PHMSA research announcement

Threat prevention

1. Improve geohazard monitoring and data integration.

Underground natural gas storage (UNGS)

2. Improve the performance of wellhead seals: design and monitoring.

3. Incorporating fibre optics into wellbore design and monitoring.

4. Investigating cement and other materials as a barrier in UNGS wells.

5. Improving cathodic protection (CP) as applied to well tubulars.

Anomaly detection/characterisation

6. Investigate damage mechanisms to determine inspection intervals for inline inspection (ILI) tools (H2).

7. Dual purpose internal integrity assessment and cleaning tool for hazardous liquid pipelines.

Hazardous liquid tanks

8. Standardise the application of vapour corrosion inhibitors.

9. Investigate tank foundation/pad designs to improve corrosion control.

LNG

10. Develop methodologies for cryogenic and fireproofing requirements for LNG facilities.

11. Development of methodologies for managing process safety risk using hazard and operability (HAZOP) and layers of protection analysis techniques (LOPA) for LNG facilities.

12. Develop methodologies on use of secondary containment methods to reduce the effect of spills and pool fires.

13. Selection and placement of remote, automatic, and manual isolation valves for personnel safety and to minimise release volumes.

14. Acceptable methods for modelling shrouding or obstructions for pressurised liquid leaks.

15. Hydrogen-blended natural feed gas impacts on LNG plant design.

16. Validation of passive mitigation systems for fires.

17. Develop process for establishing recognised and generally accepted good engineering practices (RAGAGEP) relevant to large-scale LNG facilities.

Climate mitigation

18. Investigate the recompression of compressor station operations to capture and or incinerate fugitive methane emissions.

Materials

19. Investigating the integrity impacts of hydrogen gas on composite/multi-layered pipe.

Read the article online at: https://www.worldpipelines.com/business-news/19042023/phmsa-research-announcement/