide the building blocks for a wide range of tasks that support the training, development and recognition of pipeline engineers’ capabilities, including defining the requirements for registration and qualification. The paper will provide case studies, based on the APGA Competency System, showing how it can be used to create requirements for qualifications and registration and to design in-house training and development plans.

Although the traditional method based on stress analysis is simple and convenient, the main limitation is that it does not reflect the actual failure mechanisms (or limit states). A pipeline network database of about 40 thousand kilometers comprising 258 design cases that represent combinations of steel grade, diameter, pressure, and location class is established, in order to evaluate and improve the design factors specified in the Chinese standard “Code for design of gas transmission pipeline engineering” (GB 50251). Referring to the research report “Target Reliability Levels for the Design and Assessment of Onshore Natural Gas Pipelines” accomplished by C-FER in 2005, the critical wall thicknesses and corresponding equivalent design factors are calculated by using reliability-based method to meet specified reliability targets. The research shows that the equivalent design factors obtained by Reliability-Based Design (RBD) method tend to increase as the pipe diameters get larger. The new design factors are smaller than those specified in the design code for pipelines with small diameter in location class 1 and 2, and larger than those in the design code for the other pipelines. Therefore, design factors are modified in each location class. The new factors are specific to pipes with small diameter (D ≤ 508mm), medium diameter (508mm < D < 711mm), and large diameter (711mm ≤ D ≤ 1219mm), thus enhancing the rationality and practicability of design factors.

The first buried hot bitumen (hotbit) pipeline is now operating successfully in the Alberta oil sands north of Fort McMurray and more are on the way. These hotbit pipelines are designed to transport raw, undiluted bitumen to a central refining plant at temperatures up to 140°C. They are constructed in winter when the ground is frozen allowing heavy construction equipment to travel across the watery muskeg terrain without sinking. Construction continues even when atmospheric temperatures fall as low as −30°C. Hotbit pipelines are buried with more than 1.2 m of cover, which can prevent them from expanding when they are heated from their locked-in installation temperature to their operating temperature of 140°C. Large longitudinal compressive stresses induced by this restrained thermal expansion combined with high hoop tensile stresses due to internal pressure produce stresses in the pipe wall that exceed the maximum allowable combined stress of 90%SMYS specified in North American pipeline codes (ASME B31.4 and CSA Z662). Two methods are available to handle these high combined stresses in hotbit pipelines. The first method is to expand the pipe during construction by preheating it to a temperature of approximately 90°C and then locking in the expansion by backfilling the pipeline trench before the pipe has had a chance to cool. By limiting the positive temperature differential between installation and operation to approximately 50°C, this method keeps thermally induced axial compressive stresses low enough that the combined stress does not exceed the allowable limit of 90%SMYS specified by pipeline codes. In the second method, the pipeline is still constructed in winter but without preheating. Temperature differentials and thermally induced axial compressive forces are much higher than in the first method and carefully engineered restraint is require to prevent the pipe from failing by pushing out of the ground at bends or by either lateral or upheaval buckling of long straight sections in muskeg swamps and bogs. This method requires strain-based design principles to show that, when the pipeline is first heated to its operating temperature, large thermally induced compressive stresses in the pipe wall are acceptable because they dissipate without causing failure when the pipe steel yields. Both methods are technically acceptable but require specialized pipeline engineering skills to implement them successfully. The first method incurs the cost of preheating and increased construction costs due to reduced pipe lay rates while the second method incurs the cost of more robust restraint systems, particularly at bends. Details of both methods are presented and discussed to determine which of the two methods has the least cost and the least risk.

This paper brings a general collection of information concerning the construction of the Cabiu´nas-Reduc-3 gas pipeline (Gasduc-3) and aims at showing briefly how the constructing and assembly of the project took place, considering its constructive difficulties and relevance to the terrestrial pipeline engineering as well as the Brazilian natural gas market.

