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I N N O V AT I O N S • V O L . V I I , N O. 3 • 2 0 1 5
Safe, cost-effective
compliance is
within reach
Federal regulators in the United States appear to be honing
in more than ever on bolstering natural gas transmission line safety.
And while everyone wants to be safer, achieving and maintaining full
regulatory compliance can be quite a challenge – and a costly one at that.
For more than a year, natural gas transmission operators have
been deciding how to address the Pipeline and Hazardous Materials
Safety Administration’s (PHMSA) pending Integrity Verification
Process (IVP) regulation. The new regulation would require operators
to verify the records they use to establish and support the maximum
allowable operating pressure (MAOP) of pipelines in high and moderate
consequence areas.
Now, operators are digesting the 28 transmission line safety
recommendations that the National Transportation Safety Board
(NTSB) made in late January of this year – including one that would
require all natural gas transmission pipelines to be configured to
accommodate inline inspection (ILI) tools. The proposed NTSB
requirement specifically refers to the use of “smart pigs”, which are used
to record information about the mechanical condition of pipe material.
For a number of transmission line operators, the proposed ILI
MORE STRINGENT
SAFETY REGULATIONS
COULD BE ON HORIZON FOR U.S. TRANSMISSION PIPELINES
F U T U R E T H I N K I N G