Oil pipelines in russia: yesterday, today and tomorrow

PART I

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Pipeline transport is known to be the most eco­nomical way of transportation among other various transmission systems used for delivery of oil from production regions to refineries.

The pipeline history in Russia extends over a century back.

The first idea of using a pipeline for transportation of oil and products was proposed in 1863 by D. I. Mendeleyev, the great Russian sci­entist, who justified the principles of pipeline construction and presented the arguments fa­vouring their advantages over other transporta­tion methods. Fifteen years later, the first pipeline was commissioned in the Apsheron peninsula to deliver oil from Balakhan oilfields to the Baku refinery.

The pipeline was designed and built by V. G. Shukhov, a talented Russian engineer. The 75-mm (2 in.) diameter pipeline length was only 12 km. Steel pipe sections were connected through couplings and isolated by a compound based on drying oil and jute fabric soaked into the predefined thickness by red lead dissolved in drying oil. Both reliability and service life of this pipeline were rated for many decades of opera­tion.

By the end of the 19^th century, the total length of Baku oil pipelines totaled 230 km and their combined annual capacity was as high as 1 million t. Two major (for that period) pipelines were laid in Russia in the early 20th century, they are Baku - Batumi (1896 - 1906) totaling 833 km and 200 mm (8 in.) diameter, to pump 900,000 t/y (tonnes a year) kerosene, and the 162-km, 200-mm line from Makhachkala to Grozny (1913 - 1914) to transport 700,000 t/y oil.

About 1,300 km of oil and product pipelines were built prior to 1917, with diameters averag­ing at 197 mm (8 in.). Those pipelines were of no considerable importance in terms of transmis­sion volumes since there was no serious competition with powerful railway services. For exam­ple, the share of the Baku - Batumi line was only 6% of the

total oil transport in 1913, the last year prior to the World War 1. The construction activities were halted by that war.

After the war, existing pipelines were rehabilitated and new lines were built in the Transcaucasian region. Sabunchi - Baku, Khadyzhensk - Tuapse and Makhachkala - Grozny lines were commissioned at that time.

A Guryev - Orsk oil trunk pipeline was commissioned in 1936, with 709 km long and 300 mm (12 in.) diameter pipe, to transport the Baku oil to Orsk refinery. But due to higher out­puts from Emba field, the pipeline was actually used for delivery of high-quality oil produced in the latter.

Further pipeline advancements in Russia were tightly linked with field development in Bashkiria, Tataria and Samara area. The first underground line was commissioned in the re­gion in 1936 - a Ishimbai - Ufa 168 km, 300 mm (12 in.) oil pipeline designed to transport oil from the first wells in "The second Baku" to Ufa refinery. Before the last war, the USSR had a total of 4,100 km trunk pipelines, of which 70% were used for pumping crude oil.

Fast development of oil producing regions in the Volga area necessitated new pipeline con­struction. To support design and engineering research efforts for new oil pipelines, the Nefteprovodproyekt trust was created in 1939, known as Giprotruboprovod institute later. The trust laid the foundation for presently accepted management guidelines used in design, construc­tion and operation of oil trunk pipelines.

Industrial development of the country be­fore World War II gave a strong boost to im­provement of pipes and equipment. Greater pipe diameters, better construction technologies and changeover from couplings to gas and electric welding were the obvious results gained. Domes­tic manufacturers introduced new Borets type reciprocal pumps offering 160 cu m/h capacity and 600 m head, and Russki Diesel plant sup­plied diesel drives. These units were installed at pumping stations in Bashkirian, Volga-area, Emba and Caucasus oil pipelines. All steam-driven pumps in Baku - Batumi oil pipeline were interchanged by diesel-driven units.

During these years, first steps were made aiming at mechanization of labour-intensive pipeline construction operations and use of various machines and mechanisms.

1. Проверьте себя, помните ли Вы следующие слова и словосочетания:

нефть и нефтепродукты, транспортировать, транспортировка нефти и газа, сооружение трубопроводов, магистральный трубопровод, нефтеперерабатывающие заводы, нефтепромыслы, районы добычи нефти, разработка месторождения, надежность, срок эксплуатации, высококачественный, исследовательский, сварка, достижения, проектировать, перекачивать нефть.

2. Дайте ответы на следующие вопросы:

1. What is the most economical way of transportation of oil?

2. Who proposed the first idea of using a pipeline for transportation of oil and its products?

3. When was the first pipeline in Russia commissioned?

4. Who designed and built it?

5. What kind of pipeline was it?

6. What necessitated new pipeline construction in 1930s?

7. What improvements were introduced to the oil and gas industry in 1930s?

PART II

Прочитайте и запомните следующие термины и словосочетания:

But World War II was coming. A new military strategic objective, extremely complex and important, was put forward before the do­mestic oil supply system - delivery of petroleum products to the army and defence industry facili­ties.

