From Gassco's control centre at Karmøy in Norway, the company manages the transport of energy corresponding to 13 percent of the total European gas consumption in 2004. DNV helps Gassco to monitor the risk status of the pipelines" technical integrity.
As the operator, Gassco is responsible for monitoring the technical condition of the pipelines. DNV has installed a software package in each of the Technical Service Providers (TSPs), which are responsible for carrying out the work of securing the pipelines" integrity. This software package gathers information and sends it to Gassco, which thus meets both its own and the authorities' control requirements.
Simple and intuitive
DNV has a long history of successful collaboration with Gassco and has also arranged regular forums for the TSPs. It was through this work that the need for simplified, common reporting was identified. Gassco now achieves this by using DNV's new integrity management portal, which is a module within DNV Software's Field Life Cycle Manager. Gassco is the first user of the pipeline portal.
The web application presents the information in a simple, intuitive manner.
"With the integrity management portal, my work is simplified, both when reporting and when working on common tasks with the TSPs," says Benedicte Madsen, a senior engineer and the person responsible for following up the technical integrity and condition of the pipelines at Gassco.
The information shows the pipelines' technical integrity by stating the risk status, current activities around the pipelines, inspection plans and documents.
Easy updating
"Each TSP sends regular updates, which are stored so that a complete history of the pipeline is available," says Madsen.
The reporting to Gassco is achieved simply by entering the data manually in order to update the portal. The updates, which are sent via a web service, are received by the integrity management portal and directly updated in Gassco's database.
The TSPs which use the software system ORBIT Pipeline for pipeline integrity management, updates the portal by simply pushing a button in ORBIT Pipeline.
Efficient, secure operations
Gas is one of Norway's most important export products and, unlike other Norwegian exports, it has its own transport network on the seabed.
"Our most important task is to ensure the efficient, secure operation of the pipelines, processing plants and platforms that form part of the gas transport system," says Madsen. Gassco also coordinates the efforts to expand the gas transport capacity, including those relating to the planning and further development of new infrastructure.
"This helps to ensure better control, both for our customers and for the authorities. In this way, we also contribute new, future-oriented solutions as well as monitoring what we already have in place," says Madsen.
