Pipeline Disaster Research Articles

A Narrative of Urban Underground Pipeline System Disasters in China in 2021: Spatial and Temporal Distribution, Causal Analysis, and Response Strategies

In recent years, there have been frequent disasters and accidents in the underground pipeline system of Chinese cities, posing a continuous threat to the safety of life and property of the public and the order of urban operations. This article uses statistical data on the spatiotemporal distribution of major underground pipeline disasters in various provinces of China in 2021. By using Pearson’s correlation coefficient and regression analysis, a causal analysis model for urban underground pipeline accidents is constructed, and the correlation between urban underground pipeline accident rate and economic and social indicators is analyzed. From the analysis, it has been found that the correlation coefficients of gross domestic product (GDP) per capita, the pipeline density in the built-up area, and the urban pipeline accident rate reach −0.4019 and −0.4275, respectively, showing a negative correlation. Further, the regression analysis results show that the underground pipeline accident rate shows a decreasing trend as the per capita GDP and the density of pipelines in the built-up areas increase. Among them, the results of the power function fitting model show that the GDP per capita accounts for 48.10% of the urban underground pipeline accidents, whereas the pipeline density of the built-up area accounts for 58.27% of these accidents. The construction of underground pipeline regulations is influential in reducing underground pipeline disaster accidents. In this study, the role and effectiveness of the factors, such as the construction of professional regulations in maintaining the safe operation of urban underground pipelines, has been discussed, and suggestions and methods to improve the problems that need to be solved, such as the construction of a municipal supporting emergency management system in the safe operation of underground pipelines in the future, have been proposed.

Quantitative Estimation of Pipeline Slope Disaster Risk in China

China’s economic development is closely related to oil and gas resources, and the country is investing heavily in pipeline construction. Slope geological hazards seriously affect the long-term safe operation of buried pipelines, usually causing pipeline leakage, property and environmental losses, and adverse social impacts. To ensure the safety of pipelines and reduce the probability of pipeline disasters, it is necessary to predict and quantitatively evaluate slope hazards. While there has been much research focus in recent years on the evaluation of pipeline slope disasters and the stress calculation of pipelines under hazards, existing methods only provide information on the occurrence probability of slope events, not whether a slope disaster will lead to pipeline damage. Taking the 2015 Xinzhan landslide in Guizhou Province, China, as an example, this study used discrete elements to simulate landslide events and determine the risk level and scope for pipeline damage, and then established a pipe-soil coupling model to quantitatively evaluate the impact of landslide hazards for pipelines in medium- and high-risk areas. The results provide a reference for future pipeline disaster prevention and control.

Fuzzy Comprehensive Safety Evaluation of Pipeline Disaster in China-Russia Crude Oil Permafrost Region Based on Improved Analytic Hierarchy Process-Entropy Weight Method

Considering the difficulty in evaluating pipeline safety in permafrost region, the pipeline disaster safety evaluation index system in permafrost region is analyzed and established. A comprehensive weight determination method based on improved fuzzy analytic hierarchy process, entropy weight method and Lagrange algorithm is proposed, and a fuzzy comprehensive evaluation model of permafrost pipeline safety is established. Taking the disaster safety evaluation of pipeline in the China-Russia crude oil permafrost region as an example, the proposed method is used to determine the comprehensive weight of disaster safety index of permafrost pipeline and carry out comprehensive safety evaluation. The rationality of the comprehensive weight determination method is verified by comparing with the performance of the traditional AHP evaluation method.

Wide-Area and Real-Time Object Search System of UAV

The method of collecting aerial images or videos by unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) for object search has the advantages of high flexibility and low cost, and has been widely used in various fields, such as pipeline inspection, disaster rescue, and forest fire prevention. However, in the case of object search in a wide area, the scanning efficiency and real-time performance of UAV are often difficult to satisfy at the same time, which may lead to missing the best time to perform the task. In this paper, we design a wide-area and real-time object search system of UAV based on deep learning for this problem. The system first solves the problem of area scanning efficiency by controlling the high-resolution camera in order to collect aerial images with a large field of view. For real-time requirements, we adopted three strategies to accelerate the system, as follows: design a parallel system, simplify the object detection algorithm, and use TensorRT on the edge device to optimize the object detection model. We selected the NVIDIA Jetson AGX Xavier edge device as the central processor and verified the feasibility and practicability of the system through the actual application of suspicious vehicle search in the grazing area of the prairie. Experiments have proved that the parallel design of the system can effectively meet the real-time requirements. For the most time-consuming image object detection link, with a slight loss of precision, most algorithms can reach the 400% inference speed of the benchmark in total, after algorithm simplification, and corresponding model’s deployment by TensorRT.

