The technology applied to pipeline systems has evolved significantly over the past 30 years. During that time, societal attitudes and expectations toward energy development have also changed considerably. Highly competitive market conditions and rising regulatory and public expectations, particularly in North America, have facilitated the rapid development of technological innovations for the pipeline industry. The resulting new technology is being applied to pipeline systems throughout the world, providing the answers to many complex issues associated with pipeline design, construction, operation and maintenance, and ultimately to public safety.
OPERATION and MAINTENANCE The pipeline industry has experienced many 1.1. Risk Management changes over a short period of time, and change will Faced with rising expectations from the public be a constant well into the new millennium. One of the and regulators combined with pressure to reduce costs primary drivers of change is declining productivity in from shippers, it's apparent that the international established sedimentary basins, such as the Western pipeline community must make safety performance a Canadian Sedimentary Basin. This has compelled the top priority while ensuring that spending on safety is oil and gas industry to find innovative ways to reduce directed to where it will have the greatest effect. Risk the incremental cost of production, and to look to management programs are designed to fulfill this frontier areas for new production. This in turn puts need. pressure on pipeline operators to lower transportation Risk management, which includes risk analysis, costs so shippers can remain competitive with other helps decision-makers identify and prioritize effective energy supply sources. At the same time, aging risk reduction measures. It requires detailed reviews pipeline systems are incurring higher maintenance and of operations and maintenance, and an estimation of operating costs to meet rigid safety and reliability the probability and consequences of various failures. standards. Compounding this trend, public Several new software tools are available that expectations are rising to reduce the effects of integrate data from many sources to provide the pipeline construction and operation on the local framework for a risk model. Furnished with adequate community and environment. data and continually updated, the computer software While practices in pipeline design and can generate an analytical overview to help pinpoint operations continue to improve technologically, the sources of risk that may go unrecognized in public's expectation is often one of "zero tolerance" management systems that are bas
