Some Issues of Ensuring Completeness and Reliability of Operational Data Obtained in the Course of Instrument Inspection of Steel Underground Gas Pipelines

Abstract

In the long term, along with the growth of nuclear power and related changes in the fuel and energy balance of the country, natural gas will retain an important place in the national economy, including in the production of heat and electricity Accordingly, the importance of gas distribution networks, which directly supply fuel to the Republic's consumers, will remain for a long time. According with the Concept of the National Strategy for Sustainable Development of the Republic of Belarus for the period until 2035, the main task in the gas sector is to maintain production assets at a level ensuring safe energy supply. Practice shows that corrosion factor has the greatest potential to influence the technical condition of steel underground distribution gas pipelines. To compensate for corrosion processes, steel underground pipelines are equipped with special protective means, in particular, insulation coatings. One of the key operational characteristics of  insulation is its integrity, which is controlled through periodic (comprehensive) instrumental technical inspection. Based on the inspection results, statistics of  identified defects of protective coatings is formed. The work examines the issues of ensuring the reliability of operational data, and highlights the experience of implementing specialized software packages in gas supply organizations of the Beltopgaz State Production Association for recording and processing the results of instrument surveys of gas distribution pipelines. The issue of the influence of organizational and production aspect (features of technology, local practice of planning and performing specific types of work on technical operation) on the structure of operational data, which requires separate study and accounting for their further statistical processing and use, has been considered in the paper.