Other subjects discussed at the conference, organised by Great Southern Press’ Tiratsoo Technical division in partnership with Clarion Technical Conferences, included fitness-for-service assessments; a French operator’s strategy for asset management; effective rehabilitation of a cathodic protection system in Tanzania; and, a record replacement of 32 20 inch diameter pipe lengths, on the Druzhba Pipeline in the Czech Republic in only 88 hours.

Preceded by training courses on pipeline rehabilitation from Incal Pipeline Rehabilitation’s Sidney Taylor and pipeline in-service welding and repair from DNV Columbus’ Bill Bruce, the two-day conference brought together delegates from 24 countries, including Libya, Sudan, Nigeria, Israel and Saudi Arabia, as well as a contingent from Russia for whom simultaneous translation was provided.

The keynote address was given by Heinz Watzka, Technical Director of Open Grid Europe, the newly formed transmission arm of E.ON Ruhrgas. He commented upon the regulatory environment in Germany that has seen some recent changes requiring pipeline operators to establish fundamental changes in planning, forecasting and implementation of technical projects.

Thomas Salvan of Trapil in France discussed how the large quantity of data from an inspection should be dealt with. He took the pragmatic approach that, after an initial analysis and prioritisation review, a simple lowering of pipeline pressure can allow a defect to be rendered acceptable while repair or rehabilitation options are discussed.

Dr Jochen Stratmann of Open Grid Europe followed, with an interesting review of gas pipeline inspection using ultrasonic tools. Dr Stratmann told the conference that his company had conducted successful ultrasonic inspections by completely filling a gas pipeline with clean water before the inspection to ensure the necessary coupling was made for the tool’s ultrasonic wave transmitters and receivers. However, this is costly, presents environmental difficulties, and is not always possible.

As an alternative, a short section (or batch) of liquid may be run through the pipe in order to avoid completely filling it, with pigs separating the liquid from the surrounding gas in the pipeline, and the inspection tool being kept within the liquid-filled section. However, batches may assume considerable velocities in the event of large slopes along the pipeline route, which can influence the tool’s detection capability and, give rise to pipeline damage if the velocities become too high.

A team of three speakers from GRTgaz in France introduced the theme of asset management to the conference, using the company’s 32,000 km pipeline network as an example.

GRTgaz has developed a method of undertaking an objective technical and economic analysis allowing prioritisation of maintenance work according to the corrosivity of the soil and the pipeline’s environment which is now being used to inform decisions about the rehabilitation or replacement of ageing pipelines.

The final operator paper at the conference was given by Botas International’s Okan Sandalloiglu, the emergency pipeline repair supervisor for the 1,076 km Baku – Tblisi – Ceyhan Oil Pipeline. Mr Sandalloiglu gave a fascinating insight into the everyday problems of pipeline operations across long distances and through communities with whom contact with the operator is often tenuous.

An overview of permanent repair activities for mechanically-damaged pipes was given, and a range of pipe-repair application scenarios were discussed, which included the use of the Clock Spring, composite sleeves, and epoxy coating applications. He went on to illustrate the difficulties and huge costs of an illegal fitting removal which, in a recent case, required a three-month hot tap and stopple operation with a temporary by-pass and reinforcing full-encirclement sleeve at a point on the Turkish section.

Markus Brors of Rosen Integrity Solutions presented a case study on the implementation of a pipeline integrity management system at a major state-run pipeline operator. This was followed by a joint paper from Dr Gregory Brown and Dr Ted Anderson of Quest Integrity Group on the subject of evaluation of pipeline dents using in line inspection data, and Paul Clayton of PII Pipeline Solutions and Mark Kelso of BP on the challenges faced in order to clean and inspect the UK North Sea’s 36 inch diameter, 412 km long CATS gas pipeline.

Unfortunately space does not permit an account of other papers on the conference programme. However, a selection of papers presented at the conference will be published in Pipelines International’s sister publications The Journal of Pipeline Engineering and Pipelines International Digest.