In extremely complex and unfavourable conditions, a product line was constructed to blockaded Leningrad in 1942, with more than 20 km laid on the bottom of Ladoga lake. Fifty days after the startup of construction, up to 600 t gasoline was pumped to Leningrad daily.

Intense construction of oil trunk pipelines was started beginning with the late 1940s, the period of oilfield development boom in Bashkiria, Tataria, Samara, Perm and Orenburg areas as well as Northern Caucasus fields.

That were the years of strong efforts aiming at Devonian oil in Tataria. Commercial reserves were struck in Shugurovsk, Bavlinsk and Romashkinsk oilfields.

Early 1950s were also the period of intense oil production development in the Urals - Volga area. The crude trunk pipelines such as Tuimazy - Ufa II and III, Bavly - Kuibyshev I and II, Tuimazy - Omsk, Romashkino - Kuibyshev, Shkapovo - Ishimbai, Kuibyshev - Saratov, Subkankhulovo - Aznakayevo - Almetyevsk, Mukhanovo - Kuibyshev, Omsk - Tatarsk, Ishimbai - Orsk, Zolnoye - Syzran and some other were laid.

Development of new oilfields and produc­tion growth, both were the prerequisites for creation of basically new transportation meth­ods. AYaP type centrifugal pumps were intro­duced by manufacturing plants. Sumy pump plant started manufacture of high-capacity elec­tric-driven ND and NDsN centrifugal pumps to completely substitute the reciprocal pumps in oil transmission facilities.

Mechanization of labour-intensive construction operations and special-purpose ma­chines and mechanisms were the features of the period also.

Innovative communication systems entered the oil pipeline industry. They used bimetal circuits and channel multiplexing equipment thus improving the telephone communications and cutting service costs.

The oil trunk pipeline development was additionally boosted by new discoveries in Western Siberia. That was a qualitatively new, and more complex, stage of pipeline development: greater pipeline lengths and diameters; and faster construction of lines and pumping stations. Wide-scale oil pipeline construction necessitated new theoretical studies concerning pipeline transport hydrodynamics.

About 40 oil pipelines were built in the 1960s with diameters reaching 1,000 mm (39 in.) such as: Tuimazy - Omsk II and III, Gorky - Ryazan I, Kaltasy - Yazyvovo - Ishimbai, Alme­tyevsk - Kuibyshev I and II, Almetyevsk -Gorky II and III, Tikhoretsk - Tuapse, Ust-Balyk - Omsk, Malgobek - Tikhoretsk, Yaroslavl -Kirishi, Nizhnevartovsk - Ust-Balyk and Uzen - Guryev. The Druzhba ("Friendship") oil trunk pipeline system was commissioned in 1964. It was used to pump Tatarian and Samara oil to refineries and gas plans in Czechoslovakia, Po­land, Hungary and GDR. Total pipeline length was 4,665 km, including 3,004 km Russian por­tion, and 1,020 mm (40 in.) diameter.

All newly built oil pipelines used an innova­tive pump-to-pump technology offering reduced oil losses resulted from its evaporation from tanks, eliminating construction of new tanks and boosting stations, cutting operating person­nel and reducing pumping station floor space.

Modern high-capacity process equipment installed in oil pipelines necessitated special devices ensuring reliable and safe operation.

Telemechanics systems were implemented on the broadest basis, between 1964 and 1967, in Druzhba trunk pipeline and some sections of Kuibyshev - Michurinsk - Bryansk line. Besides the basic supervisory functions, operators could control primary process equipment many hun­dreds kilometers away. The first Telemaut-type tank farm remote monitoring and control sys­tem was installed and commissioned in Koleikino pumping station. A year later, Almetyev regional oil pipeline department imple­mented an upgraded Korvol tank farm remote control system.

Greater oil transmission volumes in that years were met not by intense construction of new trunk pipelines alone, but retrofitting of an existing network and renovation of basic proc­ess equipment and improved pumping technologies also. During this period, engineering design organizations, meeting the requests of pipeline companies, were developing, testing and starting quantity production of a broad spectrum of high-capacity construction and process equipment and machines for oil pipeline facilities along with process automation and communication systems.

