Andean Pipelines - A Challenge for Natural Hazard and Risk Managers

This chapter, from the proceedings of an international conference on the terrain and geohazard challenges facing onshore oil and gas pipelines (June 2004, London, United Kingdom), describes the geohazard risk management (GRM) program used in the Andes mountains. The Andes, which run the length of western South American, are steep, tectonically active, and subject to heavy precipitation. The use of GRM programs can identify and characterize geohazards to facilitate quantitative estimates of pipeline reliability and risk. This optimizes the routing of new pipelines and helps with maintenance efforts on existing pipelines. In addition, quantitative reliability and risk estimates allow the comparison of geohazards with other system-wide hazards such as corrosion, operator error, and third-party impact, resulting in more effective integrity management decisions. The authors describe the use of an overall GRM program as it has been applied to over 4,000 km of Andean pipelines transporting a full range of hydrocarbon and mining-related products. The GRM program consists of five phases: overview assessment; detailed hazard inventory and rating; detailed investigation; risk evaluation and control; and action/monitoring and re-evaluation.