Developing a framework for stakeholders collaboration in the management and mitigation of oil pipeline disasters in Nigeria

<abstract> <p>Multi Stakeholders collaboration becomes imperative when a single agency such as the NNPC or the Oil Companies alone cannot adequately address a recurring menace such as oil pipeline disasters. Thus, agencies such as National Emergency Management Agency (NEMA), NOSDRA, FMHDSD, Fire Service, Oil Companies, Health and Security agencies, the Media and Academia, as well the Community must seek to promote cooperation in order to achieve successful oil pipeline disaster policy implementation. To achieve this goal efficiently and effectively, a framework for stakeholders* collaboration in the management and mitigation of oil pipeline disasters in Nigeria was developed in this study, following a logical path and adopting the use of interviews conducted among the main stakeholders and with industry experts. In a bid to achieve an un-biased opinion, questionnaires and document analysis of data obtained from secondary sources was carried out.</p> <p>A framework for the mitigation of oil pipeline disasters before, during and after disaster occurrence was developed. The framework captures the relevant stakeholders as well as their roles in disaster mitigation.</p> </abstract>

Disaster impact assessment of the underground hazardous materials pipeline

In the United States, Canada, the United Kingdom, and other countries with advanced pipeline management, some organizations are responsible for pipeline safety protection management for underground hazardous materials. The security and maintenance of a hazardous material pipeline are serious considerations for urban safety, because the materials transported by underground pipelines contain hazardous goods, such as the flammable or explosive particles of solids, liquids, and gases. Damage to a pipeline by external forces often leads to secondary disasters, such as the leakage of hazardous materials, fires, explosions, and environmental pollution. Such events seriously affect the safety of individuals and their property.Accordingly, this study used seismic scenario analysis with a spatial grid to evaluate earthquake damage to an underground pipeline in an urban area. Damage to underground pipelines was classified, pipeline disaster management procedures were discussed, and improvement measures were proposed, such as establishing a geographic information platform and conducting disaster impact assessments for hazardous material pipelines. Underground hazardous material pipelines were assessed in scenarios including earthquakes. Such assessments are intended to provide disaster reduction plans and disaster prevention drills to improve pipeline safety as well as the planning for pipeline materials to aid seismic resistance.

Complacency and Automation Bias in the Enbridge Pipeline Disaster

Automation bias was likely the main contributing factor in the Enbridge pipeline disaster that occurred on July 26, 2010, when large amounts of crude oil were released into the Kalamazoo River and Talmadge Creek. An examination of the Enbridge oil pipeline accident suggests that complacency and automation bias played leading roles but were overlooked by regulators. Moreover, we believe that because the National Transportation Safety Board overlooked existing research on automation bias, its recommendations are flawed and could exacerbate, rather than alleviate, the problem. Industry, policy makers, and regulators need to consider automation bias when developing systems to reduce the likelihood of complacency errors.

Anthropogenic Hazard and Disaster Relief Operations: A Case Study of GAIL Pipeline Blaze in East Godavari of A.P

Disasters are of two type's natural and anthropogenic hazard or man-made hazards. A natural disaster is a major adverse geologic process resulting as floods, earth quakes, tsunamis which cause severe damage of life, property and environment. While the anthropogenic hazard results in the form of human intent, negligence, human error and involving a failure of man-made system. The Nagaram gas leaking from GAIL pipeline fire explosion took 23 lives in the early hours of 27th June 2014. This explosion occurred close to the ONGC's Tatipaka mini-refinery and a gas collecting station began leaking the day before the accident and spread over the area and caught fire when the tea vendor lit a stove. The impact was devastating as the flames spread over a 1km radius, catching people in the vicinity unawares.The major cause for this mishap is apathy towards the haul of surveillance and hovered district administration. The state government has announced ex-gratia of 50,000 rupees and GAIL has announced an ex-gratia of 25 lakh to the next kin of those who died, and 5 lakh to those who suffered permanent disability as a medical aid. The paper aims to question the governments’ ex-gratia over decimation, despite additional surveillance based on an empirical work in support of disaster relief operations over this anthropogenic hazard of GAIL pipeline disaster. This paper provides an overview of this hazard in victim's family/kin perspective, which is aggravated significantly by the vulnerability of people‘s vicinity, and the findings of the study will be useful to improve the effectiveness and efficiency of disaster relief operations in order to assist in the aftermath of future anthropogenic disasters.

