ICPVT-11

11th International Conference on Pressure Vessel Technology

July 25-27, 2006 in Vancouver, Canada

ICPVT11-AORC-F-023

Studies on Pipeline Risk Management in China

Gao Fuqing
Department of Computer Science and Technology, Hebei University of Technology
(No.144,Xinhua Road, Langfang, 065000,Hebei Province, P.R.China

Email:fuqinggao@126.com)
Zhang Jixian
Department of information and Computing Science, Hebei University of Technology
Yuan Lihai
Department of information and Computing Science, Hebei University of Technology

assessment model
1. INTRODUCTION
Pipelines are considered as the safest
method of delivering oil and gas [3].
However, pipelines, like all engineering
plant can, and do fail. A number of
pipelines have been failed these years.
For example, in USA, only the liquid
transportation pipelines, which total
distance are 258,835.6km, had occurred
3280 failures from 1986 to 2003.There
have been other recent reports of
pipeline failures in Russia, Canada,
Pakistan, and British [3].
Pipeline failures are vital to the
environment, people and properties. For
example, accidents occurred in liquid
pipelines above mentioned in USA had
led
a
property
lost
over
846,445,456USD, 37 persons were
killed and 251 persons injured. And the
situation in China pipeline industry is
similar to USA, and sometimes it is
more severe than USA. So it is
necessary to adopt the suitable measures
to ensure the safety of pipeline operation.

ABSTRACT: The safety of oil & gas

pipelines is vital to the environment,
people and properties. In this paper, the
pipeline risk management is summarized.
A management plan of pipeline integrity
adopted worldwide based on intelligent
inspection is introduced, and the
actuality of pipeline risk management in
China and the problems are mentioned.
An
integrated
solution
which
emphasizes that the legislation on
pipeline safety is the safeguard of it, to
enhance pipeline safety management is
the key for it and to design pipeline
databases and risk assessment system
based
on
digital
computerized
technology is the foundation of pipeline
safety, is proposed. Only these three
aspects are closely worked in, can the
pipeline risk be effectively controlled, so
that it is possible to reduce pipeline risk
in maximum and keep pipelines
operating safely and efficiently.
Key words: intelligent inspection,
integrity management, pipeline, risk
1

Like engineering plant, pipelines follow

curve [5]. In other words, pipelines have
high failure rates early in life (due to
construction defects or original defects
etc.) and later in life (due to corrosion).
In China, most old pipelines, which
were constructed in 1970s, are in the
later of life, and most new pipelines,
which has been constructing recently,
are in the early in life. So most pipelines
in China are in the period of high rates
of failure now. The risk of pipeline
operation shall be controlled in proper
ways. Many methods of pipeline risk
management have been developed
around world [3]. The emergency things
we need to do is to determine the best
way to manage the risk of pipeline in
China through learning the experiences
from developed countries of pipeline
industry.
The
pipeline
integrity
management based on risk assessment
has been used worldwide. And it has
been proved that risk management not
only can improve pipeline safety, but
also can reduce the cost of pipeline
maintenance [4]. Therefore, the pipeline
integrity management system based on
risk assessment shall be developed
according to the special features of
China pipelines.
The key factor for pipeline safety is
to know the conditions of pipeline
accurately at any time. Many reasons
can cause pipeline failure. The method,
which is called as Prioritization
Scheme, is used to determine guide
pipeline operators on optimum use of
maintenance and inspection methods.
For example, if third-party interference
is the major cause of pipeline damage,
increased
surveillance
or
the
introduction of One-Call System maybe
the
appropriate
preventative

a bath tub failure probability

maintenance method. However, if a
pipeline were failing due to internal or
external corrosion, then pipeline in-line
inspection method would be appropriate
[3]
.
Internal inspection of pipeline using
intelligent pigs is increasingly being
used by pipeline operators as a means of
both maintaining their pipelines and
ensuring that their pipeline has a long
and efficient life. Pipeline safety is a
systematic engineering. The experiences
shown the integrity management based
on risk assessment is the best way to
ensure pipeline safety [1].
2. Pipeline Integrity management
based on risk assessment
In general, the pipeline risk is
defined as the product of two factors: (1)
the probability of failure occurrence; (2)
the consequence probability of the
failure. So the risk can be defined by the
following equation [2]:
Risk = FF *(CF* Pc)
Where FF= the probability of failure
occurrence
CF= the possible consequences
Pc=
the
probability
of
consequence lead by the failure
According to the huge information of
pipeline accidents around world, the
main factors of affecting the pipeline
safety are given below:
z Internal corrosion
z External corrosion
z Fatigue
z SCC(Stress Corrosion Cracks)
z Third party damage
z Sabotage/pilferage
z Loss of ground support

Risk
Consequences of failures

Consequences of failures

Susceptibility factor

Severity of factor

Internal corrosion

Internal corrosion

Risk to life

External corrosion

External corrosion

Damage to property

Fatigue

Fatigue

Loss of service

SCC

SCC

Cost of failure

Third party damage

Third party damage

Environmental effects

Sabotage/pilferage

Sabotage/pilferage

Public image

Loss of ground support

Loss of ground support

Fig. 1 Assessing the risk of pipeline

data gathering/maintenance vs. the

benefit of the increased accuracy.
Step 2: CustomizingDeciding on
a list of risk contributors and risk
reducers and the relative importance of
each item on the list.
Step 3 Data gatheringBuilding the
database by completing an evaluation
for each pipeline section.
Step 4 MaintenanceIdentifying
when and how changed in risk items
occur; updating the database to reflect
the changes.
At
present,
the
quantitative
assessment of pipeline risk is difficult
due to the lack of pipeline condition data
and the complicated factors of affecting
pipeline safety. The semi- quantitative
risk assessment shall be appropriate for
current situation of pipelines. The
software block diagram of semiquantitative risk assessment system is
given below . (See Fig.2)

