Onshore Pipeline Basic Context

Onshore pipelines are the widest and most common means of transportation for hydrocarbons. Also, onshore pipelines are known to be the safest transportation means due to their low accident frequency and a small number of incidents affecting the population, in contrast to other means of transportation such as trains or trucks. Besides, the flexibility of building new paths makes onshore pipelines more cost-effective. Pipelines can be buried underground or lie above the ground in extremely corrosive soils or river crossings. Pipelines have different safety barriers depending upon the nature of the fluids transported, i.e., flammable, toxic, and explosive substances, and the aggressiveness of the surroundings. For instance, cathodic protection and coatings are external protection barriers against corrosion. Regardless of these protection measures, aging, natural disasters, and third-party actions have produced significant LOC events with relevant economic, environmental, and human consequences. These consequences are reported in accident databases such as CONCAWE (Europe), PHMSA (United States), TSB (Canada), and ANLA(Colombia). This chapter presents the context of onshore pipelines, especially transmission pipelines for hydrocarbon transportation from processing plants to distribution centers/storage facilities.