A multi-perspective view of the effects of a pipeline explosion in Nigeria

Vandalisation of petroleum pipelines is a major cause of pipeline fire disasters. However, except the number of deaths recorded, little information of the effects of such disasters on the environment is often reported in developing countries, and post-disaster remediation process is thus usually unmonitored or ineffective. This study investigated the effect of a major pipeline disaster in a rural environment in Nigeria from multi-date satellite imageries (orthophoto map, Landsat Enhanced Thematic Mapper Plus, ETM+ and IKONOS), social and ecological surveys. Results showed that some of the affected settlements were within the pipeline corridor before the disaster, and pipeline vandalisation was encouraged by one or more cases of faulty and exposed pipeline, deficient pipeline monitoring system, sabotage and readily available markets for siphoned oil. Ecological effects include loss of about 200ha of vegetation resulting into significantly lower woody and herbaceous plant species in the affected regions than the adjacent plots. Significant proportion of the survivors also reported lower quality of groundwater (well water), air and streams, health problems (mainly abdominal pain) after they drank the well water and destruction of their crops and farmlands. The study concluded on the need for enforcement of the right-of-way laws on pipelines in Nigeria.

Global process industry initiatives to reduce major accident hazards

In the past 10 years, the vapor cloud explosion at Texas City, the ammonium nitrate explosion in Toulouse, a pipeline disaster in Belgium, and three near total loss events in Norway have highlighted that major accident process safety is still a serious issue. Hopes that PSM or Safety Case regulations would reduce process events by 80% have not proven true. The Baker Panel, convened after Texas City developed a series of recommendations, mainly around leadership, incentives, safety culture and more effective implementation of PSM systems. Many US-based companies are working hard to implement the Baker recommendations. In Europe, an approach built around safety barriers, especially relating to technical safety systems, is being widely adopted. The author’s company has carried out a global survey of process industry initiatives, for both upstream and downstream activities, to identify what the industry itself is planning to enhance process safety in the next 5–10 years. This paper presents a summary of some of the major programs and initiatives as apply to traditional oil majors, newer national oil companies, and the chemical industry. These are a mixture of Baker recommendations, barrier approaches and tighter integration of process safety and asset integrity. While the factor of 10 improvement achieved in occupational safety over the past 20 years seems unattainable for process safety, a factor of 3–4 improvement in the next 20 years does seem possible. This would call for significant effort on the part of operators, but the benefits fully justify the effort.

Table of Contents

Abstract Features Innovative E&P Approaches Making a Difference to the Environment Lance Cook and Matt Ratliff Strategies Career Strategies You Need in Today's Gas and Power Job Market Cabell Poindexter Retail End‐Users Better Information to Customers about Bills Yields Benefits Harvey Michaels End‐Users Process Gas Consumers Group Points Out Downside of Volatility Lee Gooch Columns Pipelines and Rates Pipeline Disaster Recovery Procedures—Pipeline Perspective Richard G. Smead LDCs Pipelines Keep Chipping Away Dana Contratto End‐Users Pipeline Disaster Procedures: End‐User Viewpoint Edward J. Grenier Jr.

The Williams pipeline disaster: A controlled study of a technological accident

AbstractThis study reports the results of a neighborhood interview for Post‐Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) symptoms 13 months after a manmade technological disaster. Interviews with 24 victims found 3 who satisfied DSM‐III‐R criteria for PTSD. However, a low community response rate of 58%, resident relocation and other factors raise the possibility of sampling bias and results should be considered cautiously. Victims experiencing PTSD symptoms were more likely to be female, older, and having a history of psychiatric treatment. Some PTSD symptoms were more frequent than others, especially the avoidance symptoms of amnesia, diminished interest and detachment, which had a sensitivity of 63% and a specificity of 100%. One particular arousal symptom, sleep difficulty, was generally confined to female victims. The study corroborates the findings of larger disasters regarding the importance of certain characteristics of individuals that place them at greater risk for psychological morbidity following a disaster. Further studies are needed to define the unique characteristics of circumscribed disasters, such as social, religious or geographical parameters that may mitigate or compound the effect of a disaster.