One of the major technical challenges in constructing natural gas pipeline is how to cope with cold region pipeline engineering aspects caused by freezing and thawing of soil around the pipeline. A pipeline running through discontinuous permafrost is subject to the potential risk of an unacceptable deformation, which is caused by thaw settlement or frost heaving at the boundary of permafrost and non-permafrost. It is important for a design engineer to predict the behavior of soil-pipeline interaction and make an adequate assessment of safety of pipeline in such portion. Although extensive efforts have been made to document those aspects, relatively little research has been carried out to comprehensively study the behavior of pipeline in response to short- and long-term change of thermal and mechanical properties of permafrost. In order to understand the complex behavior of natural gas pipeline and surrounding soil in cold regions, a full-scale experimental gas pipeline was constructed near Fairbanks, Alaska and had been studied intensively. The research project was carried out from the year of 1999 to 2004 under the sponsorship of Japan Science and Technology. The changes of ground thermal regime, vertical movement of the pipeline and the induced bending stress in the pipes were studied. The research team including researchers from Japan and the U.S collected and analyzed the field measurements from the test site. In this paper, the major findings and lessons learned from the project will be presented together with the result of numerical simulations related to the experiment.

The proposed construction of a crude oil pipeline through a residential area north of Salt Lake City, Utah, with an alignment that crossed the Wasatch fault provides an interesting case history of the numerous uncertainties and competing constraints associated with designing a pipeline fault crossing in an urban environment. Several issues raised during project design needed to be resolved with representatives of the city in which the project was located; the city had obtained technical input from the state geological survey and a local pipeline engineering specialist. The definition of the fault location and design fault displacement required reconciling suggested fault displacement estimates that ranged from 2.4 m to 4.2 m. The desire on the part of the pipeline owner and the city to have the oil pipeline buried relatively deeply (at least 1.5 m of cover) needed to be resolved with the fact that improved pipeline performance for imposed fault displacements typically is achieved with shallower soil cover. Special trench construction measures to increase the pipeline fault displacement capacity, such as reduced burial combined with protective concrete slabs above the pipeline or use of geofoam material as trench backfill, needed to be balanced with potential consequences on normal pipeline operational and maintenance activities, as well as street maintenance by the city. Increases in pipe wall thickness, that would permit an increase in the burial depth of the pipeline, needed to be balanced with concerns regarding potential problems that could be created with the measurement quality of internal inspection devices. The requirement that the pipeline be located beneath city streets, including a 90° corner 125 m from the fault crossing, limited the ability of the pipeline to distribute axial strain developed as a result of the fault displacement and led to optimization of the pipeline bend geometry with respect to available space and impact on existing utility lines. Resolving these issues was facilitated by examining the pipeline response to a variety of postulated design alternatives using finite element analyses. The final design recommendations that satisfied the owner and city provided a reasonable assurance that the pipeline would maintain pressure integrity for a fault displacement of 3.75 m.

As a well-known means for pumping crude oil with high pour point, the economic effect of a hot oil pipeline to be built will depend on such factors as pipeline capacity, pipeline length, properties of the oil to be pumped, environmental conditions along the right of way, design scheme and operation scenarios. Generally speaking, engineering-economic characteristics of oil and gas pipelines are a complete set of the economic relationships relevant to engineering factors of the pipelines, each relationship involving at least an economic index or parameter. The engineering-economic characteristics of hot oil pipelines reflect basic regularities governing the general economic effect and each economic index of the pipelines, so it is helpful understanding these characteristics for the decision-making about whether and how to build a hot oil pipeline. In some cases, for a specific hot oil pipeline project, a decision or judgment on macro level may be made only from some common engineering-economic characteristics of hot oil pipelines, without the need for the engineering design and the economic analysis of the project in detail. The frame of engineering-economic characteristics of oil and gas pipelines is outlined in this paper, and some key elements are discussed on the basis of a large amount of engineering calculation and economic analysis of virtual hot oil pipeline projects, including the optimal pipe diameter and the optimal flow velocity for a given pipeline capacity, the economic capacity limits and the economic flow velocity limits for a given pipe diameter, the economically feasible maximum pipeline length for a given pipeline capacity, and the economically feasible minimum pipeline capacity for a given pipeline length. Though the basic economic data used in our research come from China, its research results and conclusions on engineering-economic characteristics of hot oil pipelines also would be helpful for hot oil pipeline projects in other countries all over the world.

