As time goes by, the integrity of pipelines that ferry oil and natural gas might be compromised. Many causal factors affect the integrity of gas and oil pipelines negatively during their entire useful lives. Some of these factors include water vapor, which causes rusting and internal cracks, scaling, and deposits, which prevents the free flow of products through the pipeline. Pipeline inspection and cleaning services involve frequent maintenance efforts at keeping oil and gas pipelines clean, dry, and free from blockage. There are firms out there who have specialized in this work and make sure the pipelines are operating as they should, and the contents are moving freely to their intended destination.
What are the different kinds of cleaning services?
Different oil and gas providers utilize varied methods to maintain their pipeline networks. The most commonly used techniques are scrapers, hydro jets, and pipeline pigging systems. Pipeline jetting makes use of high-pressure fluid blasts to scrub inside the gas pipelines for accumulation like grease, rust, scale, sludge and many other kinds of junk. The hydro jets have varied nozzles suitable for specific operations and can maintain small and big pipelines. Use of hydro jets is safe and friendly to the environment and can remove the most stubborn accrual of junk and restore normal flow with less downtime. Some of the benefits of pipeline jetting are the ability to save water, and it is easier to plan access and position tracking.
The other technique used for cleaning pipeline is pipeline scraping. It involves inserting a pig scraper tool inside a pipeline. Pipeline scrapers are tools that can be put inside the lines to dislodge tough accrual on the walls of the pipeline. The main advantage of using this strategy is that it does not need water pressure or fluid flow for the cleaning to take place. One of the most popular and recognized tools for performing gas pipeline cleaning services and flow guarantee is the pipeline pig. The device name was coined from the squealing noise it makes while going through the pipeline. A normal pipeline pigging system has a pig, a receiver, and a launcher.
The pig is a cylindrical device which is hollow and fits well to the launcher and is retrieved by the receiver. What drives the pig through the pipeline is the pressure differential. The major merit of using this technique is that the flow of product does not need to be interrupted when cleaning is taking place. They are also cheaper compared to the other types of maintenance services and can clean long distances of the pipeline. The person responsible for carrying out the pigging operation is the pigging engineer.
The expert must consider certain factors before choosing a pig for a specific operation. Some of these factors include the layout of the pipeline network, the pipeline diameter, flow conditions, and the task the pig will do. The most popular types of pigs include the specialty pigs, inspection pigs as well as the utility pigs. Utility pigs travel across the pipeline using the force from electrical energy or the pipeline fluid.