Designing a model for optimization of maintenance and inspection efforts against third party damage to cross country Pipelines in India

Abstract

In India there are nearly 45000km of cross-country pipelines in operation, safety and reliability of this network of pipelines play a major role in the energy distribution security of the country. A cross country pipeline can fail due to various reasons primary among these are corrosion and third-party damage. In a populous country like India third party damage has emerged as a newest threat to the pipelines, as on date nearly 40% of all pipeline failures are due to third party damage. Third-party damage to an underground pipeline is generally defined as a category of damage caused to the pipeline due to the activities of an outside (other than the pipeline owner or its authorized representative) agency, for example an agency building road across the pipeline right of way may cause rupture of the pipeline due to uncontrolled use of earthmoving equipment. Most of the third-party damages are caused due to ignorance or negligence, as the third-party damage is caused by human error, it does not have any trend and random in nature. Unfortunately, majority of third-party damage leads to severe and instantaneous failure of the pipeline leading to release of highly inflammable content that can cause widespread destruction of life and property. To minimize the possibility of third party damage to a reasonably low rate, it is necessary that maintenance and inspection (M&I) practices are properly oriented, this is possible only when the weight of the factors responsible for third party damage is known and M&I programme is designed accordingly. This paper proposes a model for calculating weight of various factors responsible for third party damage and how the model can optimize M&I efforts as well as build best possible defense against third party damage for an underground high-pressure cross-county hydrocarbon pipeline.