Identifying Minimum Safe Distance between Adjacent Parallel Pipelines

Abstract

With the rapid development of the oil and gas pipeline industry, parallel pipelines are increasingly constructed to minimize land use conflicts. Whenever a large diameter, high pressure gas pipeline is designed and constructed in an alignment that is parallel with an existing oil or petroleum products pipeline, pipeline operators focus is on pipeline safety. In the unlikely event that a catastrophic failure of one of the parallel pipelines occurs the minimum safe distance between the two pipelines is a critical factor for protecting the other pipeline facility. In this paper, four aspects which are pipeline construction, the explosion crater impact of high-pressure gas pipeline on adjacent oil pipeline, the particle velocity impact after high-pressure gas pipeline blasting on adjacent oil pipeline and non-joint cathodic protection interference between parallel pipelines, are respectively described in detail. Furthermore, the method of identifying safe distance is also discussed. And based on the study, the reasonable minimum safe distance between Zhongwei-Guiyang gas pipeline and Lanzhou-Chengdu oil pipeline is proposed.