Life Prediction of Crude Oil Pipeline to Mitigate Leakages: A Case Study of an NPDC Major Pipeline in OML30, Nigeria

Abstract Pipeline leak or failure is a dreaded event in the oil and gas industries. Top events such as catastrophes and multiple fatalities have occurred in the past due to pipeline leak or failure especially when loss of contents was met with fire incidents. It is therefore imperative that the causes of pipeline failure are tackled to prevent or mitigate leak incidents. This is expedient to curb the menace that goes with leak incidents, such as destruction of the environment and ecosystem; loss of assets, finance, lives and property; dangers to workers and personnel, production downtime, litigation and dent to company’s reputation. This work focuses on the investigation of the actual cause of sudden pipeline failures and frequent pipeline leaks that often result to sectional pipeline replacement before the expiration of their anticipated life cycle in OML30 oil and gas field. The pipeline material selected, the standard of the minimum wall thickness of the material, the corrosive nature of the pipeline content and the observed internal corrosion rate were probed. An analysis of the rate of thinning and diminution of the internal wall of the pipeline by monitoring the interior rate of corrosion was used to forecast the remaining life of a crude oil pipeline and predict the life expectancy of a newly replaced or installed pipeline or installed pipeline.