Safety is one of the fundamental criteria of CPC’s operations. All stages of the oil movement and tanker loading process, as well as support processes, are well tried and tested. Uninterrupted operation of the CPC pipeline is supported by highly qualified personnel and the most advanced control systems.
A multi-tier response system for response to potential accidents and emergencies on CPC sites includes non-organic CPC emergency & response teams, vehicles, equipment and emergency response contractor personnel, resources and equipment available from territorial subsystems of the Russian Emergency Prevention and Response System and regional emergency & rescue teams.
The entire CPC pipeline operation is monitored from the Main Control Centre (MCC) at the Marine Terminal. Two dispatchers can do that effectively thanks to the Supervisory Control & Data Acquisition System (SCADA) which operates all the facilities of the CPC oil pipeline system from Tengiz to the SPMs at the Marine Terminal in Yuzhnaya Ozereevka, manages tanker loading and provides safety monitoring for the entire CPC system.
Redundant fiber optic, satellite and radio and data transmission channels provide communications between the Marine Terminal and all pipeline facilities and the CPC Regional Offices. If any parameter goes beyond setpoint limits, an alarm sounds and the alarm source section is inspected to identify the cause of the alarm.
The CPC pipeline is equipped with a Leak Detection System (LDS). Combined with SCADA, it allows to detect and initiate a response even to minor leaks.
HMMS allows to monitor hydrometeorological parameters in the operations area in real time:
- wind direction, velocity and gusts;
- atmospheric pressure;
- sea wave parameters;
- current direction and velocity on the surface and at specific depths;
- air and water temperature.
The data is displayed on a console in MCC. The system allows to archive the data for further processing, systematization and statistics.
Tankers are loaded from single point moorings (SPMs), the most advanced technology used today in 39 ports around the globe. The SPMs are located within Russian territorial waters in the Black Sea, about 17 km west of the entrance into the Cemesskaya Bay and about 5 km offshore. The SPMs are anchored buoys each of which is affixed to the sea floor with six caisson anchors.
The SPMs are designed and built to withstand a 100 year storm and can be used to moor a dual hull tanker loading up to 300,000 tons of oil
Tanker movement is tracked in real mode on an electronic navigation map. A mooring master continuously monitors a tanker approaching an SPM, the distance to the SPM, the direction and the speed the vessel is nearing the single point mooring at and also its angular velocity. All these elements are shown on the pilot’s computer screen as vectors and numbers overlaid over the electronic navigation map.
This way oil loading from single point moorings ensures a higher level of safety than fixed piers: a moored tanker turns around an SPM like a wind vane when driven by the wind and the current, rather than pushing into the SPM, which allows loading operations to be performed in more severe weather conditions and also simplifies and reduces the time taken by mooring operations.
Key system functions:
- automatic ship identification;
- ship tracking by onshore services;
- navigational data exchange among ships and between the ships and the MT shore services (transmitting ship and cargo details, route, destination port and arrival time);
- showing the relative positioning of the ships on an MCC control panel.
The AIS system is interfaced with HMMS and the Mooring System.
AIS shows ship course, speed, coordinate and position data to display the current status of ship movements within the operational responsibility area of the CPC Marine Terminal.
PISCES II is designed to prevent, monitor and forecast emergencies associated with an oil spill as well as to help the Operations Command Centre and the Emergency Situations Commission in response management decision-making.
In the event of an emergency the system automatically tracks the movement trajectory of an oil slick in the sea and actions of resources and equipment deployed on electronic navigation maps. The system allows to maintain a database of site resources and equipment, local weather conditions, risk zones and environmental zones and also to play out events from scenarios and exercises.
The system allows to use mathematical models created on the basis of studies conducted by the State Institute of Oceanography of the Russian Academy of Sciences and to forecast an oil slick's movement directions.
PISCES II coupled with HMMS, the mooring system and AIS combines all these elements into a single marine operations safety system.
Maintenance and Emergency Response
There are nine emergency response station located along the CPC pipeline route in a way that minimizes the response time for emergency response crews to reach any section of the pipeline system.
The ERS are manned with specially-trained personnel and provided with vehicles and equipment to contain and respond to potential emergencies such as oil spills, onshore and offshore, including heavy specialist vehicles, swamp buggies, booms, retaining walls, oil skimmers, vacuum machines, powerful boom-deployment boats, etc. Also the ESPs are equipped with mobile complexes supporting long self-sustainable operations by emergency response crews.
In addition to emergency response, ERS' provide maintenance, inspection and repairs of the oil pipeline and are equipped with requisite test beds, instrumentation and equipment.
Fire Safety
The special nature of its operations makes CPC place a lot of focus on fire safety. CPC has organic firefighting crews in place at all of its facilities, equipped with modern fire trucks and foam firefighting equipment. All facilities have triple foam agent stocks. CPC’s key fire hazard facilities are equipped with an automatic fire alarm and firefighting systems. The tank farms and the pump stations are equipped with low-expansion foam fire suppression systems using film forming foam agents.
Drills
CPC conducts at least 9 large-scale oil spill response and fire drills involving contractors and local units operating under the Russian Emergency Prevention and Response System. There are monthly scheduled training classes for CPC and Contractor personnel to review response issues related to various abnormal situations. In addition to material and equipment support, a special focus is made during the drills on improving CPC and contractor personnel skills at all levels.