PHMSA moves to improve safety along gas pipelines

PHMSA’s pipeline safety standards were finalised in the 1970s and were only written with the intention of preventing explosions.

PHMSA is now proposing to increase pipeline air monitoring efforts using leak detection technologies like optical gas imaging (OGI) cameras that can find leaks before they are large enough to cause an explosion. Unfortunately, less sensitive gas metering technologies previously forced inspectors to wait for a leak to become hazardous before the leak was even detectable.

Shockingly, the pipelines carrying the most dangerous air pollutants aren’t even required to be mapped or patrolled, and minimal leak detection requirements don’t specify what type of technology can be used to detect leaks. Thankfully, PHMSA is proposing to correct these oversights.

PHMSA found that hazardous leaks occur at gathering pipelines at double the rate of hazardous leaks on transmission lines. This is because the same dangerous pollutants that pollute our air, and are more present in gathering pipelines, like carcinogens and volatile organic compounds, also corrode pipelines more aggressively than consumer-quality gas. This expansion of pipeline monitoring requirements will improve air quality, reduce the risk of explosions and expand the growing air monitoring industry, while conserving gas.

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World Pipelines’ July 2023 issue

Here’s a preview of the July 2023 issue of World Pipelines: the keynote article focuses on pipeline activity in South America; technical articles cover compressors, pipeline mapping and welding; and there’s insight into CO2 transport and HDD best practice.

Read the article online at: https://www.worldpipelines.com/regulations-and-standards/18072023/phmsa-moves-to-improve-safety-along-gas-pipelines/