Smart Pigs' Keep Oil Pipelines Clean

[Omaha Steve]

Full story: http://apnews.excite.com/article/20060812/D8JF5K980.html

'Smart Pigs' Keep Oil Pipelines Clean
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Aug 12, 6:45 PM (ET)

By KRISTEN HAYS

HOUSTON (AP) - Of all the technologies available to maintain the nation's 2 million miles of pipelines, one of the most critical devices evokes images of a muddy farm animal - the pig.

Now erase the image. The earliest, primitive pipeline pigs may have squealed as they scraped wax, mineral deposits, sand or other corrosion-causing debris from the insides of the nation's energy highways, but even that similarity is long gone.


Pipeline pigs sit on the shelves at Inline Services Inc., a Houston area-based pig manufacturer and distributor, Thursday, Aug. 10, 2006 in Tomball, Texas. Propelled by pressure, oil or other contents running through the pipeline, the devices that often look like huge dumbbells dislodge debris and clean the pipe walls. The importance of so-called "pigging" leaped to center stage this past week after BP PLC shut down part of the Prudhoe Bay oil field on Alaska's North Slope, raising questions about the integrity of the country's pipelines and how more than 3,000 pipeline operators keep them running. (AP Photo/David J. Phillip)


The importance of so-called "pigging" leaped to center stage this past week after BP PLC (BP) shut down part of the Prudhoe Bay oil field on Alaska's North Slope, raising questions about the integrity of the country's pipelines and how more than 3,000 pipeline operators keep them running.

Metal, foam, plastic or gel, ranging in size from a few inches to seven feet tall and wide as a tree - or however big they have to be to fit snugly inside a pipe - some pigs are simple scrapers. Others, known as "porcupine pigs," sport scrubbing wire brushes.

[truthisfreedom]

1. solar cells don't need pigs. wind generators don't need pigs.

[skids]

6. Manure based biofuel, however... :-) n/t

[krispos42]

7. True, but they are not an automotive fuel

Besides, I heard that some of these pipes haven't been inspected internally for a decade. Nice to see that Big Oil is using their massive quarterly profits in infrastructure upgrades and maintenence and not in stock buybacks and executive bonuses. :sarcasm:

[tocqueville]

2. for one moment I thought you were talking about Cheney

or were you ?

[gula]

3. The image boggles the mind. n/t

[tocqueville]

4. I started to doubt when I read "smart" n/t

[leesa]

5. They won't do much good as the permafrost continues to melt and the

pipeline busts up.