The Increase in Effectiveness of an Emergency Pipeline Repair System (EPRS) Can Be Measured by the Reduction in Downtime of a Pipeline Subject to Random 3rd Party Events

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Abstract This paper presents the typical steps taken to respond to an emergency pipeline damage scenario and the impact on downtime when the operator of the pipeline is not prepared. The industry standard method of preparing for an emergency damage event is an Emergency Pipeline Repair System (EPRS) which provides guidance on the likelihood of each type of damage event occurring, the best practices when assessing the damage and the best repair strategy for the damaged pipeline. The paper focuses primarily on offshore pipelines and follows a hypothetical damage event with each stage of the emergency response and repair explored. The damage event example allowed for investigation of the emergency response and repair process for both an offshore pipeline with and without a comprehensive EPRS in place. For each stage, the tasks carried out when with and without an EPRS are detailed and an estimated time to complete each stage for the two scenarios is given. This allowed for comparison and discussion on the time saving benefits of an EPRS for offshore repair. A discussion on the uncertainty of the estimated time to complete each stage of the emergency response and repair is given and highlights areas for potential further research. This uncertainty discussion is revisited in the conclusion where a plan to improve the time predictions made for the EPRS model is made. Two case studies of third-party damage response to subsea pipelines are used as comparative cases to the hypothetical damage event case, the case studies cover a pipeline with a comprehensive EPRS in place and one without allowing for useful comparison and discussion on the accuracy of the estimated times given for each step of the EPRS.

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