Harnessing Leak Detection System in Offshore Pipeline Operation

Abstract Delivery of crude oil from Single Point Mooring (SPM) through subsea pipeline to Onshore Receiving Facility (ORF) play critical role for refinery processing and operation. The pipeline laid in seabed, connecting oil tanker to storage facility on onshore side. Leak Detection System (LDS) is required to monitor any oil leakage from the pipeline. If leak happens and no LDS in place, mitigation action will be late, cause much oil or gas will be released to the environment, dangerous for ocean habitat, harmful for human and asset safety i.e. explosion and fire, then it can impact on company reputation that own or operate the pipeline. Tankers transport crude oil via subsea pipeline to oil refinery storage tank including activities such as loading, unloading, and flushing line. Pipeline LDS project scope of works comprise hardware, software, and service. The integration amongst these parts will determine project completion success criteria. Supervisory Control and Data Acquistion (SCADA) system located in Central Control Room (CCR) is used to monitoring all pipeline operation over long distance. The connected data start from smart field devices, collected by Remote Telemetry Unit (RTU), transmit by telecommunication media, and finally reach the CCR. All operation setting can be adjustable according to different kind of oil product LDS software is an advanced high fidelity software application for the pipeline industry which meets the American Petroleum Institute Recommended Practice (API RP) 1130 Computational Pipeline Monitoring (CPM) system. When the SCADA and LDS system were installed, the project will continue into commissioning and critical tuning phase where actual values and Standard Operation Procedure (SOP) is established or revised. SPM's power availability from solar panel and telecommunication bandwidth should be monitoring all the time. Parallel with that, there is the possible threshold setting should be estimated as per API 1149 that impact on leak detection performance from several factors i.e. accuracy of pressure, flow, and temperature transmitter, slack line condition, and properties of products. The crude oil coming with different API from different oil producer. The system will continuously calculate imbalances using data gathered from field devices. Dynamic threshold adjustment to mitigate transient alarm and avoid false alarms, which these are temporary changes and are removed after time averaging period end. By have all these information via SCADA and Closed Circuit Television (CCTV) system, it will reduce boat trip to the SPM, which means reduce CO2 emission and operating cost. LDS system will monitor the pipeline leakage and provide good mitigation plan by located the leak with Global Positioning System (GPS), delivering crude oil using offshore pipeline will be safer to human safety and environment.