The Williams pipeline disaster: A controlled study of a technological accident

This study reports the results of a neighborhood interview for Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) symptoms 13 months after a manmade technological disaster. Interviews with 24 victims found 3 who satisfied DSM-III-R criteria for PTSD. However, a low community response rate of 58%, resident relocation and other factors raise the possibility of sampling bias and results should be considered cautiously. Victims experiencing PTSD symptoms were more likely to be female, older, and having a history of psychiatric treatment. Some PTSD symptoms were more frequent than others, especially the avoidance symptoms of amnesia, diminished interest and detachment, which had a sensitivity of 63% and a specificity of 100%. One particular arousal symptom, sleep difficulty, was generally confined to female victims. The study corroborates the findings of larger disasters regarding the importance of certain characteristics of individuals that place them at greater risk for psychological morbidity following a disaster. Further studies are needed to define the unique characteristics of circumscribed disasters, such as social, religious or geographical parameters that may mitigate or compound the effect of a disaster.

Burned children from the Bashkir train-gas pipeline disaster. I. Acute management at Children's Hospital 9, Moscow

Following the Bashkir train—gas pipeline disaster of 4 June 1989, US surgeons and nurses had an opportunity to join their Soviet counterparts at the Burn Unit at Children's Hospital 9 in Moscow in caring for the children. As a result of the joint effort, both the Soviet and US professionals came to understand the strengths and limits of each system of burn care. Joining strengths through mutual willingness to listen and cooperate left an elevated level of burn care at Children's Hospital 9.

Bashkiria train—gas pipeline disaster: a history of the joint USSR/USA collaboration

In June 1989, a methane/propane pipeline explosion destroyed two passenger trains in the Bashkirian Republic of the Soviet Union. Over 400 passengers died immediately and 806 were injured. Most of those injured suffered thermal injuries. One hundred and fifty patients were treated at Hospital 21 in Ufa, Bashkiria, by a combined Soviet—US team. Twenty-six patients underwent excision and grafting of their burn wounds. Microbiological studies indicated significant resistance to locally available antibiotics. Antibiotics provided by the US team proved useful in treating the resistant organisms. This disaster and the international response to it exemplify the need for a coordinated response to major burn disasters and the positive results of international cooperation.

A survey of the primary aid response to the Bashkir train-gas pipeline disaster

A survey of the primary aid response to the Bashkir train-gas pipeline disaster

Burned children from the Bashkir train—gas pipeline disaster. II. Follow-up experience at Children's Hospital 9, Moscow

A group of US surgeons and nurses was invited by the Soviet surgeons and nurses of the Burn Unit of Childrens Hospital 9 to return to Moscow to participate in the evaluation and treatment of a group of 25 children burned in the Bashkir train—gas pipeline accident of 4 June 1989. The US group had participated in the acute care of the children 7 months before. Major sequelae observed were hepatitis, cardiomyopathy and severe emotional disorders. Reconstructive surgery for burn scars was jointly planned and carried out during a 2-week period of mutually instructive cooperation.

Bashkirian train-gas pipeline disaster: the American military response

The United States Army Institute of Surgical Research was asked to provide burn care assistance in June 1989 following the explosion of leaking methane/propane gas in the Central Soviet Union, which destroyed two passenger trains and injured 800 passengers. A 17-member burn team flew from San Antonio, Texas, to Ufa, USSR and assisted in the management of 150 burn patients in a general medical-surgical hospital. Early problems included heavily colonized burn wounds, with a microbial flora that demonstrated broad antibiotic resistance. As wound complications were controlled, 28 operative procedures were performed to excise and graft the burn wounds. The recommendations for burn disaster management, based on our experience in Ufa, should be of assistance to other groups that may be asked to provide similar assistance in the future.