The Follow-Up of an Extensive Portfolio

The speed of the changes that have occurred in the world have forced organizations to adapt themselves and offer new products to the consumers in increasingly shorter timeframes, or risk being overtaken by the competition. The cycle of project life is being reduced, making the management increasingly complex both for the projects and portfolios of projects. Included in this scenario are companies from the oil sector that act to develop management systems that manage to aggregate greater chances of success for its projects as well as the capacity to manage multiple projects simultaneously. The concept of success itself is controversial, because on the one hand it is one of the most researched topics, on the other there is still no consensus among those interested. It becomes necessary then to understand the concept of success for projects, and to establish ways of measuring it, and try to identify the critical factors of success and the critical factors of failure, so that organizations can manage their own projects adequately. Companies with extensive project portfolios confront greater challenges, because they have to develop efficient methodologies to manage and maintain their portfolios, in addition to having to develop competences to accompany the management of multiple projects, identifying possible corrective actions for the deviations identified in time. One efficient manner of pro-actively controlling extensive portfolios of projects being executed simultaneously at different geographical locations is the utilization of a tool via web that integrates all the management activities. This tool must have as a basic premise its utility for the work of the management team, and not only be a communication tool, since in this case it would call for an effort by the management team that adds no value to the project. This article has the objective of showing the results of research carried out to identify how Transpetro, the largest logistics company in South America, which operates a fleet of 55 ships with transport capacity of 2.9 million deadweight tons, 7,033 km of oil pipelines and 3,600 km of gas pipelines, 20 land-based terminals and 26 water-based terminals, controls its engineering projects, directing its efforts in an attempt to achieve greater chances of success so as to comply with its strategic planning.

Storage Tank Floor and Wall Defect In-Situ Inspection With Ultrasonic Guided Wave Technique

Large storage tanks for oil storage are widely used in petrochemical industry. Corrosion in the tank floor and wall is a serious threat for environmental and economic safety. Owing to their unique potential for long-range, in-plane propagation through plates, Ultrasonic Guided Waves (UGW) offer an obvious solution in the development of an on-board structural health-monitoring (SHM) system, providing assessment of structural integrity for storage tank floor and wall defect in-situ inspection. This paper presents this application by focusing on their propagation through the plate structure. Even very small mechanical discontinuity or geometry change of plate structure, e.g. corrosion defect on tank floor, will influence the propagation characteristic of the guided waves. These effects are measured as mode changes, frequency shifts or filtering, reflection and diffraction of new ultrasonic modes or overall distortion of the original ultrasonic signals. By capturing and analyzing these changes we can deduct the corrosion defect of the tank floor and wall which causes the ultrasonic signal change and interactions. The T/R transducers are required to be attached on the outer edge of the tank floor and outer surface of the tank wall. The technique is developed based on the Lamb wave transmission tomography. Starting from the dispersion curve and choosing the appropriate wave mode, the propagation of the guided waves in the tank floor and wall has been carried out through numerical simulation and the experiment has been conducted for verification using the full-size oil storage tank. The low frequency guided waves can propagate longer distance in planar and tubular structures. The later has been already used in pipeline inspection. The complexity of the application of ultrasonic guided wave in tank floor inspection lies in the object containing multiple lap joint welds along the large diameter of the tank (up to 100 m) and the complicated reconstruction of the two-dimensional defect distribution information. The main scope of the investigation was the application of the ultrasonic transmission tomography for localization of non-uniformities of inside tank floor, taking into account ultrasonic signal losses due to the loading with oil on the top and ground support at the bottom for the tank floor, and the loading with oil inside for the vertical tank wall.

In-Field Application of Steel Strip Reinforcement for Pipeline External Rehabilitation

