Monitoring and Preventing Failures of Transmission Pipelines at Oil and Natural Gas Plants

Abstract

In recent years, the increase in energy prices and demand has been driven by the post-pandemic economic recovery. Of the various energy sources, oil and natural gas remain the most important source of energy production and consumption after coal. Oil and gas pipelines are a key component of the overall energy infrastructure, transporting oil and gas from mines to end users, so the reliability and safety of these pipelines is critical. The oil and gas industry incurs large expenses for the removal of failures related to, among others, corrosion of pipelines caused by the presence of Hg, CO2 H2S, carbonates and chlorides in reservoir waters. Therefore, pipeline operators must constantly monitor and prevent corrosion. Corrosion failure losses are a major motivation for the oil and gas industry to develop accurate monitoring models using non-destructive NDT methods based on test results and failure frequency observations. Observing the locations of frequent pipeline failures and monitoring and applying corrosion protection to pipelines play an important role in reducing failure rates and ultimately increasing the economic and safety performance of pipelines. Monitoring and prevention efforts support the decision-making process in the oil and gas industry by predicting failures and determining the timing of maintenance or replacement of corroded pipelines. We have presented methods of prevention through the use of corrosion inhibitors in crude oil and natural gas transmission pipelines, as well as various factors that influence their application. In this article, a review of corrosion rate monitoring systems is conducted, and a range of control and monitoring scenarios is proposed. This knowledge will aid scientists and practitioners in prioritizing their policies, not only to choose the appropriate monitoring technique but also to enhance corrosion protection effectiveness.