Latest Findings in the Development of Rules for Design and Evaluation of Marine Pipelines in the Gulf of Mexico

The paper presents the work carried out by the Instituto Mexicano del Petro´leo (IMP) during the last years, regarding the development of local rules for the design and reassessment of marine pipelines, taking into account environmental and operational conditions in the Gulf of Me´xico, as well as economic implications of these facilities within Mexican social and political fields. The costs for Petro´leos Mexicanos (Pemex) of a possible failure of a marine pipeline are also considered. The results will be incorporated in a Norm of Reference to Pemex being the first regulating national document in this area. This work is based in an extensive risk study of the marine pipelines and risers. The costs are evaluated regarding the failure consequences that could be present in the marine pipelines both during the installation phase as well as during the operation phase. The failure probabilities and the reliability indexes are determined according to the production and the type of product. Using structural reliability theory, a classification by service and safety (CSS) for the marine pipelines is obtained and from that the safety factors for design and evaluation for all the possible loads that may be present during both installation and operation. The methodology used is according to the state of the art and with international codes (API and DNV). The main advantage of the project is to better understand the behavior of the marine pipeline and risers taking into account the geotechnical and ocean characteristics of the Gulf of Me´xico and the costs that would represent for Pemex the possible failure of a structure of this type.