Archived News

C-FER estará dictando el Curso de “Diseño y Optimización de Sistemas de Bombeo por Cavidades Progresivas (BCPs)” incluyendo entrenamiento en el software PC-PUMP®. Del 19 al 23 de Noviembre de 2018, en Bogotá, Colombia.

Para información de costos e inscripción, visite Eventbrite: https://www.eventbrite.ca/e/pcp-system-design-and-performance-optimization-course-including-pc-pump-software-training-bogota-registration-46332385412

C-FER is holding course on "PCP System Design and Performance Optimization including PC-PUMP® Software Training" on November 19-23, 2018 in Bogota, Colombia. For costs and registration information, visit Eventbrite at https://www.eventbrite.ca/e/pcp-system-design-and-performance-optimization-course-including-pc-pump-software-training-bogota-registration-46332385412

C-FER Technologies is holding a workshop on “Thermal Well Design & Integrity for Geothermal Applications” at the Peppermill Resort Spa Casino, in Reno, Nevada on Thursday, October 18, 2018 from 8 am – 5 pm.

The workshop is immediately after the 42nd GRC Annual Meeting & Expo. If you are attending the meeting, visit us at booth 320 & 322.

Pricing: register by September 30, 2018 for $685 CAD; after September 30, 2018 for $815 CAD.

Register now through Eventbrite

Quantitative risk analyses are used in the pipeline industry to identify high-risk locations and main contributing threats; to evaluate risk against an acceptance criterion; to evaluate changes in risk over time; to guide integrity management decisions; and to demonstrate regulatory compliance.

We developed for the U.S. Department of Transportation Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration (PHMSA) guidelines for the development and application of pipeline quantitative risk analysis models for natural gas and hazardous liquids transmission pipelines. The purpose of these guidelines are to:

• Assist operators in developing new models and in identifying and addressing gaps in existing models
• Help regulators evaluate the accuracy, completeness and effectiveness of models developed by operators
• Address the quantitative risk analysis process for a system-wide risk assessment, as well as more narrowly-focused studies
• Enable the development of simplified subjective risk models
• Provide the tools to facilitate incremental improvements toward more detailed and objective models

Dr. Smitha Koduru is presenting the results of this project at the upcoming International Pipeline Conference in Calgary, Alberta on September 27, 2018 at 8:00 a.m. to 12:00 p.m. The presentation will be in Telus MacLeod E4. You will learn about performing quantitative risk assessments using PHMSA’s guidelines.

The entire paper – Guidelines for Quantitative Risk Model Development - is available through the 2018 International Pipeline Conference.

Dr. Smitha Koduru is a Senior Research Engineer in the Integrity & Operations department at C-FER. Her focus is on risk assessment and detailed analyses of structural systems.

Visit us at booth 303  at the International Pipeline Exposition.

Corrosion assessment criteria in current standards for onshore transmission pipelines rely on safety factors that are experience-based, with their implication on the risk or safety level associated with the pipeline unknown.

Working as part of a joint industry project, we have developed reliability-based corrosion assessment criteria in a deterministic format that are calibrated to achieve a specified safety level. The main features of the criteria are:

• Inclusion of calibrated safety factors and input parameters that result in intended reliability levels within a specified tolerance
• Consideration of two failure modes: burst and small leak
• Easy-to-use due to its deterministic nature

Riski Adianto is presenting the results of this project at the upcoming International Pipeline Conference in Calgary, Alberta on September 28, 2018 at 8:30 a.m. to 12:00 p.m. The presentation will be in Telus McLeod E1. You will learn about the development of the reliability-based corrosion assessment criteria and the broad range of pipeline designs and corrosion conditions it can be applied to.

The entire paper – "Development of Reliability-based Criteria for Corrosion Assessment" - is available through the 2018 International Pipeline Conference.

To learn about the practical implications of the application of this criteria, please see "Does reliability-based corrosion assessment criteria reduce risk"?

Visit us at booth 303  at the International Pipeline Exposition.

A limit states design approach for onshore pipelines has been developed with reliability-based design rules for geotechnical loads. In consideration of the modelling complexity of the soil movement mechanisms and pipe-soil interaction, and to allow for flexibility to incorporate future model developments, the design rule formation is directly based on the distribution parameters of the strain demand and capacity of the pipeline.

Working as part of a joint industry project, we used the structural reliability-based approach to develop the strain demand and strain capacity parameters required to apply the design rules. The paper presents a case study focused on slope creep to demonstrate this approach, as well as general guidance for:

• Landslides
• Seismic loads
• Frost heave and thaw settlement

Dr. Smitha Koduru is presenting the results of this project at the upcoming International Pipeline Conference in Calgary, Alberta on September 26, 2018 at 10:30 a.m. to 12:00 p.m. The presentation will be in Telus MacLeod E4. You will learn about how to develop the strain demand and capacity distributions required to apply reliability-based design rules for geotechnical loads.

