Pipeline Monitoring to Prevent Illegal Hot Taps
Introduction
Theft of oil from illegal hot taps impacts revenue, and compromises pipeline safety and integrity across the world. The detection of hot taps poses technical, financial, and human challenges, which together make solving this problem extraordinarily difficult for pipeline operators. From a technical standpoint, existing detection tools are difficult to run and are susceptible to damage from those involved in the crime. From a global financial standpoint, Ernst & Young estimates illegal and fraudulent activities cost oil and gas companies US$133 billion annually (Ernst & Young, 2015), (Desjardins, 2017), (Ralby 2017). The costs associated with monitoring for this activity can be significant. The instrumentation required, as well as the testing and development of alternatives are expensive and the results can be uncertain. Hot taps can be installed at any time in a pipeline’s lifespan, putting pressure on operators to regularly run costly and disruptive inspections (e.g., smart pigs) or to install continuous monitoring solutions (e.g., fiber optics) that can be vulnerable to sabotage. There is a need for a reliable, tamper proof, and economical solution to this problem.
Project description
In this project, Petrobras and Transpetro wanted to demonstrate that Pipers® are an effective and economical solution for ongoing monitoring for illegal hot taps. To do so, an 8.5 km 22 inch crude-oil pipeline was surveyed using the Pipers® in a hot-tapping intervention scenario where a new hot tap is introduced at an unknown location along the pipeline to validate the Pipers® hot tap detection capability. The pipeline was inspected four times in total; two times prior to the hot tap installation and two times after the hot tap was installed on the pipeline. The time interval between the first two (pre-installation of the hot tap) and the last two runs (post-installation of the hot tap) was 14 days.
The Pipers® solution
Results
In this case study, a magnetic baseline was obtained by inspecting the pipeline prior to the installation of hot taps. A precise and accurate distance scale is generated by utilizing the identified girth welds and fittings in the magnetic flux data with known information provided by the operator. The post-installation inspections were then directly compared to the magnetic baseline, where a search for deviations in the magnetic baseline was done. Any deviations from the baseline are then processed for any magnetic signatures that resemble factors or features that could cause changes in the magnetic flux.
A magnetic signature was found within a spool piece approximately 7.23 km into the 8.5 km pipeline that appeared to follow more of a broad peak and convex structure as well as having a change in magnetic flux in the adjacent regions due to the installation process of the hot tap. The broad peak structure is identical to previously identified hot taps.
The location of the identified hot tap was then sent to be verified. It was confirmed that the location of the new hot tap installed within this section of the pipeline was correctly identified by the Pipers®.
Pipeline specifications
Survey Length | 8.5 km |
Pipeline Diameter | 22 inch |
Pipeline Material | Carbon Steel |
Resource Carried | Naphtha |
Location | Brazil |
Further reading
- Rapid Identification of New Hot Taps in Pipelines using Remnant Magnetism; Pipeline Pigging and Integrity Management Conference 2021, February 24-25, 2021
- Detecting illegal tapping locations with free-floating Pipers®; Rio Oil & Gas Expo and Conference 2020, December 01-03, 2020