PIPELINE – A BRIEF HISTORY

PIPELINE – A BRIEF HISTORY

To foresse the future we need to understand the past! I summarized some key points of the pipeline hystory so that in a future article we can discuss about its future!

ANCIENT PIPELINES

Man has used since ducts when he felt the need to transport water more efficiently to meet increased demographic complexity. The pipelines were constructed with pottery, bamboo, and lead. Some authors pointed that the first pipelines made of bamboo pipes wrapped with waxed cloth were laid in China, 400 B.C., to transport natural gas to their capital Beijing for lighting. /1/. Recently, a team of British and French researchers find out that Romans started using lead pipes around 200 BC, and stopped around 250 AD. /2/.

XIX CENTURY

In 1859 Edwin Drake drilled the first commercial oil well in Titusville, Pennsylvania. By the 1880s, the discovery of petroleum in Pennsylvania meant that kerosene could be produced in abundance and at a third the price of whale oil used for lighting. Within a few years, most oil lamps were designed for kerosene.

The oil was transported to rail stations by Teamsters using converted whiskey barrels and horses. Some authors pointed out that the Teamsters charged more to move a barrel of oil 5 miles by horse than the entire rail freight charge from Pennsylvania to New York City. To overcome this issue, in 1862 the first wooden pipeline, with 14.5km in length, was built. The pipeline construction caused dissatisfaction of Teamsters and despite of threats, armed attacks, arson and sabotage; the pipeline was put into operation.

In 1853 the first cast-iron Canadian transmission pipeline was built to transport natural gas. It was the longest pipeline in the world at the time. In 1865, the USA first oil pipeline made from iron was built in Pennsylvania. In 1878 the first oil pipeline in imperial Russia was built in Baku. The first crude oil trunk line (Tidewater) was built in 1879 to export his kerosene lamp oil production to Northern Europe and Russia.

In 1878, Thomas Edison's innovative electric light bulb replaced oil lamps in many of the cities, reducing the kerosene market. On the other hand, Henry Ford started producing the first automobiles, changing the market with mass produced automobiles, shifting the oil business from kerosene lamp oil to gasoline.

XX CENTURY

In 1940s, during the World War II, it was created the first flexible pipe, driven by the need to fuel allied troops in France after the D-Day invasion. The Operation Pluto (Pipe-Lines Under The Ocean) was conducted by British engineers, oil companies and Armed Forces to construct oil pipelines under the English Channel, between England and France. The project was developed by Arthur Hartley, chief engineer, with the Anglo-Iranian Oil Company (which would become British Petroleum in 1954).

The first flexible pipe developed was the HAIS (Hartley-Anglo-Iranian-Siemens), consisting of a lead pipe developed by Siemens Brothers in conjunction with the National Physical Laboratory, based on its existing submarine telegraph cables. Due to the cost and limited amount of lead, it was decided to replace the lead pipe by carbon steel, supplied for the most part by the United States of America. The new design developed by engineers from the Iraq Petroleum Company and the Burmah Oil Company became known as HAMEL (contraction of the two chief engineers names). 

Another consequence of the World War II was the expansion of land-based large-diameter pipelines carrying crude oil and products due to the sunk of 48 U.S. oil tankers in the early stages, showing the U.S. vulnerability to such an attack.
Two types of pipeline were developed.

It not by chance that USA, Canada and Russia have most pipelines today! Up to 2014, there was around 3,500,000 km of pipeline in 120 countries of the world. The United States had 65%, Russia had 8%, and Canada had 3%, summing up 75% of all pipeline of the world.

BRAZIL

In Brazil, the first pipeline went into operation in 1942 in Bahia, with a diameter of 2 inches and 1 km in length, linking the experimental refinery of Aratu and the port of Santa Luzia. Since the creation of PETROBRAS (Law 2004 of October 2, 2003), pipeline transportation has been stepped up with the construction of new pipelines. However, the utilization of pipelines is still not very representative in the country. About 60% of all production is transported by the road network, railroads account for only 21% and waterway mode for 14%. The pipelines and air systems do not reach 5% of production.

The truck drivers' strike, which caused a shortage throughout Brazil at the end of May/2018, revealed the dependence on road network and the need to revise the logistical deficit that affects the country. Maybe it's the right time to discuss building more pipelines in Brazil!

FUTURE

Over time, man has been improving the pipeline technology with new materials, construction technologies and integrity management procedures.

How do you imagine the pipeline of the future? What technologies will be adopted and the main products transported?

REFERENCES

/1/ Pipeline Engineering (2004), By Henry Liu
/2/ Ancient Romans Were Using Lead Pipes Earlier Than We Thought, website information, accessed 07.09.2018, https://www.atlasobscura.com/articles/lead-pipes-rome-ostia-soil-samples
/3/ website Climate Solver, WWF, accessed 07.09.2018, http://www.climatesolver.org/innovations/manufacturing/bamboo-winding-pipelines
/4/ 7th Pipeline Technology Conference 2012, High Grade Steel Pipeline for Long Distance Projects at Intermediate Pressure, C. M. Spinelli and L.Prandi , eni G&P Division, accessed 09.09.2018,
https://www.pipeline-conference.com/sites/default/files/papers/ptc_2012_Prandi.pdf
/5/ Historical Development of the Offshore Industry, Victor A. Schmidt, Bruce Crager, and George Rodenbusch, Endeavor Management, Houston, TX, USA, accessed 07.09.2018,
https://www.endeavormgmt.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/05/EMOE113.pdf
/6/ Website Wikipedia, Operation Pluto, accessed 08.09.2018, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Operation_Pluto
/7/ Pipeline transport, accessed 07.09.2018, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pipeline_transport#cite_note-cia-1