The entire paper – Development of Strain Demand and Capacity Distributions to use in Limit States Design for Geotechnical Loads - is available through the 2018 International Pipeline Conference.

Visit us at booth 303  at the International Pipeline Exposition.

Spirally welded pipelines (extensively used in liquid transmission pipeline systems) may contain manufacturing anomalies that are susceptible to fatigue growth. To account for the angle of these cracks with respect to the longitudinal pipe axis, modifications to inputs of crack assessment models are required.

Using the widely-used pipeline assessment model CorLAS®, we worked with Enbridge Pipelines to investigate two input modifications:

• Consideration of the normal stress component perpendicular to the angled crack, for which we developed a stress transformation calculator
• Using an effective crack length calculated as the longitudinal projection of the full length of an angled crack, which we adapted from API 579 and BS7910 standards

Mark Neuert is presenting findings of this review at the upcoming International Pipeline Conference in Calgary, Alberta on September 27, 2018 at 8:30 a.m. to 12:00 p.m. The presentation will be in MacLeod Hall D. You will learn about the modifications evaluated and how they affect failure pressure calculations in comparison to validated finite element results.

The entire paper – Assessment of Pipeline Spiral Weld Cracks Subjected to Internal Pressure - is available through the 2018 International Pipeline Conference.

Mark Neuert is a Researcher in the Integrity & Operations department at C-FER. His focus is on using finite element analysis to assess pipeline integrity.

Visit us at booth 303  at the International Pipeline Exposition.

The pipeline industry has established various methodologies to estimate corrosion growth in pipelines. However, growth of corrosion feature length is inconsistently addressed in these methods.

We worked with Enbridge Pipelines to review these methodologies and determine the impact of feature length on corrosion burst pressure predictions.

This review:

• Considered methodologies that are applicable to both feature lengths and depths
• Evaluated the methodologies’ abilities to identify unsafe defects using estimated burst pressure from repeated in-line inspections
• Compared findings with feature depth only analysis to understand the impact of feature length on results

Chance Wright is presenting findings of this review at the upcoming International Pipeline Conference in Calgary, Alberta on September 26, 2018 at 8:30 a.m. to 10:00 a.m. The presentation will be in room MacLeod Hall D. You will learn about the methodologies evaluated and the effects of feature length on the accuracy of burst failure predictions. The entire paper - "Evaluation of Corrosion Growth Prediction Methodologies Using Burst Pressure Comparisons from Repeated In-line Inspections "- is available through the 2018 International Pipeline Conference.

Chance Wright is a Junior Research Engineer in the Integrity & Operations department at C-FER. His focus is assessing corrosion growth and pipeline reliability using C-FER’s PIRAMIDTM software.

Visit us at booth 303  at the International Pipeline Exposition.

A limit states design approach has been developed for geotechnical loads using a strain-based design format. This approach addresses the high level of uncertainty associated with the loading processed, which has limited the availability of design guidance in the past.

Working as part of a joint industry project, we have carried out a project to calibrate risk-consistent limit states checks that can be used for a range of strain demand and capacity distributions applicable to geotechnical loads.

The project:

• Developed checks for local buckling and rupture
• Defined criteria for selecting the characteristic strain demand and capacity to be used in the checks
• Considered temporal and spatial characteristics of the loading process
• Calibrated a set of safety parameters that meet allowable failure probabilities for relevant pipelines

Dr. Maher Nessim is presenting the results of this project at the upcoming International Pipeline Conference in Calgary, Alberta on September 26, 2018 at 10:30 a.m. to 12:00 p.m. The presentation will be in Telus McLeod E4. You will learn about the development of the limit states design checks for geotechnical loads that can be applied to both the design of new pipelines and the assessment of existing pipelines.

The entire paper – "Limit States Design Checks for Geotechnical Loads" - is available through the 2018 International Pipeline Conference.

Visit us at booth 303  at the International Pipeline Exposition.

Corrosion mitigation for pipelines, vintage pipelines in particular, has a significant effect on the industry’s management systems and related costs. To help optimize the corrosion management process, deterministic reliability-based corrosion assessment criteria have been developed for onshore pipelines as part of a joint industry project.

We worked with TransCanada Pipelines to evaluate the assessment criteria to determine if they lead to reasonable corrosion management decisions and compare well to other deterministic and probabilistic criteria. The evaluation involved applying the criteria to 22 transmission pipeline cases and comparing the results to those of:

• CSA Z662 deterministic criteria
• TransCanada Pipelines’ full probabilistic reliability-based criteria

Riski Adianto is presenting the results of this project at the upcoming International Pipeline Conference in Calgary, Alberta on September 25, 2018 at 1:30 p.m. to 5:00 p.m. The presentation will be in McLeod Hall C. You will learn about the effects of the reliability-based corrosion assessment criteria on the calculation of corrosion repairs.

