External Corrosion Direct Assessment (ECDA) has been performed for nearly a decade ago to assess the external corrosion condition of a buried pipeline. Since its conception, research into the process was performed and a consensus standard was written. However, the adequacy of this methodology to manage external corrosion threats to the pipeline infrastructure has not been subsequently documented. In addition, cost information, improvements in technology and process (e.g. lessons learned), performance metrics and overall effectiveness need to be tabulated and examined from an industry perspective. This 2013 project aims to generate an integrated ECDA “report card”; a benchmark for operators for the various ECDA methods and supporting processes. This will be accomplished through the following steps:
• Develop and send out questionnaires to pipeline companies to look at successes and failures with the ECDA process, correlation with other assessment methodologies and issues/gaps with processes and standards. • Conduct interviews with various companies’ integrity management and corrosion control personnel to ascertain ECDA performance and usefulness among other attributes based on the results of the questionnaires. Selection of companies will include those that have an MAOP special permit as these pipelines have used ECDA type tools and were able to use in-line inspection to look for indications of external corrosion • Perform a literature search for ECDA write-ups on the use, effectiveness and limitations of ECDA as a process and practice. • Perform procedure reviews of leading companies’ ECDA process and related corrosion control procedures. Procedures will be compared to industry standards and leading practices in order to help determine the overall effectiveness of the ECDA processes.
PRCI is also reaching out to other industry organizations and partners such as AGA and NACE International to expand the available pool of knowledge and offer other pipeline operators the opportunity to contribute to and participate in this effort.