Topic: FAQ

Note: the following answers are short and direct, sometimes omitting information that might be helpful for full understanding. Please consult your copy of the book or other resources on this site for more complete answers.

“Don’t Worry — We did an ILI”

Many newbies in our industry have never been without the ability to ILI a pipeline.  ILI is now considered a normal and essential part of owning and operating many pipelines. However, we should take a moment to make sure we are not losing perspective.  Let’s recall our origins.  When ILI first became a practical tool, […]

ILI vs DA—The Risk View

A rather common issue these days is decision making involving comparisons between In Line Inspection (ILI) vs Direct Assessment (DA, and, in particular, External Corrosion DA or ECDA).  You may need to research these techniques, if not already familiar to you, since we will assume the reader is fairly familiar with both. Both are acceptable […]

Where is the Risk Control Strategy?

In an earlier article, we noted that risk management is, in effect, often unintentionally delegated to decision-makers occupying the lower portions of the corporate org chart.  In many companies, the field personnel are essentially setting corporate risk levels via their choices in day-to-day activities and their perceptions of priorities. While we noted some advantages of […]

A bunch of info is being generated by this process. How does someone digest and make use of it all?

Many statistical investigation techniques, used for decades in numerous applications, will also help us understand pipeline risk. Financial market analyses tools are a good example. The same types of charts, summary statistics, and other analytical tools used there will be appropriate for our data sets.