CASPIAN PIPELINE CONSORTIUM: FACTORS OF SAFE OPERATION

THE OPERATION RELIABILITY OF CASPIAN PIPELINE CONSORTIUM (CPC) PIPELINE SYSTEM IS 98%, WHILE THE WORLDWIDE AVERAGE FACTOR IS 90-95%. THIS IS THE RESULT OF CPC USE OF THE UNIQUE TECHNOLOGIES AND EQUIPMENT AND HIGH CULTURE OF SAFE OPERATION AND LABOR PROTECTION.

The Company’s international status enables CPC to examine and adopt the best practices of the Consortium’s partners all over the world. Already at the Initial Construction stage participation of the world leading oil and gas companies in CPC Project offered an opportunity of applying state-of-the-art technologies and equipment, international standards in management, engineering, construction and operation of crude pipeline transport facilities.

A raft of environmental protection measures was developed specifically for CPC-owned Tengiz-Novorossiysk pipeline system. Expenditures to introduce the latest nature-protection technologies amounted to approximately 12% of the budget for construction of the crude pipeline system. The following should be mentioned among those technical solutions: use of pipes with the thicker walls to protect the Caspian and Black Seas coast, cutting through a specific tunnel for the trunk pipeline in the mountains, construction of 12 crossings of water barriers, including the Volga and Kuban rivers, by horizontal directional drilling, installation of additional engineering protection on the crude pipeline line section and others.

The Marine Terminal near Novorossiysk is CPC major facility. It is operated using the advanced technology, which is today used by not more than 40 oil terminals in the world. Vessels approach not the oil port berths, but three Single Point Mooring units (SPM) located more than 5 km away from the shore. Oil can be lifted from the SPM in a safe manner, also amid poor weather conditions. The SPMs are secured to the seabed by six multi-ton anchors; a pipeline is connected to each SPM.

A tanker is moored to the Single Point Mooring, and the SPM flexible hoses are connected to the vessel manifolds. During the loading operation the vessel may freely move around the SPM under the action of wind and current. Such single point moorings are designed and constructed to tailor each region and bottom features. As calculated by the specialists, Novorossiysk SPMs can weather the most violent storm of those registered in the Region over the last 100 years.

CPC Marine Terminal team performs multiple preliminary operations, for example, pre-mooring and weekly equipment checks to ensure safe and reliable loading of tankers.  Each summer the SPM loading system is flushed by seawater delivered by a chartered tanker.   The service life of subsea and flowing hoses is 2 to 6 years, then they are subject to mandatory replacement.

The Operation Control Center (OCC), which operates at the Marine Terminal, manages and controls CPC crude pipeline system 24/7. The OCC has three consoles operated by the Dispatcher Service staff. Three dispatchers control all the facilities from Tengiz to Single Point Moorings in Yuzhnaya Ozereevka via the supervisory control and data acquisition system - SCADA.

In late October 2016 a ceremony was held at the Marine Terminal to open the reconstructed Operations Control Center with the new upgraded SCADA system. The information transmission speed along the route has increased 25 times. After the completion of the Project to expand the pipeline system capacities the Consortium will possess 200,000 sensors versus 80,000 in 2010. The number of programmable logic controllers will double - there will be 500 of them.

The SCADA allows to exercise continuous monitoring and control of technical parameters along the entire pipeline system with possibility of accessing the data in the real-time mode by the pipeline dispatchers in the Operations Control Center in Novorossiysk, and by operations personnel at each Facility. Duplicate data transmission channels: fiber optic, satellite and radio communication ensure the communications between the Marine Terminal and all the facilities along the pipeline route and CPC regional offices. If any parameters go beyond a set-point envelope, an alarm is sounded and the emergency site is inspected to find out the cause of the alarm.

As a result of the Expansion Project implementation the number of the Consortium’s Pump Stations has tripled and is now 15. All PSs are equipped with surge relief systems, close drains, sewage treatment facilities for household and industrial waste and storm water. None of the types of treated wastewater goes into environment, but is accumulated in the waterproof evaporation ponds. Putting into operation the surge relief system and electric engine soft start at the Consortium’s Stations is one of the advanced solutions improving the operation safety. 

Gas turbines which serve as mainline pumps and electrical generators actuators meet the stringent standards of industrial and ecological safety. They are characterized by high efficiency, reduced noise level and sufficiently low level of pollutant emissions in the atmosphere. The point is that the fuel combustion temperature is the prime source of impact on the harmful emission generation when burning fuel: the higher the temperature is, the more harmful emissions there are. The turbines operated in CPC use the Dry Low Emission (DLE) system. The gas combustion temperature in them is approximately 5000 С lower than in the similar types of turbines without the DLE system and is 1,6750 С instead of usual 2,1750 С.

All types of control of the environmental component quality, control of potential pollutions and human and industrial impact on ecosystem are exercised at CPC facilities. The Environmental Compliance Assurance (ECA) activities are agreed upon with the territorial nature protection agencies.

An integrated Occupational Health, Safety and Environment Management System, which includes the Environmental Management System, based on the international standards: ISO 14001, OHSAS 18001, national legislation, CPC experience and procedures, has been implemented and functions successfully in CPC. In 2016 a regular recertification audit was passed successfully and ISO international certificates were received.