The susceptibility model shall be

constructed for each factor. The model
can be quantitative, qualitative or semiquantitative according to the situation of
different pipeline section[4].
The consequence of pipeline failure
shall be described with these parameters
in following:
z Risk to life
z Damage to property
z Loss of service
z Cost of failure
z Environmental effects
z Public image
Then we can construct the risk
assessment model and build the risk
assessment tools.(See Fig. 1)
Building the risk management tool
takes four steps [3]:
Step 1: SectioningDividing the
pipeline systems into sections. Section
size is dependent upon how often
conditions change and upon the cost of

Risk assessment

Pipeline data

Data management
system

Accident data

Defect assessment
Corrosion growth assessment

Cost data

Report

Inspection data

Fig.2 Structure diagram of risk assessment system

Rehabilitation
The experiences have proved that
pipeline integrity management is the
most efficient way to ensure pipeline
safety.
3. Total solution of China pipeline
safety
As mentioned above, most pipelines
in China are in the special period of high
risk. And many pipelines are lack of
documentary information related to their
history. Especially, it is lack of a
systematic and scientific solution to
ensure the safety of pipelines in China.
Based on the experiences of advanced
pipeline countries and the special
situation of pipelines in China, the main
content of the total solution of China
pipeline safety shall include the three
core aspects:
Legislation on pipeline safety: the
safety of pipeline shall be protected by
the legislation. We can learn the
experience from the developed countries
of pipeline management. Combining
with the situation of China pipeline
industry, a series of systematic and
scientific codes or regulations on
pipeline safety need to be set as soon as
possible.

The system includes the following

modules:
z Database and data processing
z Risk assessment
z Defect management and assessment
z Defect growth assessment
z Result report
The objective of pipeline integrity
program is to maintain the reliability and
safety of pipeline systems. The main
functions of pipeline integrity program
are
inspection,
assessment
and
rehabilitation. These activities circulated
periodically according to pipeline
conditions during pipeline life cycle.
Pipelines are managed using inspection
data, advanced risk assessment and
sophisticated maintenance management
techniques that all rely on reliable data
gathered by intelligent inspection tool. It
consists of a series of activities that is
divided into different stages. The proper
inspection and maintenance is critical to
safe and reliable pipeline operations.
Pipeline integrity program mainly
includes the following activities:
z Integrity management planning
z Pipeline intelligent inspection
z Pipeline surveys
z Pipeline risk assessment
z Integrated data management
z Fit-for-purpose assessment

pipelines safety shall be collected and

used to create the database on pipelines.
And combining with the special
situation in China pipeline industry, the
integrity management program based on
risk assessment is the efficient solution
for pipeline safety. We have a lot of
things on pipeline safety need to do in
China.
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS: We would
like to thank the colleagues at CNPC
and Hebei University and Technology
for their encouragement and support in
the project.
REFERENCES
1.
Tiratsoo,J.N.A,(1991).
Pipeline
nd
Pigging
Technology,2
Edition,
Scientific Survey Ltd., 106-120 ,56-60
2.R.Sutherby,Fenyvesi,Iain Colquhoun
and M.Rizkalla: System Wide Risk
Based Pipeline Integrity Program at
TransCanada,
2000
International
Pipeline
Conference,
Vo11,ASME2000,13-21
3. W. Kent Muhlbauer. (1996) Pipeline
Risk Management Manual, Second
Edition, Gulf Publishing Company,
164-170
4. D.G. Jones, (1996). Inspection, a
smart investment? The Third British
Gas International Conference On
Pipeline Inspection, Assessment and
Repair, Newcastle, UK, p91-99
5. Gao Fuqing,( 1999) The Necessary of
In-line Inspection for Pipeline, Journal
of
Pipeline
Technique
and
Equipment,35(1) ,39-43

Integrity management based on risk

assessment: it is necessary to construct
the database of all pipelines in China by
collecting all data related to pipeline
operation. And all pipelines shall be
inspected using the intelligent tools
periodically according to the related acts.
All pipelines shall be monitored based
on the risk assessment. The proper
maintenance measures shall be adopted
for the pipelines.
Set a national pipeline safety center:
all pipelines in China shall be managed
by the center. The center shall be
responsible for the R&D on pipeline
inspection and assessment system. It is a
good way to avoid the re-investment in
different enterprises, such as PetroChina,
Sinopec and CNOOC etc.
Conclusions
Most pipelines in China are in the
special period of high risk. An operator
should view intelligent inspection as part
of an overall pipeline integrity program.
The risk assessment system is the
foundation of the pipeline management.
And the integrity management program
based on the risk assessment is the
appropriate method to ensure pipeline
safety. In China, the important things we
need to do is to construct the systematic
and powerful legislation system to
monitor and control the safety of
pipelines, pipeline safety shall be
ensured by the government, not by the
enterprises. All information related to all