What does it mean to be a Pipeline Integrity Specialist?

- Doug Waslen

You know a recent conversation on a pipeline failure that would never have been found by traditional pipeline integrity methods caused me to reflect on what it means to be an integrity specialist.  Unfortunately the failure could have easily been prevented by either the designer knowing the impact of their specification and/or the construction field inspector noticing a potential problem. 

Being an integrity specialist means that you understand pipeline materials and design, pipe and component fabrication, construction, commissioning, operation, deactivation and abandonment.  For a while, regulators have been expecting operators to take a cradle to grave approach to pipeline safety.  It takes years to gain the experience and knowledge to know when a decision might cause problems down the road. 

I see job postings for integrity folks with a various skills, from NDE capabilities to ILI data analysis to risk management.  Rarely however do I see positions requiring comprehensive pipeline experience including design and operations experience. To truly be a well rounded pipeline integrity specialist; you need to know how steel is made by spending time in a steel mill, you need to know how pipe is manufactured by spending time in a pipe mill, you need to know how pipe coatings are applied by spending time in a coating mill, you need to know how pipelines are constructed by spending time in the field during stringing, welding, joint coating, lowering and backfill.   Pipe hydraulics, control center operations, leak detection, emergency response are other areas where experience helps you understand how your decisions affect pipeline safety, operations and availability.

Many years ago when I was a junior engineer with experience in welding, materials and cathodic protection, I recall a design engineer coming to me asking if I thought foam ditch plugs were going to cause any trouble for cathodic protection.  I didn't know what a ditch plug was...after some discussion I learned that they are installed during pipeline construction on a slope to minimize ground water movement in the pipe ditch.  They are formed using spray foam around the pipe and the ditch from bottom to the top of the pipe and usually several feet wide.  After reviewing some photos and the details of the foam I advised the design engineer that cathodic protection would be completely inhibited over the surface area of the foam.

So the solution to this problem isn't what I'm focused on today.  It's that if it wasn't for the design engineer coming to ask me, then neither one of us would have known that the ditch plug could indeed cause trouble years later.  The problem is that we can't rely on others to make informed decisions that impact pipeline integrity.  We must gain the experience on our own and be involved in design reviews, fabrication QC, construction audits, etc so that we can identify potential problems before they cause trouble. My advice is, get out of your comfort zone and your office and learn about design, pipe materials and component fabrication, construction, commissioning, operation, deactivation and abandonment. And for those senior integrity specialists out there, take time to mentor younger folks otherwise we will repeat the same mistakes over and over. I was lucky to have great mentors like Keith Coulson, Tom Slimmon, Russ Young, Dale Temple, Theo van Besouw and Robert Worthingham.