1. Проверьте себя, помните ли Вы следующие слова и словосочетания:

продуктопровод, система снабжения нефтью, условия, бензин, разработка месторождения, рост добычи нефти, открытие, оборудование, улучшать, понижать стоимость, протяженность трубопроводов, перекачивающая станция, испарение, потери, модернизировать количество, техническое новшество.

2. Дайте ответы на следующие вопросы:

1. Why was intense construction of oil trunk pipelines started on the late 1940s?

2. What trunk pipelines were built in 1950s?

3. What were the feature of pipeline industry in 1950s?

4. Were there new oil discoveries in Western Siberia in 1960s? Were they a new stage of pipeline development?

5. Can you name any pipeline of that period?

6. All newly built oil pipelines used innovative technologies, didn’t they? Which of them do you remember?

PART III

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Older pipelines laid in post-WW2 years re­quired comprehensive repair efforts in many cases. In the early 1960s the pipeline overhaul volume totaled as much as 30 km/y thus requir­ing a changeover from the primitive repair methods to development and use of high-capac­ity purpose-specific equipment and technologies. This work was passed on to the 1959-established NIItransneft institute. The institute offered a brand new pipeline repair technology that avoided oil pumping shutdowns. This approach was justified scientifically by К. Е. Rashchepkin, V. L. Berezin, P. P. Borodavkin and others.

Pipeline transport gained special impor­tance as a result of active oilfield development in Tyumen area. Remarkably high oil pipeline con­struction rates are the feature of the early 1970s. The following pipelines were commissioned then: Ust-Balyk - Omsk, Ust-Balyk - Kurgan -Ufa - Almetyevsk, Aleksandrovskoye - An-zhero-Sudzhensk, Andzhero-Sudzhensk -Irkutsk, Nizhnevartovsk - Kurgan - Kuibyshev, Druzhba II, Surgut - Polotsk, Kholmogory -Klin, Michurinsk - Kre-menchug, Kuibyshev - Lisichansk - Kremenchug, Kuibyshev - Tikhoretskaya - Novorossisk, Lisichansk - Tikhoretsk, Guryev - Kuibyshev and a number of others. The Tuimazy -Omsk and Anzhero-Sudzkensk - Omsk oil pipe-lines were converted to reversed pumping of West­ern Siberia oil to Bashkiria and Volga area.

Over 35,000 km of modern underground pipe­lines were laid during that period. They primarily com­prised, over 70% total net­work length, the 720 - 1,220 mm (28 1/2 - 48 in.) pipe range, and the total turn­over reached 85% of the to­tal for the whole oil trunk pipeline network. Wide use of large-diameter pipelines helped in reducing both rail­way crude transportation and delivery costs.

Faster oil transport development rates necessitated the introduction of new construction management methods and technologies. Surface facilities are the major aspect of construction efforts. 1974 was the startup year for introduction of industrialized

construction practices relying on modular-block pumping units (BKNS-type) offering higher construction rates.

The efficiency of the method is attributed to transfer of basic installation work from a construction site to factory floors where the prefabricated modular blocks are built for subsequent installation and piping connection in the desti­nation points. Such approach necessitated both new technical solutions and complete restructur­ing of construction methods, but it offered higher labour productivity along with reduced pumping unit costs and faster construction time.

A brand new pumping unit type was created three years later - BMPNS modular block unit - featuring considerable construction time cuts, lower metal and cable consumption, use of inno­vative equipment types, rational planning and technical versatility. Such modular-block sta­tions offered the industrial construction index to be as high as 0.8 along with one-year pumping station construction period and considerable cuts in demanding profile employees.

Development of the crude pipeline network during this period of time resulted in both higher pipeline length, pumping station count and, more important, introduction of new tech­nologies and management methods.

1. Проверьте себя, помните ли Вы следующие слова и словосочетания:

объем, требовать, ремонт, капитальный ремонт, развитие (совершенствование), приобретать особое значение, темпы строительства, строительная площадка, место назначение, заводского изготовления, соединение, методы управления, общая протяженность трубопроводов, производительность труда, сокращение времени строительства, сеть трубопроводов.

