Pipelines , Life Extension, and Integrity Options

Ever since the first pipelines were laid the industry has been trying to develop new methods to inspect, repair and maintain them to ensure that they can continue to flow long into the future with the ultimate goal that they operate “without disruption”. Given that when the pipeline shuts down more often than not certain areas of an asset usually shuts down with it, you can soon start to incur considerable production losses and at the same time totally wipe out the annual production scorecard very quickly.

Losing any production is generally bad for business, but losing a pipeline just rubs salt in the wound. I came across two pipelines that suffered unplanned failures with both losing over $100 MM in lost production, and one a further $100 MM in capital spending for replacement. Now when you have a fixed term operating agreement this means your business is substantially affected on many fronts as you:

1. Need to raise capital quickly to conduct the immediate required repairs.
2. Lose immediate revenue from the loss of production.
3. Your chances are limited to recover that lost production especially if you have a production cap set on you.
4. Your reputation and relationship with your operating partner will be tarnished.

Early sub sea pipeline integrity evolved around saturation SAT diving (see photo), (Air diving in shallow water) remotely operated vehicles and pigging. Technology had to improve year by year to meet the ever-increasing demands of deep-sea developments, warm & cold temperature waters, sour service operation, longer distance complicated lays and higher-pressure pipelines were being laid.

Sub sea pipeline integrity service providers have usually been large companies specialized for sub sea work and who have had wide scale sub sea capability (Hyperbaric welding etc.). These outfits were awarded long-term and highly lucrative contracts which enabled them to invest heavily in new equipment, Dynamic positioning vessels ( DP 1,2) on charter and even purpose built multi million dollar vessels specially fitted out . Rates for saturation diving and SAT divers reached crazy heights in 2007/8. My previous sub sea budgets varied from $10 MM to $25 MM annually over a 5-year period and was driven by large periods where no sub sea inspection, repair activity had taken place. Sub sea pipeline Integrity can become a very expensive business if you let it get away on you, and nobody enjoys playing catch up.

Modern legislation and public pressure has meant that there is increasing pressure on the oil and gas industry to eliminate any health, safety or environmental incidents and minimize reputation damage, so pipeline integrity became high on the list of potential vulnerabilities. This in turn triggered a new wave of planned inspections and pipeline integrity programs, but not all operators got the message.

What many people do not realize is that pipelines can fail due to damage mechanisms that have nothing to do with corrosion or age, such as Anchor drags, dropped objects (boat landings etc), snagging, over-pressure, third party intervention and many more . I had a 12” main oil pipeline that got snagged on a rig movers tow line which in turn dragged it 170 m from its laid position and buckled it 90 deg. (see photos). It snagged on a hydro tight stud that should have been protected and covered by a “dog kennel” flange protection cage during its original lay…. but it wasn’t and it became a very costly mistake.

So, to comply with legislation pipeline operators need to do some pretty extensive work to identify, assess and properly control significant potential threats to their pipelines. Pipeline operators need to make appropriate use of technical advances in pipeline inspection techniques, in association with indirect assessments using specialist software which can help perform defect assessments so that clever repairs can be executed. The operator is ultimately responsible for assurance that the pipeline will not fail and that the associated risk is kept to as low as reasonably practicable. This cannot be done if operators do not have a suitable integrity program or consult with specialists to see how this can be achieved in compliance with best practice.

I think many people would be really be surprised to know how many sub-sea pipelines are currently in operation across the MENA region alone, and how many are not in operation without official decommissioning. There are hundreds of sub-sea lines within Qatar waters alone and I managed 124 of them at one point, noting that I was also instrumental in the approval of the first officially abandoned pipeline in Qatar waters which may still be the only one officially abandoned. I also estimate that 90% of the pipelines in the MENA region are in excess of 30 years old which means they are heading past their original design life.

If a pipeline has been well maintained and inhibited the line can produce comfortably into its 40’s. Ageing is considered to be the effect which results in progressive deterioration and damage, where the likelihood of failure increases with time in service. However, just because a pipeline is old does not necessarily mean that it is significantly deteriorated and damaged, as all types of pipelines can be susceptible to varied ‘ageing’ processes. Specialist inspection techniques and assessments can help predict a pipelines life span way past its expected expiry , and yes this comes with a cost but there is no replacement for actual inspection data.

