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ICAM Manages Compliance with Special Permits

Special Permits, particularly those associated with waivers on operating pressure have been a hot topic for the last few years. Moving more gas through the same pipe allows additional dollars right to the bottom line. Special permits are also being used to allow higher operating pressures (albeit not 80%) in areas where class may have changed in order to avoid reconstruction with higher grade pipe.

In all cases, the requirements to obtain these special permits have been rigorous and in fact many operators were not able to clear the technical hurdles. Those that did; however, have been saddled with an extraordinary number of operational requirements in order to maintain the waiver. These requirements range from items that have to be done once, to those that once done are reviewed on a scheduled basis, to those that must be performed on an ongoing basis.

The requirement in most cases is to complete a baseline assessment that addresses cathodic protection, coating conditions, anomalies, seams, leaks and SCC. Following these baseline assessments, the expectation is that repairs will be made where necessary and the entire process starts again on a scheduled basis. If we were describing a migration plan to a performance based environment this would be the ideal start, in terms of completely understanding the current condition of the assets.

ICAM is used to schedule, track, document and report integrity activities. The only difference with special permits is that additional data may be required, additional analysis may be required with more restrictive criteria and frequencies may be increased. Within the ICAM platform we have configured the integrity processes with caveats that allow for a process to be closed for normal transmission pipe or for the process to continue on to the more restrictive requirements if it was scheduled against a waiver / special permit segment of pipe.

We are working with TransCanada and Alliance to populate their ICAM Management System with the content / requirements specific to their permits, which are in fact quite different due to the timing. Alliance was one of the first operators to receive a waiver and as is typical with US governmental agencies, the more they learn, the higher the bar goes.

For more information on how ICAM can help you manage the seemingly extraordinary requirements of these special permits, simply contact us.