Alfie Hill – Graduate Pipeline Engineer

Wood is the duty holder of 2 major strategic gas transmission pipelines in the UK. This comes with it a responsibility to integrate monitoring measures to ensure security of national assets against traditional and evolving threats. This has led to the implementation of monitoring methods beyond of the minimum standards set out in national regulations, standards and codes.
Wood will share the lessons learned during the development and deployment of the advanced gas pipeline monitoring practices against the modern-day security threats, covering:

• What are the security considerations for the system design of onshore gas pipelines?
• What is the potential impact of these associated risks?
• How are these considerations addressed in the code requirements for gas pipeline design?
• What are the limitations of these methods?
• What other monitoring practices are available to enhance gas pipeline security and mitigate the associated risks?
• What improvements can be made to monitoring methods to reduce the associated risks?

The benefit and additional cost of the following measures and systems will be assessed:

• Patrols and inspections including routine patrols (on foot, by vehicle, or aerial drones) and scheduled maintenance are vital for identifying corrosion, cracks, and other integrity issues.
• Physical Security Measures including Fencing and Barriers, Surveillance Cameras and Security Patrols.
• Satellite monitoring
• Technological Security Systems including Intrusion Detection Systems, SCADA Systems: Supervisory Control and Data Acquisition (SCADA, Access Control Systems)
• Distributed Acoustic Sensing using Fibre Optic Cables (DAS FOC)
• Cybersecurity Measures including Network Protection, Regular Software Updates and Incident Response Planning
• Operational and Organisational Strategies including Risk Assessment and Management, Training and Awareness and Coordination with Authorities

The technology readiness of the new and emerging technologies will be discussed.
The impact on CAPEX and OPEX of these additional methods will be presented and assessed against the insurability of assets.