Maintenance & Integrity Management on Central Asian Pipelines

Working with White Young Green (WYG) and the European Union, the project's overall objective is to enhance the safety and security of the main gas transit infrastructure in Central Asia through reducing gas losses. The support to be provided to the beneficiary Countries (Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan) aims to:
 

• achieve a profitable reduction of gas losses in four selected parts of the main gas transit infrastructures (pilot areas).

• provide the beneficiaries with the knowledge needed to apply the methodologies and technologies used in the pilot areas to the entire infrastructures

Timeframe:

The project started in March 2007 and is scheduled to run until end 2009

Brief project description:

The planned activities include:
 

• Leakage detection and measurement in the four pilot areas
• Directed inspection and maintenance
• Risk Based Inspection
• Development of an action tracking database to record leaks
• Introduction of a Central Asian Incidents Network across Central Asia and
• Knowledge transfer, training, and equipment provision.

QEM Services are providing knowledge and management expertise on all of the above activities.

To date we have already developed country / operator specific Risk Based Inspection programmes developed via our own risk assessment database. Two bespoke assessment tools were created based on API 581 and designed to assess complex process plant. Additional assessment tools have been created to assess the likelihood and consequence of failure on pipelines and compressor stations thus highlighting areas requiring additional inspection or maintenance.

All of the above have been utilised onsite and the translated into Russian for use by the beneficiaries.

Another part of the project, which was instigated by QEM Services on a previous EU contract, is the development of an Central Asian Incidents network. Similar to the EGIG or UKOPA, this network will assist in increasing pipeline safety throughout Central Asia and provide a vehicle for the development of best practice.