An Assessment of State Regulatory Oversight of Pipeline Systems in Alaska

Author(s):  
Dave Norton ◽  
Jennifer L. Owens ◽  
Gregory Annis

Following pipeline leaks on the Alaskan North Slope in 2006, the state of Alaska, by executive order of the governor, responded by establishing the Petroleum Systems Integrity Office (PSIO) as the lead state agency responsible for oversight of the maintenance of facilities, equipment, and infrastructure for oil and natural gas resources in Alaska. The executive order identified three major activities for PSIO: • An assessment of Alaska’s oil and gas infrastructure integrity; • An assessment of current regulatory oversight in Alaska; and • A review of industry oversight efforts. The PSIO assessments identified infrastructure with indeterminate regulatory oversight. In addition, PSIO recommended improvements to facilitate efficient and effective regulatory oversight, including establishment of minimum requirements for operators’ integrity management systems and the coordination of data collection among agencies. The initial activity set of PSIO was completed and the oversight function closed in 2015. Future efforts to improve policies, systems, and methods of oversight will depend on executive direction, legislative support, and management emphasis within state agencies.

Author(s):  
Shahani Kariyawasam ◽  
Warren Peterson

Reliability methods have being adopted by oil and gas operators for integrity management decisions. These methods explicitly account for all relevant uncertainties and are designed to provide consistent safety. Consequently, a risk or reliability based approach is a very appropriate basis for decision making in the face of uncertainties. However, as in the effective use of any powerful methodology the sensitivities of the method to assumptions and limitations of applicability need to be well understood. This paper presents how improvements were made to reliability based integrity program by understanding its limitations and sensitivities. First the inputs that have the highest impact on the results were identified. These inputs are the most appropriate areas for improvement and data gathering. It is also very important to understand how the results are to be used and for what purpose. The results of this particular inline inspection based reliability assessment are used to make better excavation and repair decisions. A defect-based and joint-based decision making process is essential for determining with sufficient confidence if each defect and joint is in a safe condition. Consequently, the improvements are focused on discriminating between the myriad of defects found during an inline inspection run. Distinct field characteristics of corrosion growth are also taken into account in these improvements. The paper presents the implementation of effective area methods for future integrity probabilistic evaluations. It also describes the benefit of applying defect-specific growth rates. Finally, case studies are presented to demonstrate the effectiveness of the changes.


1975 ◽  
Vol 21 (2) ◽  
pp. 109-115 ◽  
Author(s):  
Meyressa H. Schoonmaker ◽  
Jennifer S. Brooks

A 1970 survey of women in probation and parole showed that only 20 states mixed caseloads of parole and probation officers. A survey of state agencies by means of a questionnaire directed. to the director of each state agency in January 1974 showed dramatic changes. The number of states allowing probation and parole officers to supervise clients of the opposite sex jumped to 46, with only four states holding out. The questionnaire results also show, not surprisingly, the low ratio of women employed in probation and parole. Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, the need for more qualified employees, and the inefficiency of caseload segrega tion have influenced changes in use of personnel. Although the change in practice to integrated caseloads is selective in some states and made with reservations in others, the response of one director of parole operations seems to capture the mood of inevitable change in practice and attitude: Civil Service says that his agency cannot discriminate against women and that a woman can do a "man's job" in all respects.


Author(s):  
Rakesh Yarlagadda ◽  
M. Affan Badar ◽  
Boris Blyukher

The safety of oil and gas pipelines has increasingly considered day by day to their vulnerability. Pipelines play a very critical role in the transportation of oil and natural-gas. As they have become the veins of oil industries, the productive design and analysis became more important. This made them more vulnerable to terrorist attacks. Although it is impossible to design pipelines to withstand any conceivable damage due to external (terrorist attacks, seismic effects) and internal effects (design and manufacturing defects), it is possible to improve the performance of pipelines. By understanding the design criteria, it saves lots of money and more over human lives and also protects the product in pipelines, which cannot be recovered and which is more and more scares day by day. This research aims: 1) to understand the different types of pipeline damages, reasons for their occurrence and their effects on the pipelines, such as mechanical damages, material defects, cracks, manufacturing defects, 2) to understand the explosions in pipelines, internal or external explosions and seismic distress, 3) to do research and literature review in analytical and numerical methods which allow researching the influence of shock waves (explosions, seismic), 4) to develop description of experimental research of pipelines subjected to shock waves (explosions, seismic), 5) to establish an effective methodology (develop mathematical model) to study the risk management in pipeline exploitation which can be subjected to such conditions like shock waves (caused by explosions, seismic, as well as mining activities) on pipeline systems (buried, on surface, or underwater), and 6) to establish criteria for risk management. This paper includes a review of the related literature covering the first two goals.


Author(s):  
Karine Kutrowski ◽  
Rob Bos ◽  
Jean-Re´gis Piccardino ◽  
Marie Pajot

On January 4th 2007 TIGF published the following invitation for tenders: “Development and Provision of a Pipeline Integrity Management System”. The project was awarded to Bureau Veritas (BV), who proposed to meet the requirements of TIGF with the Threats and Mitigations module of the PiMSlider® suite extended with some customized components. The key features of the PiMSlider® suite are: • More than only IT: a real integrity philosophy, • A simple intuitive tool to store, display and update pipeline data, • Intelligent search utilities to locate specific information about the pipeline and its surrounding, • A scalable application, with a potentially unlimited number of users, • Supervision (during and after implementation) by experienced people from the oil and gas industry. This paper first introduces TIGF and the consortium BV – ATP. It explains in a few words the PIMS philosophy captured in the PiMSlider® suite and focuses on the added value of the pipeline Threats and Mitigations module. Using this module allows the integrity analyst to: • Prioritize pipeline segments for integrity surveillance purposes, • Determine most effective corrective actions, • Assess the benefits of corrective actions by means of what-if scenarios, • Produce a qualitative threats assessment for further use in the integrity management plan, • Optimize integrity aspects from a design, maintenance and operational point of view, • Investigate the influence of different design criteria for pipeline segments. To conclude, TIGF presents the benefits of the tool for their Integrity Management department and for planning inspection and for better knowledge of their gas transmission grid.


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