Alberta’s big small-pipe problem – by Nathan Vanderklippe (Globe and Mail -July 4, 2012)

The Globe and Mail is Canada’s national newspaper with the second largest broadsheet circulation in the country. It has enormous influence on Canada’s political and business elite.

CALGARY — They are the little brothers and sisters of the pipeline world. Some are barely large enough to jam a hand into, but they do the dirtiest work in the energy business, ferrying great volumes of raw oil and gas from wells to processing plants.

And though they are small, they often carry large risk, an issue of mounting concern in Alberta, a province that has seen a series of spills train a global spotlight on pipeline safety.

These smaller pipes can often be overlooked, next to the big ones that garner attention when they rupture into the Kalamazoo River – an accident that cost Enbridge Inc. a historic $3.7-million (U.S.) fine this week, on top of $725-million in cleanup costs – or at an Alberta pumping station where the company recently had another large spill.

But in Alberta, the pipe is almost all small. Some 327,000 kilometres of pipe that is eight inches and smaller in diameter spread across the province like a network of veins. It is roughly 90 per cent of all pipe in the province, a vast web of steel that is uniquely vulnerable to problems, and uniquely difficult to both oversee and maintain.

In large measure, that’s because the stuff those pipes carry is often nasty: impure, unprocessed energy laced with hydrogen sulphide and water and sand, each of which can inflict damage on buried steel. Construction methods of smaller pipes mean they often can’t be monitored and inspected using the best tools. Some of the junior and mid-sized oil and gas companies that run them don’t have the large dedicated inspection teams employed by larger pipeline operators.

Alberta’s energy regulator says problems on small pipes often lead to small spills, dampening the need for concern.

But some who inspect pipelines say major change is needed if smaller-diameter conduits are to match the safety standards of larger pipes. For now, small pipes that can’t be properly inspected are “the weak link in the integrity chain,” said Stefan Papenfuss, vice-president of pipeline resources for Seattle-based Quest Integrity Group LLC, a major pipeline maintenance provider. “They are now higher risk to the operators than their mainline transmission lines.”

Adding to the concern, spills from smaller pipelines often release noxious chemicals that worsen the impact. Saline water laced with hydrocarbons is tough to clean up and environmentally damaging. “Sour” products containing hydrogen sulphide are a serious human health concern.

Alberta’s oil and gas regulator, the Energy Resources Conservation Board (ERCB), noted in a 2007 report that “most of Alberta’s pipeline infrastructure is used for the production of raw oil and gas, which by nature can be highly corrosive.” It said corrosion has been growing as a problem – from 63 per cent of all leaks and ruptures in a 1998 report to 70 per cent less than a decade later.

For the rest of this article, please go to the Globe and Mail website: http://www.theglobeandmail.com/report-on-business/industry-news/energy-and-resources/albertas-big-small-pipe-problem/article4387516/