Our transmission pipelines don’t travel a straight course. They go up hills, around corners, and under rivers and roads.

When pipe is manufactured, it’s a straight piece of pipe. When steel pipe gets welded together, it’s a really long straight pipe. So, in order to go over hills and around corners, somehow it needs to be bent. Bring on the bending machine.

The bending machine has a mandrel and shoes, and hydraulics. There are engineering principles around buckling thresholds, ovality, strain, and coating flexibility. To get it just right, bending pipe is a science, but almost more of an art.

While there are many identified “core” competencies an engineer should have when working with pipelines, there are many others that are important as well.

Since our transmission pipelines traverse across a multitude of properties, features, and landforms, it’s obvious that they will also cross railways, roads, watercourses and other utilities. So knowing how those crossings are done is essential.

We need to know the depth of crossing, the contours, load calculations, as well as interfaces with CP cross bonding and even the warning sign requirements so that those going digging around their asset will know there’s a pipeline there too.

The Australian Standard for (petroleum) pipelines, numbered as AS2885 and comprising of seven parts, might in fact be heading for a rewrite, a restructure, a rethink. With the changes coming down the pipeline (see what I did there), we need to be ready for it. And that’s ok – the way forward is to keep changing.

In the meantime, though, for the near future, the current version of AS2885 is still in play. It is key to the safe operation of key linear energy assets in Australia. Each part of the suite provides requirements and guidance for engineers working with pipelines.

The principles of risk assessment and management are clear: think about the likelihood of an event along with the consequences of that event.

We do it all the time, every day, for ordinary life decisions. It’s when we try to put science to it, or explain it, or rank it, or use our judgement to make heavy decisions based on it… that’s when it gets very complicated.

In order to understand, and then manage, risk for pipelines, we must understand the principles of risk, along with many pipeline-specific considerations, such as population density, plume dispersion, damage resistance, and ignition probabilities.

Pipelines transport fluid from where it is found or manufactured, to where it will be used. Most long-distance pipelines transporting fluid are made of carbon steel. There is also a massive network of flowlines carrying fluids shorter distances, but still transporting fluid.

Therefore, a core competency for pipeline engineers is one about other materials besides steel for that transport purpose.

We’re in a changing industry, and there will be new material options in the mix. A pipeline engineer should have knowledge of many relevant (non-steel) standards, as well as the alternative materials themselves: GRE, GRUP, BRVE, RTP, PE, SS, nylon.

While it might not seem obvious at first thought, knowing about the equipment used around pipelines is a logical expectation for a pipeline engineer.

Knowing about what the machines are used for, and their sizes, capacities and technical specifications is useful for design or operational tasks. Because, if you’re responsible for that design or operation, you should also know the equipment that will be used fulfilling that design or operation.

It’s useful to be able to speak easily about the excavators, rock breakers, cranes, generators, grit blasters, side booms, trenchers, induction heating coils, pumps, air compressors, generators, graders and bulldozers.

Pipeline monitoring and control systems have developed significantly in the past few decades. The advancement of SCADA systems and their associated Remote Terminal Units (RTUs) and Programmable Logic Controllers (PLCs) has allowed all kinds of automation and remote management of the asset over the years.

Additionally, the communications systems (WAN and LAN), protocols and mapping have also increased in complexity in a generation.

Because of these advancements, there’s also need for power supply in remote locations, UPS and backup generators, so that we don’t lose the information flow that is relied upon for the safe operation of the remote pipeline.

Those keeping track of our journey through the pipeline competencies might remember a couple of weeks ago, a competency was described for the principles of corrosion. That competency is about the mechanisms of corrosion itself, while this one is about controlling (stopping) that corrosion.

While it’s not expressly stated in the competency description, my understanding is there are really only two effective methods of corrosion control: good coatings, and cathodic protection. Although along with knowledge of those aspects (for which there is plenty to know), a pipeline engineer should also know about interference testing requirements, earthing, stray currents and shielding.

The thing about the AS2885 suite of Standards, is that it now (since the 2018 revisions) excludes design of piping itself within a station. A pipeline engineer designing a station AS2885 requires design of everything but the piping. The piping is then designed to piping standards, like AS 4041 or B31.3.

So: station design to AS2885 is about the station layout, the electrical, the communications and corrosion protection. It’s about the location of the separators and filters, generators and heaters, vents and flares. The odorant and the meters. But AS2885 doesn’t state design rules for the piping in the station.

Hydraulics, design basis, route selection, location classification, SMS, MAOP, stress analysis, low temperature design, welding, fatigue, pipe specification, HDD, buoyancy control, corrosion mitigation, alignment sheets, GIS, instrumentation and control systems, SCADA, procurement support, hydrotesting…

The pipeline engineering competency system (PECS), which we are journeying through during this August, lists 33 dot-points for the pipeline design engineer to “know”.

The PECS already has 240 competencies to it, and the one for pipeline design lists another 33. It’s clear that a pipeline design engineer needs to know a lot! And yet, it seems there’s no one clear place to find that knowledge.

“There shall be no change on this project”.

During one of my first major pipeline projects, at the kick-off meeting, the project manager made that statement and then paused, and waited. Someone then had the courage to say, “hang on, of course there will be change, what do you mean by that?”

