GE Oil & Gas' PII Pipeline Solutions business has presented recognition awards to two of its valued customers following their pioneering use of MagneScan™, the next generation of MFL (magnetic flux leakage) pipeline inspection technology, now proven on both sides of the Atlantic.

SARPOM, Exxon Mobil's Affiliate Refinery and Pipelines Company in Italy, and Jayhawk Pipeline, the U.S. pipeline operator, were recognized for projects successfully completed in the first quarter of 2009. Representatives of SARPOM received the GE award in Cramlington, U.K., GE's Centre of Excellence for Magnetics, while Jayhawk was presented with the award at GE's Biannual North American Pipeline Conference in Austin, Texas.

The SARPOM inspection in Italy was from Trecate to Malpensa Intercontinental Airport (Northwest region) on a 6-inch diameter jet-fuel pipeline, spanning almost 20.5 miles. The line was last inspected in 2003. The scope of work implemented by GE was to detect corrosion, dents and bends, as well as mapping coordinates acquisition. The inspection was successfully completed in just four hours and 45 minutes, with the expert field support of TECMA Pipeline Services, GE’s partner in Italy. Sarpom operates a network of 720 miles of liquid pipelines in Italy.

Giorgio Tencaioli, Pipeline Integrity Supervisor for SARPOM Italia, said, "To inspect this seamless steel pipeline, partially built in the early 1960s, we had three priorities: we needed the combination of three tools in one, to reduce disruption to our operation; we also needed a very short arrangement of the system due to space restriction at the airport, and we wanted better corrosion assessment than was offered by previously available technology. We also had been waiting for a credible 6-inch mapping capability."

The first new MagneScan inspection project in North America was performed for the National Cooperative Refinery Association (NCRA) in the state of Kansas and consisted of four sections of 6-inch products pipeline, spanning a total length of 227.5 miles. A U.S. company formed in 1943, NCRA operates an 85,000-barrel-per-day refinery, located in McPherson, Kansas, as well the 227.5 mile, refined-products pipeline that runs from the refinery to Council Bluffs, Iowa.

Tags: GE Oil & Gas' PII Pipeline Solutions