2. Дайте ответы на следующие вопросы:

1. When and where was NIItransneft institute established?

2. What scientists from NIItransneft and Ufa Oil Institute offered new pipeline technologies?

3. Why was such a great number of new pipeline built in our country in 1970s?

4. What did faster oil transport development rates necessitate?

5. What innovations of that time are known to you?

PART IV

Прочитайте и запомните следующие термины и словосочетания:

boosting pump - вспомогательный насос

ambient temperature - температура окружающего воздуха

to fit - оснащать

transient - неустановившийся режим

to prevent - не допускать

shock - удар

custom-designed - изготовленный по особому заказу

safety valves - предохранительный клапан

to vent - продувать, удалять воздух

cluster - группа, скопление

accounting - анализ хозяйственной деятельности

flow meter - расходомер

maintenance - техническое обслуживание

to envisage - предусматривать

logistics - техника снабжения

joint venture - совместное предприятие

compatible - сравнимый

flexibility - гибкость

unsustainable production - нестабильный дебит

batching option – партия нефтепродуктов

Beginning with mid-1970s, the pump plant in Sumy introduced a number of NM-series centrifugal oil pumps rated at 1,250 – 12,500 cu m/h capacity and, beginning with 1980, the domesti­cally built NPV-type vertical boosting pumps were installed in the head pumping stations; those machines were rated at outdoor operation at ambient temperatures as low as -50° C.

Tanks holding up to 50,000 cu m crude and fitted with pontoons and floating roofs were also constructed for oil loading and storage. Cathodic and drainage protection systems, with automated protection voltage control, were in­troduced for pipe corrosion protection.

Boosted crude production in Western Siberia has resulted in maximum loads for the majority of trunk pipelines rated for 13,500 cu m/h, thus necessitating improved pressure control automation in oil pipelines. The most efficient method of preventing hydraulic shocks at transients was to use custom-designed fast-actuating Arkron safety valves venting oil to atmos­pheric pressure tanks installed in pumping stations.

As a result of computer technology develop­ment in the USSR it has become possible to start a new development stage of domestic oil pipeline industry plant cluster and industry-wide process automation. A TM-120-1 computer-controlled telemechanics system was installed on Almetyevsk – Kuibyshev oil pipeline in 1976. That was the foundation for the first unmanned system controlling both pump and pipeline op­eration. In the early 1980s, all commercial oil accounting functions were transferred to automated metering stations using turbine flow-meters offering the error better than 0.2% of to­tal mass flow.

Wide-scale implementation of control sys­tems required high operating quality of communication devices. Following active oil pipeline construction efforts, aerial communication lines were changed for more reliable cable systems.

Construction of oil trunk pipelines in sparsely populated regions of Western Siberia and Komi has made the traditional pipeline maintenance and repair systems not applicable since they necessitated the presence of mainte­nance personnel in the pumping

stations. Begin­ning with mid-1970s, the centralized equipment maintenance and repair system (TsTOR) was being gradually implemented in oil trunk pipelines.

This system was centered around the princi­ple of separated repair and maintenance func­tions from those relating to pumping process control. The system envisaged improvement of service and repair functions based on job spe­cialization and centralization using repair, logis­tics and transportation service bases (centers).

Until recently, the Russian trunk pipeline network was being built with account to a cen­tralized oil supply optimum for refineries, with breakdown by crude grade and exports. This network was operationally targeted at the cen­tralized planning economy, supposing both oil production and refining to be virtually sepa­rated economically. The oil pipeline transport was considered to function as a mediator, or to buy and sell crude oil using the predefined prices.

Beginning with market development in the country, oil and gas producing integrated com­panies (associations) issued an initiative requir­ing a right of independent signing contracts with consumers. Joint ventures with international participation were established also to choose buyers on their own.

To date, the Russian oil trunk pipelines comprise a unified network known to be the world largest. In general, its technical level and economic performance are compatible with those accepted worldwide. Oil pipelines comprise the primary means of crude transmis­sion and they are pumping over 95% of oil pro­duced in Russia.

Considering the current status of the oil trunk pipeline system and its future develop­ment in Russia, the following can be noted:

° the trunk pipelines comprise a uni­fied inter-regional network ensuring crude transportation from production regions to refineries and exports terminals;

° the oil pipeline system offers sufficient capacity for all transmission directions to ensure flexi­bility of deliveries with account taken to un­sustainable production, processing and exports volumes, as well as batching options to deliver specified oil grades to consumers.

1. Проверьте себя, помните ли Вы следующие слова и словосочетания:

устанавливать, улучшать, не допускать, обеспечивать, снабжать, транспортировать, мощность, защита, головная перекачивающая станция, ремонтировать, единая сеть, технический уровень, цена, резервуар, хранение, предохранительный клапан, груз, завод, совместные предприятия, потребители, поставки.

2. Дайте ответы на следующие вопросы:

1. What has boosted crude oil production in Western Siberia resulted in?

2. What kind of tanks were constructed at that time?

3. What made possible to start a new development stage of domestic oil pipeline industry?

4. What are the features of pipeline construction in sparsely populated regions of Western Siberia and Komi?

5. What can you note considering the current status of the oil pipeline system in Russia?