Overview At a marine terminal, a20” NB Napthapipeline had been km long operational, transporting Naptha from the Jetty to a tank farm. The line passes under various highways, railway lines and crossings. The line is operated only during unloading of cargo at the port. A highway located on the pipeline route was being expanded. During excavation, an excavator damaged the pipeline, creating a 3cm wide and 15cm long gorge. The Pipeline was non-operational during this accident.
The excavator operator backfilled the area and did not intimate the authorities. A tanker arrived at the port a few days later. Naptha was pumped thru the Pipeline as per normal procedures. A leakage occurred through the gouge and leak continued for a few hours before being detected, a fire erupted thereafter. On detection the pumping was shut down immediately. VKVC was contacted to provide a solution for leak sealing and repair of Pipeline.
Solution and Implementation VKVC mobilized equipment and manpower at site within 24 hours. Stage- 1 The Leakage location was excavated. A ‘T ’Clamp was installed with Hose. Two CDI non-intrusive signals were installed on either side of Clamp. The hose was connected to a tanker. Batching Pigs were launched with Nitrogen from Jetty. Pigs pushed the product in Pipeline to the tanker. Their passage across the leak point was detected by the CDI non-intrusive Pig Signals.
