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Helping operators
gather more complete
information on the
effects of strain-
based events.
6
T E C H N O L O G Y F O C U S
Even in a world that prizes groundbreaking feats and values
groundbreaking thinking, ground instability is anything but a positive
event for pipeline operators. When ground instability taxes a pipeline
well beyond its typical working stress limits, any number of anomalies
can occur, including buckles, kinks, crack growth, and large, longitudinal
plastic deformation that might eventually lead to pipeline failure.
For onshore operators, the risk of pipeline strain is often associated
with earthquakes, landslides, or frost heave, although in the desert,
pipelines buried in hot, sandy soil have even been known to move
themselves. And offshore, seismic activity is often associated with
upheaval buckling.
Fortunately, ground movement-related pipeline incidents defined
by regulators as serious or significant are relatively rare – in Europe,
they amount to about seven percent of all incidents; in the United
States, that number is slightly lower, at five percent. But however low-
probability they may seem, pipeline incidents related to earth movement
aren’t cheap: according to the Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety
Administration (PHMSA), serious and significant ground movement
events in the United States during the last two decades have cost the oil
and gas industry nearly US$364 million.
Groundbreaking!
Technology provides better insight into
geotechnical hazards and effects.
GROUND MOVEMENT-RELATED PIPELINE
INCIDENTS IN THE UNITED STATES
COST TO THE OIL & GAS INDUSTRY
IN THE LAST TWO DECADES
5%
$364
MILLION