Pin-point precision for pipeline protection

The oil and gas industry continues to boom with major projects under development across the world. In North America for example, this is in part due to factors like the shale boom, which has resulted in oil producers needing to expand gathering pipeline networks by hundreds of miles to keep up with demand. Oil and gas is similarly booming in Africa, Asia and the Middle East due to the regions’ abundance of reserves.

Increased production of oil and gas worldwide brings with it an increase in gathering networks. Gathering networks are a crucial component of oil and gas production because they transport hydrocarbons between the production site, processing facilities and to end customers. Gathering pipelines typically operate in multiphase and carry a mix of products before they are separated, such as crude oil, natural gas, natural gas liquids, impurities like sulfur compounds and other trace elements and sediments and solids like sand and clay. This article focuses on produced water, which is generated in large amounts during the oil and gas extraction process and in some cases is transported on a journey that includes upstream, midstream and downstream sectors.

As the global oil and gas industry continues to grow, so will the amounts of produced water, with 2020 marking the first year that the annual global quantity of produced water from oil and gas operations exceeded 240 billion bbls. While produced water sounds harmless on the surface, failure to appropriately dispose of or reuse produced water can have severe environmental impacts. This article discusses the significance of pipeline leak detection for produced water management.

Produced water or ‘brine’ is a byproduct of the oil and gas extraction process and it typically takes a brackish or saline water form when it is collected. There are many sources of produced water too. For example, most oil and gas bearing rocks contain formation water, which is collected when oil and gas reservoirs are mined. Produced water is also created during water injection, which is when oil recovery involves forcing oil towards a well for extraction by injecting water. The injected water returning to the surface takes on the form of produced water.

Water vapour present in the production of natural gas can also condense out of the gas stream due to pressure and temperature changes, becoming produced water. A final example source of produced water occurs during fracking operations. Similar to water injection in the oil industry, fracking involves injecting water mixed with chemicals into a well to fracture the rock and release oil and gas, but the water returning to the surface becomes flowback water.

Pipelines are the safest means of transporting any fluid, which is why produced water upstream is typically transported via pipelines from wellheads to central processing facilities to remove hydrocarbons and solids. Pipelines are also crucial in the midstream transportation of produced water for further processing so it can be purified for disposal or reuse. While being the safest means of transporting produced water, a pipeline leak can still have severe consequences.

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Read the article online at: https://www.worldpipelines.com/special-reports/21102024/pin-point-precision-for-pipeline-protection/