Cost Effective Smart Cleaning Pigs Enabling High Frequency Pipeline Inspection

Abstract Pigging is necessary in both the maintenance and inspection of any pipeline, whether subsea or onshore. Operating in challenging environments and carrying potentially corrosive elements within the flow, a pipeline operator needs to be able to make decisions on integrity management based on relevant data. In Line Inspection (ILI) tools are typically deployed every three to seven years and give an operator detailed data on the integrity of their pipeline. However, these tools can be complex to operate, disruptive to operations, expensive to run and sometimes not deployed often enough to give operators a key insight into their pipeline integrity before an incident occurs. This paper will outline a new approach developed by a pioneering service company which enables operators to gather a significant volume of critical integrity data of their pipelines during regular cleaning and maintenance pig runs. The ability to inspect while cleaning reduces the requirement for mobilizing high value, MFL based ILI tools which additionally reduces personnel on board and improves operation economics.