The beauty of the ‘no change’ stance was that on that project, we had a clear, unambiguous understanding of when change management applied.

Change management processes firstly need to recognise when ‘change’ needs ‘management’. A good change management process should then also be transparent, consultative, recordable, and traceable.

There is a long list of knowledge for the construction side of pipeline projects. Listing the words here is like a word salad: planning and documentation, plant and equipment, buoyancy control, weld crew, pipe bending, NDT, MDR, HDD, QC, ERP, CEMP, special crossings and tie-ins.

When the pipeline engineer knows enough about all those and all the rest, it helps the construction manager focus on the logistics and resources issues that always pop up on any construction project.

In the end, though, the most effective way to be competent in a construction role is to be on the construction site.

Construction work of any type inherently requires knowledge about health and safety. The regulations vary across jurisdictions, but the principles are the same: everyone goes home safe.

The obvious aspects related to health and safety on pipeline projects include working around open trenches, with heavy equipment, and in dust and heat.

Where pipelining is so unique and challenging, is the linear nature of them. Especially the long-distance pipelines crossing hundreds of kilometres in the remote deserts out west.

Pipeline engineers need to consider the logistics of a non-static work site. Driving is probably the biggest risk when working on pipelines.

Pipelines cross all manner of landscapes and landforms. This means environment and heritage management cannot be overlooked.

Identifying and managing the impacts is a key knowledge and skill. New pipeline projects, and all existing operating pipelines, are subject to all of the environmental and heritage protection legislation and approvals that you’d expect to come into play.

It’s not unexpected to say that even a good pipeline engineer probably doesn’t have the skills to navigate the legislation and approvals process. Fortunately, in the pipeline industry we have access to a good breadth of service providers to lean on for that expertise.

Just like a building needs a site to exist on, pipelines need a corridor to exist in. Since pipelines are buried, it’s then possible to have other things going on where the pipeline is (cattle grazing, agriculture, even wind and solar farms). Pipelines therefore need a Right-of-Way, and some have an easement as well.

Pipeline engineers therefore should be aware of the complicated arena of land acquisition, including government regulations, permitting, licensing, stakeholder engagement, native title management and community consultation.

This is crucial at the beginning of a project, obviously. And also, throughout the lifetime of the pipeline, including decommissioning.

Without being able to quote research or data, I’m going to speculate that many pipeline engineers out there don’t have a solid enough grasp of the commercial aspects of pipelines.

Along with CAPEX and OPEX, economic regulation, contracting strategies, go/no-go and FID points, there’s also the land acquisition and compensation options, procurement strategies, net present value calculations, and ‘covered’ pipelines to know about.

A key skill for any pipeline engineer is the ability to at least ‘ballpark’ the costs associated with engineering decisions made. Even where safety is concerned, the level of cost impacts will influence decisions. Follow the money.

Good asset management, according to the ISO55001 Standard, is done by maximising the (commercial) value of the asset.

The technical fundamentals of asset management for pipelines includes the integrity management plan, the maintenance philosophies, corridor management, integrity inspections, reviews of operating pressure or location classification, safety management studies, and fitness for purpose assessments.

It’s easy to see how those listed items are asset costs; but, when done well, increase the value. So, it’s an interesting balance, then, between maximising the safety and maximising the value of a pipeline.

A way to maximise value is to keep the pipeline running safely.

The competency for “pipeline operation fundamentals” has pre-requisites in process engineering and hydraulics, as well as knowledge of AS2885.

So, clearly, a pipeline engineer who works in pipeline operations needs to understand what’s happening inside those pipelines and the associated piping.

Other elements that demonstrate pipeline operations knowledge are: pipeline modelling, control systems, product scheduling, inventory balancing, pipeline repairs, hot tapping and stoppling, coating repairs, emergency exercises, simulation and planning, liquid flow enhancers, leak detection systems, emissions monitoring, billing.

It’s quite wide-ranging, from equipment knowledge (meters, pumps, compressors) to economics (modelling, billing, inventory management), to structural integrity (inspections and repairs).

A competency in pipeline project management requires all the same knowledge, skills and experience required for managing any infrastructure project. That includes the principles of scope, time, cost, quality, risk, HR, procurement, and stakeholder management.

It’s the land access requirements of pipelines which is where managing pipeline projects needs knowledge beyond just any infrastructure project knowledge.

Cross-country pipeline projects face unique project challenges with land access arrangements, the varied geographical, geotechnical and environmental conditions, and the complex logistics of a linear project. Balancing the economic and technical regulatory requirements along with licenses, approvals and record-keeping, is all part of it.

Knowing the basics about instrumentation and controls is important for pipeline engineers, because those are the tools that measure and monitor the fluid inside.

To capture the competency for I&C means knowing about control theory, measurement devices, controllers, alarms, and shutdown systems.

Many graduate engineers first get exposed to instrumentation and controls through a P&ID (Process and Instrument Diagram). The first time you’re faced with one in the workplace (having not seen one through a university degree in civil engineering) is a confronting moment. That’s when you find a sympathetic senior engineer for an explanation. Or these days, search YouTube.