The paper discusses how operators can meet the strict legislative and environmental requirements, and demonstrate the safe performance and integrity of an unpiggable pipeline.
It takes a case study approach to integrity management, and examines the use of pigs, assessment methods, subsea inspection tools and how pipeline integrity can be verified.
The Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration estimates that 40 per cent of the world’s pipelines are unpiggable; this poses a problem for maintaining the integrity monitoring of offshore subsea pipelines, which fall into the category of hard or impossible to pig and have less prescriptive regulations than their onshore counterparts.
Current pipeline safety regulations in the US and the UK require integrity assessment for onshore pipelines using inline inspection, pressure testing, direct assessment or other technological assessment that provides an equivalent understanding of pipe condition.
The paper includes a table providing an overview of ten subsea inspection methods, to be used as a guide, briefly detailing each technique’s surface preparation, inspection range, coverage and limitations.
It also discusses the long-term benefits for pipeline integrity management by investing in monitoring and mitigation measures.
For more information visit the Lloyd’s Register website.
If you have news you would like featured in Pipelines International contact Journalist Chloe Jenkins at cjenkins@gs-press.com.au