Leak detected in a section of the Keystone pipeline in North Dakota... 5

[JohnRBaker]

This is an early report so there's no data yet as to how much oil has actually leaked.

Keystone Pipeline Leaks Unknown Amount Of Oil In North Dakota

https://www.huffpost.com/entry/keystone-pipeline-leaks-north-dakota_n_5dba759fe4b0bb1ea374aa01

John R. Baker, P.E. (ret)
EX-Product 'Evangelist'
Irvine, CA
Siemens PLM:
UG/NX Museum:

The secret of life is not finding someone to live with
It's finding someone you can't live without

 

[IRstuff]

Not the first, nor the last, time it leaks.

TTFN (ta ta for now)
I can do absolutely anything. I'm an expert!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BKorP55Aqvg

faq731-376 forum1529 Entire Forum list

http://www.eng-tips.com/forumlist.cfm

 

[dgallup]

Still better than exploding rail cars.

----------------------------------------

The Help for this program was created in Windows Help format, which depends on a feature that isn't included in this version of Windows.

 

[JohnRBaker]

And who could have seen that coming (we need a sarcasm emoji).

John R. Baker, P.E. (ret)
EX-Product 'Evangelist'
Irvine, CA
Siemens PLM:
UG/NX Museum:

The secret of life is not finding someone to live with
It's finding someone you can't live without

 

[itsmoked]

Probably a bullet hole..

Keith Cress
kcress -

http://www.flaminsystems.com

 

[JAE]

...or maybe an arrow hole?

 

[JohnRBaker]

It's been reported that this most recent leak from the Keystone pipeline was something over 9,000 barrels of oil, the largest ever reported since the pipeline when on line in 2010.

Keystone pipeline shut after spilling 9,000 barrels of oil in N. Dakota

http://news.trust.org/item/20191031180757-6lurs

John R. Baker, P.E. (ret)
EX-Product 'Evangelist'
Irvine, CA
Siemens PLM:
UG/NX Museum:

The secret of life is not finding someone to live with
It's finding someone you can't live without

 

[itsmoked]

9000 barrels is pretty lame detection. For two years I worked with NKK on a system that detected leaks at the speed of sound in oil pipelines.

But 9000 barrels shouldn't be too find with addition. We put x in and are getting x-9000 out..

The Alyeska Pipeline runs a continuous simulation model of the pipeline measuring pressure and flow at each pump station as the live data values. If a leak occurs pressures and flows deviate from the model triggering an alarm. If it's a small leak it takes a while but not likely 9,000 barrels long.

Keith Cress
kcress -

http://www.flaminsystems.com

 

[LittleInch]

Well to be fair we don't know what they actually alarmed at. When you isolate the section a lot more can simply leak out due to hydrosattic head.

Most systems find it difficult to reliably detect much better than about 1% of flow within 1 to 2 minutes.

Remember - More details = better answers
Also: If you get a response it's polite to respond to it.

 

[msquared48]

What’s the big deal? I get gas leaks from my pipeline every day...

Mike McCann, PE, SE (WA, HI)

 

[SuperSalad]

What’s the big deal? I get gas leaks from my pipeline every day...

Gas leaks from your personal pipeline are pretty well expected and normal.

It's when your crude starts leaking that it becomes a problem.

Andrew H.

http://www.mototribology.com

 

[msquared48]

Very true. It’s the backflow that I really hate though.

Mike McCann, PE, SE (WA, HI)

 

[JohnRBaker]

An update:

The latest Keystone Pipeline oil leak is almost 10 times worse than initially thought

https://www.cnn.com/2019/11/20/us/keystone-pipeline-leak-10-times-worse-trnd/index.html

John R. Baker, P.E. (ret)
EX-Product 'Evangelist'
Irvine, CA
Siemens PLM:
UG/NX Museum:

The secret of life is not finding someone to live with
It's finding someone you can't live without

 

[Comcokid]

Be careful with a CNN headline. The keystone pipeline leak is still the same number of gallons as originally reported back in October - 383,040 gallons. Even the CNN article states the same number of gallons. By worse they just mean it as since spread over more land.

 

[JohnRBaker]

i.e. It has contaminated more of the local wetlands.

John R. Baker, P.E. (ret)
EX-Product 'Evangelist'
Irvine, CA
Siemens PLM:
UG/NX Museum:

The secret of life is not finding someone to live with
It's finding someone you can't live without

 

[1503-44]

He CNN headline would appear to be entirely accurate in the sense that a larger area of contamination is indeed typically worse for the environment, not to mention the operator too. Containment is always the primary strategic objective in minimizing the effects of oil spills, due to the possibility of damaging a disproportionately far greater area should the effective radius of the spill not be immediately controlled. Area affected increases by the spill's effective radius squared, and that is exactly what appears to be the case here. 10x more area affected indicates that the present effective radius is now (only) 3.3x the initial. That 10x increase in area has caused an additional and far greater ecologial hazard, as it now includes adjacent wetlands as well, and the entirely new, different and potentially much larger group of wetland inhabitant species that may now be at risk, plus it makes further containment even that much more difficult and more costly to clean up. So ya, maybe the CNN headline is inaccurate in that by simply mentioning the greater area effected, it didn't include any mention of the disproportionate and potentially far greater environmental damages and clean up costs that may be occurring as a result. Could it be that damages might noe reach 10x area, 4x species, 5 x wetland cleanup costs, might we say, for lack of anything better at this time, maybe ballpark 200X the original estimate??? Obviously subjective, but it illustrates how things can get rapidly out of hand as radius and area increase by just a little bit.

 

[1503-44]

Designed uusing 80% hoop stress limit.

DOT issued (shutdown segment) corrective order 5 Nov.

https://www.phmsa.dot.gov/sites/phm...y-corrective-action-order-november-5-2019.pdf