EUROPEAN PIPELINE SPILLS IN 1990 FEWEST ON RECORD

Feb. 24, 1992
Fewer spills from petroleum pipelines occurred in Western Europe in 1990 than in and of the previous 20 years for which such statistics have been compiled. Only three reportable spills occurred in 1990, the most recent Year for which data have been compiled. Total amount of spilled crude oil and petroleum product amounted to 582 cu m (3,667 bbl), of which 520 cu m (3,276 bbl) were lost in the environment. The gross quantity spilled has only been lower once, in 1975.

Fewer spills from petroleum pipelines occurred in Western Europe in 1990 than in and of the previous 20 years for which such statistics have been compiled.

Only three reportable spills occurred in 1990, the most recent Year for which data have been compiled.

Total amount of spilled crude oil and petroleum product amounted to 582 cu m (3,667 bbl), of which 520 cu m (3,276 bbl) were lost in the environment. The gross quantity spilled has only been lower once, in 1975.

The results were reported by Conservation of Clean Air and water Europe (Concawe), Brussels, in its annual report "Performance of Oil Industry Cross-Country Pipelines in Western Europe." Sixty-three companies operating oil pipelines in Western Europe participated in the report.

The Concawe report for 1990 provides comparative data for the 5-year period 1986-1990 (Table 1) and a comparison of the 1990 spill performance vs. the annual average of all reported incidents since 1971.

Concawe states the amount of crude oil and product lost amounts to only 0.00009% of the total volume transported through more than 12,000 miles of cross country petroleum pipelines in Europe.

Third-party damage continues to be the largest cause of oil loss from pipelines into the environment in Western Europe.

PIPELINE SYSTEMS

Within Western Europe, companies participating in the report operate nearly 200 different service pipelines which at the end of 1990 had a combined length of about 19,350 km (12,000 miles).

Volume transported in 1990 was 549 million cu m (3,458.7 million bbl) of crude oil and refined products, about 2.7% more than in 1989 with increased throughputs in crude-oil pipelines.

Total traffic volume amounted to 92.3 billion cu m-km (582.75 billion bbl-miles), an increase of 4.0% over traffic in 1989. Of this total, products amounted to about 23.3 billion cu m-km (146.8 billion bbl-miles).

The net oil loss into the environment (520 cu m) was equal to 0.00009% or 0.9 ppm of the total volume transported. The gross spillage (582 cu m) was 1.0 ppm. A total of 62 cu m, or 10% of the spillage, was recovered.

CAUSES, COSTS

Of the three oil-spill incidents in 1990, two occurred from underground pipelines and one from aboveground equipment at a pump station.

In 1989, there were 13 incidents; and an annual average of 13.1 since 1971.

None of the spills in 1990 required reportable clean-up action; all were of light product in hot, and areas. Soil pollution from all three incidents is classified as slight; no water pollution occurred.

Operators attributed the causes of the oil spills to operational (two incidents) and third-party activities (one incident).

Two of the three cases occurred in and rural areas and the third in a pump-station also in a dry area.

In all cases, light products were involved and little or no clean-up could be effectively carried out, nor was such cleanup thought necessary for environmental reasons.

The accidental closure by a pipeline worker of a mainline valve at a pump-station caused a scraper-pig trap at an upstream facility to become over-pressurized. A spillage of 252 cu m (1,857.6 bbl) of jet fuel occurred.

The pipeline was out of service for 2 days while the trap installation was modified. There was no significant pollution.

Another spill, this one of 662 bbl, occurred during a pipeline stopple operation.

In the course of the stoppling procedure, a 1-in. drain valve on one of the sandwich valves was damaged. Repair required that the pipeline be shutdown for 2 hr. The spill was a light product in a rural area with porous ground which caused no significant pollution.

Elsewhere a 1,418-bbl spill occurred in a rural area when a bulldozer engaged in road construction punctured a pipeline. The pipeline operator was unaware of work taking place near the pipeline.

The pipeline is permanently marked at 500-m intervals and two of the markers were visible to the bulldozer operator.

Twelve hours later, following a temporary repair, the pipeline was returned to service. The spill was of light product onto porous around and caused no permanent ground pollution.

Combined cost of pipeline repair and clean-up for these three spills came to approximately $47,350.

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