Environmental Impacts of Pipelines

Different Pipelines

Different types of pipelines can be distinguished depending on the transported substance, the transport function, the material from which the pipeline is made, and whether it is above or below the surface. Each type of pipeline has its own specific potential environmental problems. Long-distance transportation between cities, countries, or even continents requires major high-pressure pipelines. For gathering and distribution functions, smaller and shorter pipelines are usually sufficient. Major transport lines are especially sensitive to damage since they run through communal areas that are not controlled by the owner of the pipeline and information on the exact location of the pipeline is not always readily available to people living or working in the area. Drilling activities and mechanical ground movement by third parties therefore occasionally result in leaks. In addition, product theft, which particularly happens in developing countries (e.g., Nigeria), leads to problems for pipeline owners, and occasionally casualties. Due to the size of pipelines and the hourly flux of substance through them, large quantities of environmentally damaging substances may be quickly spilled, causing a major environmental impact.

Figure 1 Substances leaking from pipelines affect the environment, both underneath and above the surface.

Source: Faculty of Geo-Information Science and Earth Observation, University of Twente.

Detection of Leaks

Since oil and gas pipelines are an important economic asset but may cause extensive environmental damage when they leak, regulations on either government or company policies have to ensure the safety of the environment, capital assets, and human welfare. Depending on the type of pipeline, different technologies and strategies have been developed. These range from visual inspection in the field to remote sensing techniques. Traditional inspection methods, such as visual inspection, drilling, and geochemical analysis, are both destructive to the soil and pipeline bedding and time-consuming and thus expensive. These techniques can only be used to investigate the extent of an already existing leak but are too expensive to be used for frequent monitoring. The most common technology for both surface and subsurface pipelines is pipeline integrity monitoring. A pipeline integrity system takes information from sensors in and outside the pipeline to detect anomalies in pressure, flow, stress, and temperature that may result from leakage.

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