The gas industry and its regulators are preparing for risk-based management of failure control in pipelines, compared to the command-and-control management strategies currently used. Three major issues arise in introducing risk-based management (1) identifying risk factors that must be addressed; (2) gathering data to assess those risk factors (3) determining the optimum way(s) to analyze the data and present the results. This paper discusses the construction and application of a decision tool built for a major utility’s evaluations of gas pipe lines. The tool addresses the three major issues by carefully choosing risk factors, “case study” gathering of data, and flexible weighting of factors for decision support. The tool allowed the utility to begin risk management with minimum investment and maximum flexibility.
Keyworda: risk-based management, gas pipelines, pipeline corrosion, failure control, gas utilities