Advancing Towards Proactive GEO-Hazard Management: Integrating Inertial Mapping Units in Cleaning Tools in the Ocensa Pipeline

Monitoring the behavior of external loading at location of known geohazard threat is of high interest to prevent damage and possible failure. In this aspect, the In-line inspection involving an inertial measurement unit (IMU) became a key tool for assessing potential geohazard loading and quantify the level of flexural deformation that the pipeline may be experiencing. However, the IMU tool was usually run in combination with caliper or metal loss tools which limits the inspection frequency, the operational condition during the inspection, and represent an important cost for the ILI run. In consequence, the availability of bending strain or pipeline movement data not always represent the activity state of the potential geohazard loading. Therefore, an estimation of strain change rates assuming a continuous geohazard loading is used to support risk mitigation measures

This paper presents the use of a novel In-line inspection technology that allows to run the IMU within a cleaning pig tool which represents a substantial reduction in inspection cost, allows to gather data more frequently which helps to reduce the uncertainty in the estimation of the strain change rate. This tool was run as part of the analysis of a site of high geotechnical complexity in an oil pipeline in the Colombian Andes. The implementation of this IMU allows to know the incidence of the active state of the instability process in the integrity of the pipeline and highlights the importance of having a more frequent inspection to establish risk mitigation measures associated with the threat of climate and external forces.