Urgent help: Does anyone know about the problem of obsolete buried pipelines?
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Urgent help: As the title suggests, some of our company’s buried pipelines need to be scrapped; we are not sure about the procedures required. I’m seeking advice from everyone here: 1. What procedures need to be followed with the local **authorities? 2. What tasks are required for scrapped pipelines? 3. What standards must the pipelines meet (how to analyze and verify this)? The pipelines contain pure benzene, cyclohexane, naphtha, dry gas, liquefied gas, xylene, propylene, and 6# solvent oil
Companies should have a management system for the scrapping and demolition of equipment and facilities; there are many requirements, including the use of work orders. Generally, it can be removed and scrapped only after it has been cleaned thoroughly. There are relevant requirements specified in the detailed standards; you can check them out. It seems that the dismantling and disposal of equipment do not require **approval; it is an internal corporate action
The regulations on the safety management of oil and gas pipelines state vaguely that pipelines to be scrapped must be thoroughly cleaned, but it does not specify what constitutes thorough cleaning or what the relevant standards are
Reply to 2# HappyFun: First, what standards need to be met to be considered qualified, so as to prevent pollution in the fields? Second, it is necessary to negotiate with the local authorities to ensure that the company does not have to bear any responsibility for any problems that may arise in the future, especially situations like the shutdown of the propylene pipelines in Nanjing.
The last edit to this post was made by Happy Tease on 2010-12-14 at 13:09. Reply to 4# gxscjhs305: It seems that there are no specific standards for the disposal of pipelines containing hazardous materials at present. In my opinion, one standard should be the existence of conditions suitable for performing welding work; usually, steam or nitrogen is used to purge the pipelines of hazardous materials, and only after the concentration of these materials inside the pipelines is found to be within acceptable levels can the pipelines be removed. Companies cannot just discard pipes without taking any action – by simply blocking both ends and burying them and then ignoring the matter. Accidents of this kind occur frequently, and fires and explosions at waste disposal sites also happen often due to the fact that companies fail to implement proper systems for the disposal and dismantling of such pipes. If the hazardous materials inside the pipeline are discarded along with the pipeline, then these hazardous materials should be considered waste hazardous materials. **It is stipulated that they must be handed over to environmental protection authorities for proper handling; companies are not allowed to dispose of them on their own, nor can they ignore the need to handle them. The leak in the propylene pipeline in Nanjing was likely due to a violation of these waste disposal regulations.
We aim to clean them to meet the conditions required for working with fire, but since most of them are buried, they have to be dug out entirely and removed; this involves land acquisition compensation and requires a great deal of labor and resources. Therefore, they are simply discarded after cleaning, though it’s not clear whether the pipelines might still cause other problems
It seems that your pipeline system is quite complex; it’s necessary to take the appropriate technical measures to ensure they are properly implemented, especially during hot work, otherwise problems will arise.
Reply to 6# gxscjhs305: I think in that case, your pipeline cleaning plan should be filed with the environmental protection department, and the information regarding the burial of the pipelines should be submitted to the planning department to obtain permits