Risk and integrity management of pipelines and tanks in Ecopetrol SA

Pursuant to a comprehensive process aimed at maintaining Operational Reliability, in 2006 the Transportation Vice-Presidency started the implementation of the integrity management model for ∼ 7000 km of pipelines;. The origin of this model, designed via joint collaboration between the ICP (Petroleum Colombian Institute) and VIT (Vice presidency of Transportation) at the end of 2005 and called MGID, has flexibility features, with a scope ranging from specifics to particulars and capable of handling and controlling change. A discucssion on the risk and integrity management systems for Ecopetrol's pipelines and tanks in Colombia covers the creation of a centralized, multidisciplinary group of specialists in materials engineering, corrosion control, risk assessment, planning, civil engineering, and geotechnics within the Operational Reliability Department of the Transportation Development Management; provision of technological support to the MGID, e.g., purchase of an information technology solution developed for particular risk scenarios of the pipelines in charge of the VIT; execution and scheduling of diagnostics and mitigation actions aimed at maintaining the pipelines within their initial design conditions; damage mechanisms; minimizing failure probabilities and their consequences; measurable benefits; and sensitivity analysis of variables that significantly influence the increase of risk levels for threats. This is an abstract of a paper presented at the 23rd Pipeline Pigging & Integrity Management Conference (Houston, TX 2/16-17/2011).