The majority of sub-sea pipelines were originally inspected every 2-4 years using ROV or diver intervention to gauge an idea of their condition whilst pipelines that were installed with pigging facilities began pipeline inspections using in-line inspection (ILI) tools on or up to a 4 yearly frequency. Over the last 10 years there have been several industry standards and recommended practices DNV-RP-F116 (May 2017) DNVGL-RP-0002 (November 2014) issued which have prompted operators to move away to a risk-based approach. Unfortunately, similar to areas of RBI that were implemented for pressure systems some operators took the move from prescriptive and time-based inspections as an opportunity to do less, spend less which is coming back to haunt many of them and will continue to do so.

With Covid 19 impacting 2020/21, low oil prices , modern day split ownership, buy outs, and shared agreements the management of ageing pipeline assets is not as simple as it used to be, and means that some integrity programs have stalled with large gaps appearing between the inspection and maintenance intervals. These days with vast increases in development, growth and demand for cross border telecommunications we have seen an increased number of pipelines laid over existing and shared assets. Sub-sea power and telecommunication cables spanning huge distances have become the norm joining countries together but bring with them increased field marine activity, shared agreements and excursions into neighboring assets which again bring with it considerable 3rd party risks.

“What happens when it goes wrong?” In addition to the impact on production we need to remember that poor pipeline integrity management also poses risks to the environment, and I have been involved with pipeline failures which involved releases to the ocean noting that some pipelines even when "shut in" still have huge volumes of product that can escape so the task of containment before finding the actual leak location and repair becomes ever so important .The photos below were from a sub-sea line that leaked in five locations and at the time of failure had no pigging facilities , so you can imagine the fun in trying to ascertain its actual overall integrity condition . The line might get closed in pretty quickly, but the lost revenue was just beginning and the heartache starting to set in.

Huge costs are attributed to pipeline failures, hence prevention is a much more desirable path than the reactive route especially given that pipelines reaching their respective design lifetimes are often readily serviceable. The notion that just because the design lifetime has been reached, the facilities are then no longer serviceable is very strongly challenged. I work with a company who has an abundance of practical applications experience which conclusively shows that well-managed pipeline systems and structures are serviceable essentially on an indefinite basis, only if the said management and maintenance regimes remain in place and that they remain effective and appropriate going forward.

A comprehensive lifetime extension assessment can therefore be performed which should serve to demonstrate that pipelines may be operated safely on an on-going basis until removal from service is either deemed necessary or until the end of production has been reached, whichever occurs first. As field development plans evolve, current day production may also be from reservoirs whose fluids compositions are significantly different to those that were considered at the original design stage. However, whilst these issues should likely have been captured as part of the wider management of change process at the time of their development, it is still important to recognize and capture such issues as part of the lifetime extension risk assessment process.

Going forward the industry is looking at the development of intelligent pipelines, using embedded fiber optics and sensors built into the pipeline installation which are able to provide real-time information on the pressure and temperature , whilst sensors may be able to detect changes in the electrical characteristics of the line which may help indicate active corrosion mechanisms exist. We are still far away from the ultimate pipeline installation, and given every project has a budget limitation on how far technological advancement can be incorporated we must continue with assessment of current pipeline designs, gather data related to the present integrity condition, and conduct assessments which include all credible threats to the pipeline during its extended life.

The assessment of the time-dependent degradation mechanisms, primarily mechanisms such as corrosion, creep and fatigue threats need to be combined with the credible corrosion related threats in order to provide accurate estimates in respect of the remaining life. There are numerous inspection points and innovative techniques where valuable data can be sourced to enable a complete and thorough late life extension assessment. Pipeline assessments without extensive inspection corrosion - chemical management data is not an attractive proposition but talking to the experts can certainly help your business come up with a plan.

Just because something is old , it does not mean it is has lost its use and value. Otherwise I am really in trouble.