A new technology for external rehabilitation of pipelines, known as XHab™, has been developed. This method involves wrapping multiple layers of ultra-high strength steel (UHSS) strip in a helical form continuously over an extended length of pipeline using a dedicated forming and wrapping machine. The reinforcement afforded by the strip can be used to bring a defective section of pipe (e.g. externally corroded or dented) back to its original allowable operating conditions, or even to increase the allowable operating pressure if the desired operating conditions exceed the original pipeline design limits. This paper describes the design, manufacture and testing process for a self-propelled wrapping machine for in-field rehabilitation. The wrapping apparatus consists of several major components including an opening sufficiently wide to receive the pipe, a movement assembly, a winding head, a preforming device, an accumulator and an oscillating adhesive applicator. The wrapping apparatus uses the winding head to wrap the reinforcing steel strip around the pipe. The movement assembly uses a pair of tracks in contact with the pipe to drive the wrapping apparatus along which enables helical wrapping of the reinforcing strip material. The oscillating adhesive assembly applies structural adhesive to the pipe immediately before the strip is wound. The winding head, motive assembly and adhesive applicator are electronically synchronized to one another to enable precise control of pitch and adhesive volume. The paper also describes the field application of XHab including mobilization/demobilization of equipment and interaction with other rehabilitation equipment, as well as specific aspects such as initiation and termination of wrapping, protection of rehabilitated area and implementation of cathodic protection.

From CAD to GIS to the Geoweb: A Natural Evolution

Computer hardware and software have played a significant role in supporting the design and maintenance of pipeline systems. CAD systems allowed designers and drafters to compile drawings and make edits at a pace unmatched by manual pen drawings. Although CAD continues to provide the environment for a lot of pipeline design, Geographic Information Systems (GIS) are also innovating pipeline design through routines such as automated alignment sheet generation. What we have seen over the past two or three decades is an evolution in how we manage the data and information required for decision making in pipeline design and system operation. CAD provided designers and engineers a rapid electronic method for capturing information in a drawing, editing it, and sharing it. As the amount of digital data available to users grows rapidly, CAD has been unable to adequately exploit data’s abundance and managing change in a CAD environment is cumbersome. GIS and spatial data management have proven to be the next evolution in situations where engineering, integrity, environmental, and other spatial data sets dominate the information required for design and operational decision making. It is conceivable that GIS too will crumble under the weight of its own data usage as centralized databases become larger and larger. The Geoweb is likely to emerge as the geospatial world’s evolution. The Geoweb implies the merging of spatial information with the abstract information that currently dominates the Internet. This paper and presentation will discuss this fascinating innovation, it’s force as a disruptive technology, and oil and gas applications.

Rheological Property of Waxy Crude Oil in Restart Process of Pipeline

In the restart process of pipeline containing waxy crude oil after shutdown, the rheological properties of oil, including viscosity, yield stress and thixotropy is studied. The entire restart process is decided by various factors; in this paper the effects of outlet temperature, shutdown and restart temperature as well as shutdown time duration to the rheological property are taken into the consideration. The measurements are employed using a controlled shearing rheometer to investigate rheological property based on different restart conditions. In addition, this paper has also researched affection of emulsion and blended samples mixing with two types of crude oil in various ratios. Finally comprehensive rheological evaluation to restartability is obtained.

Offshore Installation of Welded Pipe: Local Buckling Evaluation

Up to the present, most of the pipes used in offshore applications installed with methods introducing plastic deformation have been seamless pipes; however, welded pipes can also be used. Welded pipes offers benefits over seamless pipe in terms of improved lead times, lower project costs, tighter dimensional tolerance and good control of mechanical properties and chemistry resulting in excellent weldability. During installation of welded pipes, failure by fracture, plastic collapse and local buckling may occur. In this work, the occurrence of the local buckling phenomenon, produced during the installation method, was evaluated. Numerical models were developed to study the effect of materials and geometrical parameters on the local bucking of pipes subjected to bending. Specifically, the loads and strains at which the plastic instability occurs were determined for each particular condition. In addition, the influence of longitudinal and girth welds on the local bucking occurrence was assessed.

