How it works
Follow one test station, TS-13 on Line 3, from scattered data to an approved dig, in five steps.
01 · The data
The operator's own data, emitted and collected, plus the public record around it, kept in different systems and gathered over decades.
Emitted
The pipe and its equipment send data on their own, every minute or every hour, from SCADA, the historian and the monitors on the line.
Operations
Monitors on the pipe
Illustration · Sample data
Collected
Surveys, inspections, digs and the pipe's own paperwork, gathered over decades and kept in different systems.
Inside the pipe
The pipe itself
Along the corridor
Outside the pipe
Operator records
Illustration · Sample data
Public
Regulators, agencies and other operators publish data about the pipe’s surroundings: other lines and wells, the ground, water and weather, and who lives nearby.
Around the pipe
People nearby
The ground
Rules and filings
Water and weather
Illustration · Sample data
The whole view
Each source references location in its own way: odometer feet, GPS, stationing, mileposts, street addresses. The same foot of pipe looks like five different places, so the data could never be read together. VeriCorr reads it together.
02 · Line it up
That is correlation. Once every reading sits on the foot of pipe it describes, the readings can be compared with each other. At TS-13, five datasets agree for the first time.
CP, instant-off
−720 mV
Annual survey
ILI metal loss
31% wall
Two inspection runs
Coating, DCVG
holiday · 38% IR
Four coating surveys
Soil resistivity
800 ohm-cm
Wet and dry seasons
Strain
0.18%
From the inspection tool
03 · Find · triage, then depth
NOW is the triage: everything across the system, worst first. From there an engineer goes down through the CP readings, the inline inspection and the AC on the same stretch of pipe, all on one stationing, until the dig settles it.
01 · The system
Every line, worst first
Line 3 ranks High: protection below criterion.
02 · The CP readings
Where on the line?
The annual survey flags TS-13. The close-interval readings cross the −0.85 V criterion from STA 12+50 to 13+50, and DCVG over the dip finds a coating holiday, 38% IR.
Instant-off, V · Line 3
03 · The inline inspection
Is the steel losing wall there?
The run, lined up on the same stationing. One external feature at STA 13+02: 31% of wall, up from 22% the run before.
Metal loss, % of wall
04 · AC interference
Why there?
A power line crosses at STA 13+00, over the feature. AC on the pipe peaks at 9 V, over the 8 V that triggers an evaluation.
AC on the pipe, V
05 · The dig
What the hole shows
After engineering review, a crew digs at STA 13+02 and measures it by UT: wall thickness, pit depth, length and width.
↑ Back on the record: the correction goes to the run, and into the growth rate.
One finding, from the whole system to the hole · Sample data
03 · Find · what it was doing over time
Every question worth arguing about is a question about change. Is this getting worse, how fast, and when does it matter? No single reading answers any of them, which is why a record that keeps its history is worth more in its second year than its first.
TS-13, eight years
−720 mV · below criterion
TS-13 passed every year on its own. The drift toward the line showed it coming years earlier.
One feature, two runs
40% in 2033 · review
Two runs, aligned joint by joint, give a measured rate. The date it reaches the review line is arithmetic, not opinion.
The program, by quarter
32 open · falling
A program either closes more than it opens, or it does not. This says which.
Where a feature has been measured twice, the growth rate is arithmetic and so is the date it reaches a threshold. Where it has been measured once, the product says so rather than assuming a rate from a table.
Protection shifts with rainfall, temperature and soil moisture. Each reading is compared with the station's own history and with nearby stations on the same day, so a seasonal swing is not mistaken for a failing station, and a real decline is not dismissed as weather.
Findings opened and findings closed each quarter, with the evidence behind every one. It is the number an operations review asks for, ready before the meeting rather than assembled by hand the night before.
04 · Fix · one work order
WO-2417, the whole way round. Everyone signs in, and signs off on their part: the engineer approves it, the technician signs the readings on the phone with no signal, and an engineer signs it closed. What they measured comes back as TS-13's history.
01 · Office · Mar 3
The finding
High: CP instant-off below criterion at TS-13, Line 3.
−0.72 V against −0.85 V, flagged by the CP criterion agent.
02 · Office · Mar 3
The work order
WO-2417: re-read TS-13 and check the rectifier.
Signed in: integrity engineer
Signed off: integrity engineer · Mar 3, 9:14 AM. Assigned to a field technician.
03 · Field · Mar 5
On the phone
It arrives with the reading, the limit it crossed and what to collect. Due Mar 6.
Signed in on the phone: field technician
04 · Field · Mar 5
At the test station
Signed off: field technician · Mar 5, 11:04 AM
05 · Office · Mar 5
Back on the record
The re-read lands on TS-13's history and confirms it. The repair is proposed from here.
Reviewed and signed off: corrosion engineer · Mar 5, 2:40 PM
WO-2417, office and field: the re-read comes back as TS-13's history · Sample data
05 · Fund · what it costs and what it buys down
The re-read confirmed TS-13, so the engineer proposed the dig at STA 13+02 with the evidence attached and its cost: $48,000. At that cost it is a scoped job, approved by the integrity manager and funded from the operating budget. Nothing is dispatched without approval. The planned repair lowers the likelihood of failure on Line 3, avoids an emergency repair, keeps capital for the next-ranked line and closes the compliance item.
Line 3 risk, per year
Low · was HighHigh$5,200a year
down from $208,000 a year on Mar 3
−$202,800 a year · −97%
The $48,000 dig took out four times its cost in risk in its first year.
OpExMar 9
$260,000 if it fails$48,000, planned
One crew, one trip, from the operating budget, instead of an emergency repair and an outage.
CapExApr 7
$640,000 replacement$0, recoat not replace
The dig measured the wall at 33%, so the stretch stays in service and the capital goes to Line 1, which ranks next.
ComplianceApr 7
Below criterion−910 mV, closed
TS-13 reads back in criterion. The finding, the work order and the dig sit on one record, ready for the audit.
The public record first. Your GIS next. Readings when you are ready.