(47y) Identifying Hcas for Pipeline Systems in Complex Geographies: A Latin American Case Study

The risk of any operation in the process industries is directly related to the vulnerable elements that surround it. Assessing those elements is of particular importance for hydrocarbon transportation pipelines as potential impacts to the environment and the general public are a major concern due to the nature of the process. In 2001 and 2002 the US’ Code of Federal Regulations (49 CFR 192 and 195) developed rules to identify and classify vulnerable elements in High Consequence Areas (HCAs), obliging US pipeline operators to recognize and take them into account during risk assessments. Today, many other countries have adopted the US’s approach to the problem despite the large differences in their geographical and societal conditions. In South America, pipelines systems go through steep mountainous regions, crossing numerous rivers, drinkable water sources, protected environmental land and many populated areas. Furthermore, the complex geography of the region creates physical pathways that allow the spilled hydrocarbon to travel long distances, vastly expanding the range of potential impact and causing indirect consequences. This situation has forced regulators and operators to look for alternative methodologies that account for their particular geographic features. This paper presents one of such methodologies designed to identify both direct and indirect HCAs. In it, detailed information layers (population, hydrography, geography, water intakes, among others) are processed using Geographical Information Systems (GIS) to automatically identify the HCAs located within a 5 kilometer radius around the pipeline’s right of way. Next, altimetry data is processed to predict all possible physical pathways for a spillage.  When a pathway intercepts a HCA, the segments associated to that pathway are flagged and a criticality index is assigned based on the proximity to the vulnerable elements. This methodology has been applied to complex pipeline systems in Colombia and is continually improving; being the inclusion of the spill simulation our latest development. In this paper we share the details the methodology along with its implementation to a case study, highlighting its relevance for mountainous regions as well as its advantages and improvement opportunities for the future.