The entire paper – "Implementation of Reliability-based Criteria for Corrosion Assessment" - is available through the 2018 International Pipeline Conference.

Riski Adianto is a Research Engineering in the Integrity & Operations department at C-FER. His focus is the quantitative risk and reliability analysis of pipelines.

Visit us at booth 303  at the International Pipeline Exposition.

Pipeline operators are looking to understand the risks with their pipeline assets, recognize potential issues and know the best course of action to lower their risk profile. Risk and integrity management programs can help solve problems before they arise, lower costs and decrease environmental impact.

The challenge is these programs can be difficult because of the many variables that may impact the analysis. Risk management software can be complicated to use, slow to calculate results or the required data is missing.

C-FER’s PIRAMID software is a risk-based integrity management and maintenance planning software tool for pipelines. It uses a probabilistic approach to estimate financial, environmental and safety risk using the most current and verified engineering models. Operators can customize the failure probability and consequence models to meet their individual requirements.

We are holding a workshop at the “2018 International Pipeline Exposition in Calgary on September 27th  at 7:30 am in Telus Room 111. The workshop, “Risk Assessments Made Easy with PIRAMID” is for pipeline professionals who are looking to make the most of their integrity management program.

It will cover:

• How you can do risk assessments even if you don’t have data
• How cloud computing is making risk assessments faster than ever
• How offering PIRAMID in a software-as-a-service model will increase access to the most robust risk models
• How C-FER is leveraging new partnerships to make PIRAMID even more accessible; and
• How 3 improved features help you get the most of your data and guide you through the risk assessment process

Register via Eventbrite by September 24, 2018.

We are proud to be presenting the following three papers at the Society of Petroleum Engineers 2018 Artificial Lift Conference:

• One Company’s Experience using Metal to Metal PCPs as the Primary Lift Method in a SAGD Operation. In partnership with PetroChina Canada, C-FER’s John Sheldon is presenting the paper on August 29, 2018 at 10:30 am in room Waterway 4.
• Identifying Analogue Fields in PCP Applications using Classification Trees.  John Sheldon, Francisco Alhanati and Paul Skoczylas are presenting on August 29th at 11:00 am in room Waterway 4.
• Use of Run-Life Measures in Estimating Artificial Lift System Reliability. Paul Skoczylas, Francisco Alhanati and John Sheldon are presenting the paper on August 30, 2018 at 2 pm in room Waterway 4. 

The associated papers will be available through the Society of Petroleum Engineers after the conference.

The conference is on August 28-30, 2018, at the Woodlands Waterway Marriot and Convention Center in The Woodlands, Texas.

November 6-7, 2018 (2 days) | Calgary, Alberta | Early Bird Price: $1,440 CAD | Register

This course will provide attendees with an overview of the considerations, key factors, industry guidelines and practices, examples, and field experience related to the design and integrity of thermal recovery wells.

The objective of this course is to review the:

Thermal well design process, industry regulations and recommended practices (IRPs);

Key material properties and damage mechanisms of casing and liner tubular steels, wellbore cements, and formations;

Casing and liner design approach and basis (materials, connections);

Options and field experience for sand control, artificial lift, downhole flow control, and  wellheads;

Impacts of operational practices (e.g. heating ramp-up rates);

Well integrity management programs;

Well inspection methods, well damage and ‘failure’ statistics, and well damage mitigation and repair options and field experience;

While the material presented in the course has relatively broad applicability, the focus is generally on topics associated with the recovery methods of Steam Assisted Gravity Drainage (SAGD) and Cyclic Steam Stimulation (CSS), and course content is largely resented from a Western Canadian perspective.

Learn more about this course: Thermal Design

October 30-31, 2018 (2 days) | Calgary, Alberta | Early Bird Price: $1,440 CAD | Register

This course will provide attendees with an overview of wellbore thermal-hydraulics (i.e. coupled thermodynamics, heat transfer, and fluid flow).  Additionally, they will gain a greater understanding of technologies and analytical methods currently for SAGD thermal-hydraulic applications.

The objective of this course is to:

• Provide an overview of the physics and thermodynamics associated with the design and performance of the injection and production wellbores in these applications;
• Describe completion and production/injection technologies used in the industry and their associated pros and cons, including vacuum insulated tubulars (VIT) and flow control devices;
• Describe various artificial lift, in-well and remote monitoring methods;
• Provide an overview of thermal wellbore and coupled wellbore-reservoir simulators; and
• Provide examples of injection and production completion designs and their predicted performance.

Learn more about this course: Thermal Hydraulics

C-FER Technologies is pleased to be featured in World Pipelines Magazine.

Article highlights how C-FER is helping pipeline operators use probabilistic assessment methodology to assess and manage pipeline reliability. The article covers elements of a probabilistic failure model including:

• variability in pipeline properties and dimensions
• measurement uncertainty
• model uncertainty
• defect growth rates

Download the article to learn more.