Effective Pipeline Integrity Decision Making

Pipeline operators are required to make decisions for various complex pipeline integrity situations on a daily basis. These integrity situations often comprise a complex interaction between integrity threats such as corrosion, cracking, third party damage, dents, buckles, and wrinkles. A pipeline operator usually develops their own processes towards dealing with each specific integrity threat. In general, the processes are developed based on the stipulations by the Canadian Oil and Pipeline Systems Standard, the in-house experience, and the current up-to date integrity specific research. However, once the processes are developed, they become very rigid. In addition, when integrity threats are combined or when the processes are more conservative than or just different from the stipulations of the code, the processes become very confusing for the operators. Enbridge Pipelines Inc. is looking into revamping the current in-house processes for dealing with various integrity threats. The main objective of the research is to design integrity threat processes that are dynamic in nature allowing the process to be updated based on new literature findings. In addition, the newly designed processes would allow the users to identify the rigid and flexible aspects of the process to enable more informed decision making by the users.

Faculty Supervisor:

Samer Adeeb

Student:

Muntaseer Kainat

Partner:

Enbridge Pipelines Inc.

Discipline:

Engineering - civil

Sector:

Oil and gas

University:

University of Alberta