Pipeline Pigging and Integrity Technology

Book excerpt: This latest edition of the standard reference to pipeline pigging contains 41 new technical contributions from an international panel of expert authors. The book provides a wide-ranging overview of the best in pigging and integrity-monitoring technology, and thus makes essential reading for all involved in these increasingly important industries. The contents are divided into six sections, dealing with utility pigging, corrosion issues, intelligent pigging, case studies, and integrity management, and prefaced by a section with a number of important, but general, papers. The role of pigging in maintaining and expanding the pipeline infrastructure has becomemore critical due to projected increases in oil and gas consumption and thus transportation capacity. At the same time, the aging of networks in the US and elsewere to 60+ years (30-40 years beyond design life, by some estimates) - and the installation of new lines over greater distances and more hostile environments - have made the technical requirements and demand for pigging technology ever more acute. The science of pigging is developing to provide thetechnology required to keep these pipelines in the best possible condition, and to ensure their continuing integrity. There are few problems that the pigging industry cannot solve nowadays, and this book includes a number of case histories showing what can be achieved in practice.But pigging is not just about high-level inspection; rather, the basics of pipeline design and of utility pigging to accommodate the most mundane tasks, are in the long term probably even more important. The book provides a wide-ranging overview of the best in pigging andintegrity-monitoring technology, and thus makes essential reading for all involved in these increasingly important industries.