Oil-Pipeline Cracks Evading Robotic 'Smart Pigs'

[limpyhobbler]

In February, Exxon Mobil Corp. XOM -0.28% sent a small robotic device known as a "smart pig" through a 60-year-old oil pipeline in central Arkansas to find cracks or other problems.

The next month, a 22-foot section of the 858-mile-long Pegasus pipeline split open, spilling 5,000 barrels of crude into backyards and wetlands. The cause of the accident, according to a report Exxon filed with regulators last month: tiny cracks along the pipe's lengthwise seam. The torpedo-like robot didn't spot them, the company said this week.

Using smart pigs to find seam cracks is "as close to scientific as a roulette wheel," said Don Deaver, a former Exxon pipeline engineer who now works as a consultant. Still, probing the inside of a pipeline with such devices "is probably the number-one asset we have for pipeline integrity," he said.

The boom in U.S. oil production is straining America's network of more than 184,000 miles of pipelines carrying hazardous liquids. Traffic in liquid-fuel pipes increased more than 19% between 2011 and 2012, according to federal data.

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424127887323455104579015140328479048.html

(search for title on google to avoid WSJ membership wall)

[House of Roberts]

1. The more scientific method

is to keep increasing the pressure until the pipeline breaks. At least, that's the method they've been using so far.

[mbperrin]

2. That's the detection method they use.

They fly small planes once a month over pipeline routes, and if there's oil or a big gas plume, it's a leak!

I only wish I were kidding. That's what they do and why when a pipeline is in the ground, nearly no employees or jobs from it remain.