PII: can teamwork help promote zero pipeline failures?

Reducing the risk of pipeline failures is a complex task for any single organisation to undertake. By bringing together the combined knowledge and experience of pipeline inspection vendors, pipeline operators, regulators and trade associations, the task can be made more achievable.

Jeff Sutherland, Innovations leader for PII Pipeline Solutions (PII), discusses how key industry stakeholders are working together to share research, industry trends and best practice to help improve pipeline integrity further. He goes on to explain how interaction amongst stakeholders can help increase engagement in new projects. As an example, Jeff outlines how PII is working with pipeline operators, as well as interactively communicating with industry regulators regarding how the role of high-tech inspection solutions are being used to accurately diagnose the present and future condition of pipelines.

Pipelines

Pipelines are part of most nations’ infrastructure and the irreplaceable backbone of how energy is supplied around the world. The product carried in many pipelines is, by its very nature, potentially damaging should it escape into the atmosphere or the adjacent environment. Understandably, there is often concern raised by the general public when they realise their proximity to an existing pipeline, or when new construction is proposed.

Consequently, there are two discreet elements in delivering pipeline integrity. The first is having access to the technology, customer service and other functionalities that are required to deliver a high probability of reliable, repeatable inspections. This is an area where PII excels with its cutting edge inline inspection (ILI) products and services. The second, far broader element is engaging with all the relevant stakeholders in order to convey how seriously pipeline integrity is being addressed. Liaison between the operators themselves, the wider industry and the regulators is fundamental in ensuring that positive messages are delivered through the value chain and into public perception. Education is a key element of this, explaining to stakeholders how the best technology and expertise available is being used to maximise safety.

Regulation and governance of pipeline safety is often overseen by government departments or other agencies which are typically in charge of the energy practices of a given nation or jurisdiction. As inspection technology evolved in the late 1970s and 1980s, regulation evolved in parallel, based on the type of testing that was available at the time. The regulators and the industry as a whole took a holistic view of safety based on a set of threats associated with the safe operation of the pipeline.

Precision

As inline inspection technology has evolved over time, there have been significant improvements in precision, resolution and in articulating what the data indicates. Rather than a binary result of ‘there is a defect/there is no defect’, contemporary testing can not only identify defects, but also estimate with some certainty what their effect will be. In most jurisdictions the operator’s mandate is still to ensure that they not only have plans in place that help to mitigate any threats, but that the plans are then effectively carried out. Rather than the regulator setting a prescriptive benchmark on pipeline integrity for the industry to comply with, industry leaders are setting far higher standards, often driven by the advances in inspection technology that vendors such as PII continue to bring to market.

Industry help

PII’s involvement with global industry bodies such as the Pipeline Research Council International (PRCI), the American Petroleum Institute (API), the European Pipeline Operators Forum (POF), the International Standards Organisation (ISO) and the Australian Pipeline Industries Association (APIA) certainly help in the delivery of both elements of the pipeline integrity package. By sharing knowledge of the technology that is available and how it’s being applied in different scenarios across the world, the whole industry can benefit. Experience demonstrates that knowledge does not always percolate naturally throughout the industry, so providing a forum where the options and the value of applying that technology can be articulated is extremely worthwhile. Such forums also extend to regulators where PII actively hosts training awareness sessions as well as actively presents at open industry panels to elevate awareness of technology for pipeline safety. Indirectly, we also support operators in generating industry and public awareness of the impressive track records of the pipeline industry, particularly those using inspection technologies.

However, working closely with competitors as well as existing and potential customers can present some interesting challenges. While there is an obvious desire for organisations to protect their intellectual property, and thus a tendency to limit the description and disclosure of a given technology, a pragmatic approach is taken by all parties that focus on the goals and desired outcomes rather than the technical details.

Leading by example

As with many industries, there are variations in the level of sophistication amongst operators: some are natural leaders, while others are more content to be followers. While all comply with the relevant legal codes, some operators conduct their integrity monitoring in a more sophisticated way than others. Articulating the end goal of what true pipeline safety would look like in reality and then working backwards to identify the tools that are required allows all parties to play to their strengths without being compromised commercially or technically. For example, if a certain kind of flaw is identified that is out of the ordinary then the leading, sophisticated operators will work to develop practices and solutions that ultimately are for everyone’s benefit.

As examples, a key issue that has been identified and addressed over the past five to ten years, and thanks to inline inspection technology jointly developed with operators, is an outlook to the combined effects of threats to pipeline integrity such as mechanical damage, coincidental cracking and pipe movement and excessive ovality. The combination of different threats can lead to failure for defects that would otherwise individually be well within acceptable limits.

A key goal is reducing pipeline failures to as close to zero as reasonably possible. This pursuit of perfection, while in principle achievable, opens up a wide range of issues that can only be solved as an industry rather that by disparate organisations. There is a fundamental problem that once the regularly occurring, ‘classic’ features are identified and addressed, those features that remain are by definition rare, difficult to identify and difficult to address. Known as ‘outliers’ using a term borrowed from statistical analysis, these uncommon features can only be identified and addressed by market-leading technology.

Collaboration with global industry bodies allows cooperation in workshop studies, and even operational activity, working towards building a case that is acceptable to both regulators and in a more vague sense, the broader public. It is impossible to identify some of these outliers and establish the true nature of the threat without drawing on the experience of primary operators from across the world. There is also a need to ensure that the message is factual and it is based on data that is relatable - in the sense that a regulator would understand it as a technical person, as well as how that can translate into a broader reputation and safety factor for the pipeline industry.

Conclusion

There is an appreciation from within the industry that pipelines not only need to be safe, but they need to be perceived as safe by every stakeholder, especially the general public. Both regulators and operators are aware that everyone in the industry has a part to play because just one failure pipeline can tarnish everyone’s reputation.

Developments in technology have allowed operators to identify a far larger proportion of the defects in their pipelines and analyse the defects at a far greater level of detail. While advances in technology driven by collaborative working will allow the outliers to be identified and addressed in the future, it is important to remember that the message must also be conveyed to stakeholders including the general public in a way that is easily digestible. Pipelines must be safe, but they must also be seen to be safe.

Edited from source by Elizabeth Corner

Read the article online at: https://www.worldpipelines.com/equipment-and-safety/03112014/pii-can-teamwork-help-promote-zero-pipeline-failures/