Don’t Risk Danger – Pipeline Contingency Explained!

July 21, 2011 - PRLog -- Oil & Gas IQ: First of all, I would like to ask you, what are the implications for operators who are unlucky enough to have a subsea pipeline struck by an anchor?

R Palmer-Jones: There are a number of things that may happen. The first thing that could happen is that the anchor could cause a total rupture of the pipeline. This obviously has major consequences for the operator. In terms of knowing what to do, it’s pretty straightforward. You have to shut down and you have to get it fixed as soon as possible with a replacement section. In more complex cases, in some ways this is where you have severe damage but the pipeline hasn’t actually failed, because then you have a lot of uncertainty about whether it may peril in a short time or whether you’ve got a long time to respond to it, how severe that damage is and how you can repair it. Do you need to shut down totally, which has a huge impact obviously on production and loss of revenue and so on? So if you do have an anchor strike, you’ve got a lot of issues to consider, particularly if you don’t have an immediate failure. Obviously if you have an immediate failure, that’s terrible, but rare. Where you’ve got damage, you’ve got some hard choices to make on what you’re going to do next.

Oil & Gas IQ: What plans do operators have in place to prepare themselves for potential damage?

To access this interview transcript and mp3 in full please click here: http://www.pipelineintegritysummit.com/Event.aspx?id=5349...





The Pipeline Integrity Management Summit will take place from 26 - 28 September, 2011 in Amsterdam, Netherlands. For details please visit http://www.pipelineintegritysummit.com, email enquire@iqpc.co.uk or call 0800 652 2363.