Results at a Glance
- A complete baseline assessment and rehabilitation of a gathering system achieved in under 24 months
- All sale-readiness requirements met ahead of schedule
- Unplanned downtime avoided during inspections and repairs
- Delivered under budget while exceeding safety expectations
The Challenge
With aging infrastructure, evolving regulations, and a retiring workforce, pipeline integrity management is more complex than ever. For one mid-size operator preparing to sell a network of gathering lines, the stakes were high:
- Limited existing integrity program
- Mounting regulatory pressure
- A tight sale-readiness deadline
Without a clear plan, the operator risked compliance issues, reduced throughput, and potential delays in the transaction.
The Solution
To meet the challenge, Acuren’s Pipeline Integrity and Design Engineering team partnered with Mid-America Pipeline Construction.
- Acuren led the integrity engineering effort, drawing on past experience from over 5,000 miles of ILI assessments and 700+ integrity digs and repairs.
- Mid-America managed overall project execution and field work, leveraging decades of construction expertise.
- Acuren’s lab performed investigations of cutouts and analyzed failures to prove out field NDE and repair determinations.
- This combination of deep technical knowledge and field execution capability created a turnkey solution that delivered 70 inspections and 40 analyses within the operator’s tight time constraints and with minimal disruption to their operations.
Operator-First Collaboration
The joint team, co-led by Acuren’s Jason Larman, Mid-America’s Kyle Whitfield, and the operator’s representative, worked as a single unit with a shared goal: to develop a fully compliant integrity program that would rehabilitate the system for sale and withstand regulatory scrutiny.
Key collaboration strategies included:
- Weekly joint reviews to fast-track tool run and dig plan readiness
- Careful personnel matching to each project phase
- Real-time communication between engineering and field crews
This approach ensured that every challenge was met with a solution — not a delay. As the work progressed, the team utilized a proven six-step process to achieve consistent results for each line segment assessed:
- Pre-run Evaluation – Identified threats, selected the optimal ILI tool, and partnered with the vendor best suited to the operator’s needs.
- Pigging Preparation – Performed pipeline piggability assessments and modified traps to support first-run success.
- In-Line Inspection – Conducted inspections of over ~70 pipeline segments in under two years, meeting the sale-readiness deadline.
- Feature Analysis – Developed a custom threat threshold and fit-for-purpose risk assessment tool to ensure regulatory compliance and effective use of resources for over-and-above digs.
- Digs & in-the-Ditch Inspection – Sequenced digs for maximum efficiency, with Acuren setting priorities and Mid-America executing fieldwork.
- Repair Plan Reconciliation – Validated ILI tool performance, reconciled field measurements, confirmed pipeline integrity, and verified results were documented.