Field Test of a Leak Detection System: Planning, Execution and Results

The OLAPA pipeline (Oleoduto Arauca´ria–Paranagua´) is a 12in diameter pipeline and, with its 97,6 km in length, crosses a mountain region called “Serra do Mar” attaining elevations of about 900m in a dense forest region. Besides that, this pipeline crosses cities, farms, rivers, including a short submerse stretch in the Paranagua´’s bay. An incident in this pipeline could result in severe consequences, especially under the environmental point of view. Therefore, this pipeline was chosen to test the performance of a new leak detector system in Transpetro. The test consists in comparing the theoretical results with practical values of alarm times obtained from a controlled removal of product in an adequate point, in the middle of the pipeline, simulating a real leak. The system chosen to be tested was the LeakWarn system, which is a computational system that uses the mass balance principle with line pack change to analyze the pipeline operational parameters in order to alert when there is a risk of product leak. This test had the objective to evaluate the LDS and help Transpetro’s management team to analyze and decide whether or not to replace its current leak management system, since this new one showed the expected results and was compatible with the excellence level already achieved in the company. The field test was performed in July 7th 2009, through a vent valve far from the ends of the pipeline and it was made in three different conditions: 1) A big leak in the steady state of operation; 2) A small leak also in the steady state of operation; and 3) A big leak in the transient state of operation (immediately after the pump station start up). In order to proceed this test, a multidisciplinary team was assigned and several resources were used such as: Two tank trucks, a specially designed leakage line with control valves, measuring system, flexible hoses, communication systems and emergency equipments. The complete operation was monitored from the Control Center in Transpetro’s Headquarter, Rio de Janeiro. This paper describes the way the tests were performed and presents the results in order to contribute with useful information to be used in any field test for any other leak detection system. It shows how planning were done in order to insure that all operations would be performed according to strict procedures and in a safe way. It also describes the milestones and the work of each team involved in the activity, as well as their constraints and difficulties that had to be overcome during the planning and execution phases, that lasted approximately one year.

Management of Transpetro’s Corporate Social and Environmental Responsibility in the Midwest of Brazil

Evidence of compliance with the corporate policy of social and environmental responsibility of a company is not always fully matched to the daily lives of each of its regional managers or business units. Consolidated information on business reporting often generalizes individual experiments and thus hides the lack of capacity of the company to meet the parameters of social management and environmental responsibility. This article records the experience of the Management of Land and Oil Terminals Transpetro in the Midwest to face the challenge of overcoming this trend by developing mechanisms to regionally monitor performance in various dimensions of environmental responsibility and the relationship with internal public, environment, communities, government and society, among other things. The work was initiated in 2008 with the creation of the Center for Environmental and Social Responsibility, made up of professionals from different sectors of management, whose first task was to make a diagnosis which would position Transpetro Midwestern regarding the fulfillment of general requirements of social responsibility corporately as well as those specific requirements of the gas sector and energy. Compared with the “Corporate Social Responsibility Indicators”, this diagnosis has provided an overview of environmental responsibility actions already undertaken in the management system, and has pointed to those areas that require greater commitment. This allows the business unit to demonstrate why Petrobras is considered a benchmark for social and environmental responsibility in Brazil and the world.

Pipeline Leakage Recognition Based on the Projection Singular Value Features and Support Vector Machine

Identification of negative pressure waveform is the key of pipeline leakage detection. The feature extraction and the choice of the classifier are two main contents to solve the recognition problem. In this paper, a new feature extraction method based on the Projection Singular Value is presented. First of all, the two orthogonal singular value decomposition matrixes of the typical leakage waveform are extracted as the standard bases. Then the projection singular value features of the other pressure wave matrixes are extracted by being projected to the two standard bases. As the pipeline leakage is a small probability event, it is difficult to obtain the leakage samples. A multi-classification Support Vector Machine, which has the advantage of small sample learning, is constructed to classify these features in this paper. The field experiments indicate that the leakage detection based on this feature extraction and recognition model has a higher accuracy of leakage recognition.

Innovative Management Strategies to Address Environmental and Social Concerns on a Major Pipeline

Gasoducto Nor Andino is a 1,100 km long natural gas pipeline which runs through one of the most critical environmental and social areas of Argentina and Chile. The area is inhabited by aboriginal communities that face a progressive deterioration of their cultural values and traditional customs. The beginning of the construction of Gasoducto Nor Andino triggered a strong reaction in the local communities and environmental organizations such as Greenpeace. Such reaction soon extended throughout the country, generating a strong debate as to the value of Economic & Technological Progress vs Environmental Conservation. All the problems were successfully solved by actions conducted in accordance with the Company’s ethical values. The different stakeholders involved were called together and agreements were implemented with nongovernmental organizations (NGOs), such as Greenpeace, representatives of the aboriginal communities, local and environmental authorities (National Park Administration, Environmental Secretariat of Salta Province, etc.). This paper describes the non-traditional and innovative actions taken to solve the problems and the remarkable results achieved.