The vast majority of the nation's petroleum and natural gas products make at least part of their journey from the refinery / processing plant to the end users through a network of pipelines. Pipelines have been used since the early 1800's when wood pipes brought natural gas from wells to local street lights. The first oil pipelines came into existence in the mid 1800's. Pipelines range in size from ½” to 48” in diameter and include both above ground and below ground systems. In general pipelines are used to transport petroleum products and natural gas from the location where the end-use quality product is produced to either a distribution center (petroleum products) or directly to the end user (natural gas). Both systems function in basically the same manner. Pressure is used to push the product through the pipeline to its ultimate destination. The pressure lost due to friction as the product moves through the line is compensated for through the use of either pump or compressor stations located along the pipeline route.

Prototype of a pipeline keyhole squeeze-off tool By enhancing the ability of the industry to quickly, efficiently and effectively repair damaged PE pipe within the natural gas infrastructure, this technology offers the potential to enhance overall pipeline safety and reliability through expedient repair to damaged pipeline.

There are approximately 95,000 miles of refined petroleum product pipelines within the US, the vast majority of which are buried lines (the primary exception being the 800 mile long Alaskan Pipeline). These petroleum product pipelines are used to transport several different products between refineries and distribution centers. Petroleum products are generally transported in “batches”, meaning that at any given time a specific section of line may contain any one of a variety of petroleum products including gasoline, diesel fuel, heating oil or kerosene. The interface between batches of products can result in a mixture of product in the transition area. If the products are similar, such as different grades of gasoline, the mix can be used as the lower grade material. If, however, the products are different, the mixture, referred to as “transmix” is typically trucked back to the refinery for re-processing. In some instances where one of the products is particularly sensitive, such as jet fuel (kerosene), rubber separation devices are used to eliminate mixing of products.

Approximately 1.4 million miles of natural gas pipelines now supply natural gas directly to over 175 million industrial, commercial, and residential customers throughout the US. These pipelines also are primarily made up of buried lines. The natural gas pipeline system is comprised of two major components, 300,000 miles of long distance transmission lines which move the gas from gas processing plants to regional hubs or “city gates”, and 1.1 million miles of distribution pipelines which move the gas from the city gate take off point of the transmission line to the ultimate end users. The volume of gas delivered through this system is projected to increase as natural gas use increases in the US. More households and businesses will use natural gas, and the generation of electric power will consume a large share of forecasted market increases. The existing natural gas pipeline system has the capacity to carry transport approximately 133 Bcf / day of gas. This increased demand will require changes in the natural gas pipeline infrastructure in the form of enhanced reliability of the existing system, as well as the development of new pipeline infrastructure.

The petroleum products pipeline system is a mature industry without much anticipated expansion but the natural gas pipeline system has several issues which must be addressed in order to continue to meet the nation's ever growing demand for natural gas. The integrity of this pipeline - compressor system must be maintained and enhanced. Advanced delivery systems must be developed to meet the large projected increases in natural gas usage. To try and address these issues the US Department of Energy's National Energy Technology Laboratory's Strategic Center for Natural Gas and Oil established the Natural Gas Delivery Reliability program in 2001. The program fosters the technologies needed to ensure the integrity and operational reliability of the nation's critical gas transmission and distribution network as it adapts to rapidly-changing natural gas markets. The Delivery Reliability program includes several key areas of technology development established to help address the unique needs of different aspects of the nation's natural gas pipeline system. Those focus areas include Inspection Technologies, Remote Sensing Technologies, Operational Technologies and Materials Development.

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