In the International Pipeline Geotechnical Conference held July 16-17, 2015 in Bogotá, Colombia, members of the Geotechnics Project Team of the Pipelines and Terminals Committee of the Regional Association of Oil, Gas and Biofuels Sector Companies in Latin America and the Caribbean (ARPEL) presented the paper on “ARPEL Technical Guidelines for Monitoring and Inspection of Pipeline Integrity to Face Geohazards,” a document developed for operating companies in Latin America and the Caribbean for which geohazards represent one of the major risks to oil and gas pipeline integrity.

The main objectives of the document, which is in the final stage of development, are to disseminate the existing alternatives to detect and follow up the different variables that affect pipeline integrity due to geohazards; to summarize the existing instrumentation techniques in the industry and to assess their effectiveness and appropriate scope of application; and to document best practices and lessons learned in monitoring to measure the impact of geohazards.

The companies that contribute to the drafting of this guide are COGA, Ecopetrol, Ocensa, EP Petroecuador, Recope and YPFB.

Inspections and routes, monitoring of the field, monitoring of geohazard triggers, monitoring of pipelines and geographic information systems are the main contents of “ARPEL Technical Guidelines for Monitoring and Inspection of Pipeline Integrity to Face Geohazards.”

The authors of the guidelines maintain that “incidents associated with geohazards in oil and gas pipelines can be avoided in most cases when there is an appropriate program to monitor pipelines, right of way and geohazard triggers aimed at prevention.”

The pipeline systems for transportation of oil and gas derivatives are linear projects that may be extremely long. For this reason all along the way, they can go through various geological formations, soil types, navigable waters or torrential waters, and deal with problems of geotechnical instability and seismic and hydrological hazards, such as soil creep, geological faults, landslides, flash floods and differential settlements, which cause relative soil-pipe movements.

South America, Central America and the Caribbean are especially prone to risks by geohazards due to their special seismic, topographic and climatic characteristics.  “This is the reason why the search for solutions to these problems is of priority interest,” the authors state.