Overview
At a marine terminal, a20” NB Napthapipeline had been km long operational, transporting Naptha from the Jetty to a tank farm. The line passes under various highways, railway lines and crossings.
The line is operated only during unloading of cargo at the port.
A highway located on the pipeline route was being expanded. During excavation, an excavator damaged the pipeline, creating a 3cm wide and 15cm long gorge. The Pipeline was non-operational during this accident.

 

The excavator operator backfilled the area and did not intimate the authorities. A tanker arrived at the port a few days later. Naptha was pumped thru the Pipeline as per normal procedures. A leakage occurred through the gouge and leak continued for a few hours before being detected, a fire erupted thereafter. On detection the pumping was shut down immediately. VKVC was contacted to provide a solution for leak sealing and repair of Pipeline.

Solution and Implementation
VKVC mobilized equipment and manpower at site within 24 hours.
Stage- 1 The Leakage location was excavated. A ‘T ’Clamp was installed with Hose. Two CDI non-intrusive signals were installed on either side of Clamp. The hose was connected to a tanker. Batching Pigs were launched with Nitrogen from Jetty. Pigs pushed the product in Pipeline to the tanker. Their passage across the leak point was detected by the CDI non-intrusive Pig Signals.

Stage- 2 The product was evacuated from the pipeline using the Pigs.The ‘T ’Clamp was then removed. Pipeline couplings with a new hydrotested pipe spool was kept ready. The damaged pipe section was removed and new spool piece was installed with pipe couplings. The pipeline was made operational within the next 24 hrs. subsequently the pipe couplings were permanently welded to the pipeline.

 

 

Result
The pipeline was repaired successfully and has been operational. Request public to ensure that any damage to a pipeline is reported immediately to the local authorities. Timely action in this case would have averted the accident.