Cased Pipeline Integrity Assessment Workshop

A workshop on Cased Pipeline Integrity Assessments was held in Chicago on July 15th & 16th. PHMSA, the National Association of Pipeline Safety Representatives (NAPSR), NACE International and several industry organizations (AGA – American Gas Association, API – American Petroleum Institute, INGAA – Interstate Natural Gas Association of America, and APGA – American Public Gas Association) working through a joint steering committee, sponsored, organized, planned and executed this workshop. The workshop brought together over 160 representatives from State (6) and Federal (8) regulatory agencies, trade associations (5), operators (97), service providers/vendors (34), researchers (12), and Standards Committees (6).

The workshop's goals included opening a dialog amongst all relevant stakeholders to identify key challenges facing industry and regulators on assessing carrier piping in casings (particularly in High Consequence Areas), sharing information on current research efforts, and identifying potential solutions involving understanding of current regulations, regulatory changes, revised standards, revised operating practices and/or research practices that can help to meet the challenges.

• Background of the regulatory integrity requirements,
• Examples of integrity threats to cased line pipe and incidents,
• Current integrity inspection positions of the stakeholders represented,
• Relevant NACE standards and pending revisions
• Approaches and assessment methodologies by operators and service providers/vendors being used for cased pipeline segments, and
• Overview of research completed or currently underway.

The second day initially was going have break out sessions in the morning to have additional discussion on operator assessment practices, service providers, research options and standards development; however the attendees voted overwhelmingly to have just one session and to have an open dialog between attendees on all of the above issues. This way all of the attendees could hear first hand the dialog and the discussions regarding casings assessment methods and other relevant information. There was then an afternoon panel on long term issues, including discussions on whether or not casings are still needed in some/all applications

The workshop was successful in identifying key challenges facing industry and regulators in assessing cased pipelines in order to meet regulatory requirements under the Gas and Liquid integrity management program. PHMSA is in the process of reviewing all of the comments and questions presented at the workshop and will formulate a strategy of going forward. Such a strategy may consist of forming a new working technical committee(s) to investigate some of the options, focused research to determine if there are any additional methods of assessment, or having smaller follow-up meetings with stakeholder groups.

Background documents, presentations, and additional supporting materials are present below. A summary report including key challenges identified, potential solutions by stakeholder group, and next steps is still being finalized, but will soon be on the website as well.

Final Report

• Final Summary Report

Day 1

• 1. Welcome and background of the issue (Zach Barrett/PHMSA) including perspective from the following stakeholders
• AGA (Andrew Lu)
• API (Peter Lidiak)
• NACE (Linda Goldberg)
• Verbal comments (no presentation) from INGAA (Terry Boss)

• Panel – NACE Standards and Upcoming Revisions – Joe Mataich/PHMSA Moderator
• 2. SP0502-2008, Bob Fassett, PG&E
• 3. SP0200-2008, Jeff Didas, Colonial Pipeline
• Also on the panel will be Alan Eastman, Mears Corp; Virgil Wallace, Williams; and Garry Matocha, Spectra Energy
• Panel – Operators, Approaches and assessment methodologies being used for cased pipeline segments - Andrew Lu/AGA, Moderator
• 4. NGA, Dave Merte/Central Hudson Gas & Electric and Northeast Gas Association Transmission Integrity Chairman.
• 5. Interstate operator: Garry Matocha, Spectra Energy
• 6. LDC using ECDA: Bob Fassett, Pacific Gas & Electric
• 7. LDC using ECDA: Ken Davis, Ameren
• 8. Pipeline operator relying on "Other Technology": Scott Meierotto, Laclede

• Panel(s) – Service Providers, Approaches and assessment methodologies being used for cased pipeline segments - Drew Hevle (El Paso) Moderator
• Guided Wave
• 9. Plant Integrity - Dr Paul Jackson
• 10. Structural Integrity - Craig Chaney
• 11. Impro - Walter "Grady" Ferguson, Vice President (also includes 3 attachments: Response to 12 questions, New Techniques for Monitoring Paper, and Additional Presentation)
• 12. Profile Technologies - Robert Geib, Chief Operating Officer
• DA
• 13. Corrpro - Larry Rankin
• 14. Mears - Alan Eastman
• 15. CC Technologies - Kurt M. Lawson, Technical Director, Corrosion Services
• Tethered Pig
• 16. Rosen - Brian Parker
• 17. Baker Hughes - Lonnie Brown, Manager – V-Line Inspection Services
• Panel – Research – Bob Smith/PHMSA, Moderator
• 18. PRCI - Mark Piazza, Program Manager/Technical Committee Chairman
• 19. OTD (a) and GTI (b) (Combined Presentation) - Maureen Droessler, Administrator of Operations Technology Development and Daniel Ersoy, R&D Director for GTI's Delivery Group
• 20. NYSEARCH - Daphne D'Zurko, Executive Director for the NYSEARCH organization and Vice President, RD & D for Northeast Gas Association (Contact Daphne D'Zurko if interested in the video in the presentation)
• 21. NYSEARCH/GTI North American Casing Research Program - Alicia Farag, GTI and Daphne D'Zurko

Day 2

• Morning - Open Dialogue with entire audience to discuss and layout top issues and potential solutions to address (list to be included in final summary report)
• 22. Long Term Issues - Jake Haase/Colonial Pipeline, Frank Gonzales, Buckeye. Peter Katchmar/PHMSA-Western Region was also on the panel for Q&A.

For additional information, contact:

21. DOT PHMSA Office of Pipeline Safety