This paper will discuss the objectives, challenges, and methods of implementing a system-wide pipeline automation project at Colonial Pipeline, focusing on the pilot project and early years. Currently the company is in the midst of a five-year project to automate and remotely operate delivery facilities, tank farms, and origination stations along over 5000 miles of existing pipeline. The end result will bring control of over 200 facilities into to the Central Control Center. Technically, the project goal is to install state of the art infrastructure to enhance safety and reliability, standardize to a common platform across the system, and integrate into an existing SCADA Control System. From the business perspective, the project goal is to meet or exceed typical industry guidelines for project management metrics, reach a unitized cost basis and provide a foundation for consistent and repeatable operations across the entire pipeline system. The Common Project Process (a cross-functional integrated project team strategy) and an engineering alliance are being used to define and execute the project phases. Colonial’s Engineering team recast itself in 1999 on the basis of establishing core competencies, leveraging internal talent and knowledge, and establishing an effective outsourcing strategy. This automation project is one of the first large-scale efforts to put this new model to task. In 2000, Colonial Pipeline and Mangan, Inc. formed an engineering alliance to capitalize on the strengths of both teams. Colonial’s pipeline engineering and operations knowledge have been equitably matched with Mangan’s project management, engineering and integration skills. The result is an energetic and committed technical project team, as well as a win-win opportunity for both sides. This alliance provides a valuable model for engineering team outsourcing and contracting. Except for original construction projects, it is rare for a pipeline company to take on a system-wide infrastructure upgrade opportunity of this scope. Success of the pilot project depended on integrating the field automation with SCADA system capabilities and developing both control center and human resources plans. The field hardware, the technical focus of this paper, is a small piece of the entire project objective; however it represents the foundation of the entire business model. Selecting and committing to a common controls platform was an engineering objective. The hardware had to provide a certain level of assurance that the standard model would be available both at the start and the end of the project, in addition to supporting legacy systems for future challenges. In summary, this automation project represents more than engineering and integration. It’s a combination of the talent, hardware, and vision which will accomplish the goal of the core business product — safe and efficient delivery of consumer fuels.

In the geomatics community, the literature thoroughly covers the topic of success and failure in geomatics projects. Papers and research covering this topic as it relates to specific industries or applications such as municipal and environmental Geographic Information System (GIS) projects can also be found. However, few papers have been presented on this topic in relation to pipeline engineering projects, and in particular, Engineering, Procurement and Construction Management (EPCM). This paper will introduce this topic to the EPCM project manager through an overview of the measures of failure, their causes, the key enablers of success of a GIS project in EPCM world, and conclude with a synopsis of how the EPCM project manager can ensure the success of geomatics or GIS activities on their project.

OSBRA is the 964 Km pipeline which supplies over 6.000.000 m3/year of gasoline, diesel oil and LPG to Brazil Mid-West region. Products on OSBRA pipeline are pumped on 24 hours a day and 365 days a year scheduled basis from Planalto Paulista Refinary – REPLAN to 5 midsize cities through 6 remote operated pumping stations located along the pipeline. OSBRA pipeline operation including pumping, valve operation and tank farm monitoring are done remotely from PETROBRAS Transporte S/A – TRANSPETRO Pipeline Control Center - CCO. A real time leak detection system (LDS) was supplied and installed at this Pipeline Control Center. The LDS is based on measurements of flow, pressure and density as well as pump and valve status along the pipeline. A SCADA was implemented and field instrumentation measurements were observed in order to provide good quality data for the pipeline operation and its LDS. Assembling of some field instruments were improved in order to correct measurement fails. On-desk simulations were done in order to verify theoretical system performance and operation team was trained to use the leak detection tool. A field controlled leak simulation test was done in order to validate and verify the System performance. This apparently simple task demanded around 1 year for planning and implementation before test was done. The approach of this report is mainly operational and shows how the OSBRA LDS test was planned, programmed, commissioned and performed. Coordination and integration of Operation, Maintenance, Pipeline, Engineering, Safety, Telecommunication and Logistic teams are demonstrated in order to get good results. Field activities like designing and assembling of spools and instrumentations necessary to execute a controlled pipeline liquid hydrocarbon take off are showed. Safety and environmental precautions to avoid equipment damage, uncontrolled operation or product leak to environment are demonstrated.