TAP-565-Guidelines for the Integrity Assessment methods of Piggable and Unpiggable Pipelines in the Gulf of Mexico

The Offshore Federal Oil & Gas infrastructure includes over 33, 000 miles of pipeline that provides the means to service and transport approximately 30 percent of our nation's domestically produced oil and gas from offshore wells to onshore refineries. As the U.S. grows increasingly dependent on the steady supply of energy from offshore oil and gas reserves, MMS remains attentive to the needs of existing pipeline operations, some of which remain in operation after 40 years of service and beyond their anticipated service life. Pipeline integrity (due to age, type of use, corrosion, etc.) will be the focus of this research as well as concerns for pipeline susceptibility due to third party damage (i.e., anchor drag, dropped objects) and the dynamic forces added by soil movement, currents, and wave motion in both shallow and deep waters.

The use of in-line tools for inspection and cleaning is a common practice however many existing pipelines are not able to utilize such tools due to the lack of pigging facilities, external damage, and/or repairs that prevent tools from being ran inside the pipelines. Retrofitting of pipelines to make them piggable requires extensive capitol investments and removal of facilities that may outweigh the benefits of such investments. Additionally, some failure modes are not detectable through internal inspection. Due to many challenges, alternatives to current internal inspections methods and development of alternative internal inspection capabilities is needed to ensure continued operations and protection of the environment. The project is to study current conditions, restrictions, and possible solutions regarding the piggability of pipelines and deliver a guideline for how to assess the integrity of offshore pipelines in the Gulf of Mexico (GOM) that can also apply to other regions of the U.S. as well as international operations.