Spills from oil pipelines are serious business, creating significant problems for both the environment and the companies that operate the pipelines. In the past, spills were handled in an emergency fashion, with no coordinated efforts to reduce both their number and their severity. However, all that changed in 1999 with the introduction of a powerful new tracking and analysis tool.

Just a few short years ago, the petroleum pipeline industry instituted an environmental performance tracking system to help manage the risks involved when running, managing and maintaining the thousands of miles of pipelines under their control. This system, called PPTS (Petroleum Pipeline Tracking System) has already helped reduce both the environmental impact of spills as well as their frequency.

Oil sourcing companies applaud the results that pipeline tracking has already created. The Petroleum Pipeline Tracking System archives detailed information about each spill; not only the size of the spill, but also its root cause and the environmental impact created by it. This carefully managed information can aid in efforts to detect he causes of oil pipeline spills and stop future spills before they start.

Petroleum Pipeline Data Tracking

The amount of data tracked by the Petroleum Pipeline Tracking System is impressive, and the degree to which incoming data is verified only serves to strengthen the system. From report accuracy and completeness checking to incident-level comparison, the extensive efforts to ensure the integrity of the reporting system are working well.

Further boosting the participation of oil pipeline mangers is the confidentiality of data stored within the tracking system. Specific incident information is kept protected by the system's data mining team who publish the aggregate results in their advisories to the various members of the pipeline industry. This generalized information is valuable in helping with risk management, an important concern to oil companies.

Because of aggressive participation efforts, by 2004 over eighty-five percent of total interstate pipeline mileage was being tracked by PPTS, with impressive results. Spills were down as failures of fittings and valves decreased, and operator error also diminished accordingly. Analysts were able to define recognizable patterns to assist in preventative measures that would keep spills from occurring as often.

Preventing Pipeline Spills

Easier and more frequent detection of corrosion locations helped to reduce the number of corrosion-related pipeline spills as many risk points were identified and repaired before any failure occurred. By taking advantage of the learning experience from each spill logged in the Petroleum Pipeline Tracking System, failures and spill events continue to decline.

After 2004 there was a slight increase in the number of spill incidents, but this change was due to the effects of hurricanes Ivan and Katrina on offshore pipelines and facilities. However, even these spill events will provide valuable data that can make pipeline maintenance efforts more effective in the future.

Because spill reduction benefits everybody, energy companies continue to support the improvement in operational effectiveness that comes with proper tracking and analysis of past events.