USING GIS TO SUPPORT NEW PIPELINE CONSTRUCTION AND MATERIAL PROCUREMENT
CASE STUDY

ABSTRACT

The geographic nature of managing materials delivery and construction activities for pipelines and facilities provides a unique opportunity to use GIS technology to reduce project risks and improve overall project productivity. Materials and construction comprise 80-90% of total installation costs, and as such, delays in the chain of construction activities become the primary source of cost and schedule sensitivities. This paper presents a GIS based solution that manages all material and construction activity from project inception through commission and hand-off to operations. The solution tracks the daily progress and geospatial location of materials and activities, processes all data on a nightly basis against a baseline plan and checks field inputs against an extensive quality assurance library so that project issues can be proactively managed on a daily basis. The web-based platform provides secured access for all stakeholders to visualize and report status and issues at any time during the project through the use of a project dashboard. At completion of the project, all documentation is provided in a geo-referenced format that may be easily integrated into the company's operating enterprise.

INTRODUCTION

World-Wide Pipeline Construction
According to a study by Douglas-Westwood ltd. and an article in the January 2008 Pipeline Gas Journal titled 2008 Worldwide Pipeline Construction Report, more than 144,000 miles of new pipeline are currently in various stages of planning, design, engineering and construction world-wide at an estimated cost of more than $30 billion/year. This historic level of activity is being driven by changes in supply patterns, overall infrastructure upgrade and replacement, and a more rapid increase in energy demand in developing areas of the world.
Project Challenges
High levels of construction activity are presenting numerous challenges to the industry in reliably progressing projects from the drawing board to commission and operations. Project management and engineering talent are in limited supply, construction spread availability is limited and raw materials are in high demand. In addition, the increase in construction work in a resource constrained market has resulted in an upward trend in prices and steady shift of project risk from the EPCM contractor to the asset owner.
Role of GIS
Technology packaged with the trained practitioner offers solutions to these challenges especially in the area of productively managing the construction process and providing prompt transparency of critical issues to decision-makers, managers and specialists. Although there are numerous technologies supporting the productive execution of pipeline construction, this paper focuses on a few areas where GIS technology was used to support critical phases of construction and material delivery, leading to the end objective of a safe project completed as designed, on time and on budget.

CASE STUDY

Project Overview
As part of Indonesia’s National Energy Policy, it’s state owned Gas Transmission Company (PGN) has put in place a multi-year program to continue to build-out its gas transmission and distribution grid, and provide for facilities to export liquefied natural gas (LNG). Its Trans-Indonesia Integrated Gas Network is the primary system of this build-out which links main reserve basins and sources of supply to demand centers and export facilities.
Gas transmission and distribution facilities are being developed in South Sumatera and West Java, which includes the South Sumatera – West Java Gas Transmission Pipeline Phase II Project from Grissik to Rawa Maju.
The primary project referenced by this paper includes the design, material procurement, installation, testing and commissioning of the following pipelines utilizing a GIS enabled CMS (construction management solution):

• 36” diameter onshore pipeline from Grissik to Pagardewa over a length approximately of 195.7 km
• 32” diameter onshore pipeline from Pagardewa to Labuhaan Maringgai over a length approximately of 267.5 km
• 28” diameter onshore pipeline from Pertamina receiving point to Pagardewa over a length approximately of 4 km
• 32” diameter offshore pipeline from Labuhan Maringgai to Muara Bekasi over a length approximately of 161 km
• 32” diameter onshore pipeline from Muara Bekasi to Rawa Maju over a length approximately of 34 km
• Various  pipelines in Oman and India

PGN engaged an Engineering Consultant, to provide assistance in the provision of engineering and procurement services including construction management and supervision and to assist PGN in undertaking the overall Project Management role on behalf of PGN. During the Front End Engineering Design (FEED) stage of this project, PGN and PMC decided to deploy a web-based GIS enabled Construction Management System (CMS) to aid the owner, consultant and contractor with the productive execution of construction activities through daily field based monitoring, and on-site and remote management of critical issues. An important criterion of CMS selection was the ability for the system and project data to be seamlessly integrated into the PGN enterprise after commissioning.

CMS Overview
PGN selected a product called “Pipe-Trak”, a construction management solution developed by PetroIT based out of New Delhi, India. PipeTrak is a web-based CMS application supported by an APDM data model which works with ESRI and Google based GIS mapping technology. For this project, PipeTrak was deployed at project inception and used to support pre-construction (initial route survey, material planning, land\ROW acquisition, permitting, etc.); construction and commissioning (daily activity tracking, material tracking, resource management, etc.); and post commissioning (as-built, project EDMS, integration of project data into enterprise, etc.). All data is geo-referenced providing a spatial perspective, and revisions and changes to the asset are tracked creating an interlinked history.

The CMS is used by pipeline operating companies to database the pipe details, as well as all mechanical and chemical test results, starting from the steel coil used in pipe production to the final pipe product. The installation of the pipe, it’s welding, NDT and repair details captured at the time of construction are also archived in an interrelated manner. This data is linked to the exact physical location of the pipe on the pipeline alignment through the GIS. Thus it provides a geo referenced database of the pipeline asset that becomes a strategic resource for future pipeline operations as the data captured during construction is related to data captured during operations, (such as CP data or ILI) provides for in depth analysis of events and situations which would not have otherwise been possible.
Benefits of GIS Based CMS
Numerous benefits were realized and lessons learned through the use of a geo-enabled CMS. All materials were either bar coded or stenciled so that any activity associated with pipe, valves, flanges, etc. could be tied back to the specific asset. Each asset was also assigned a spatial location as it progressed through the project from the pipe mill, coating yard, staging location and its final installed location.

Data was collected with hand-held devices or data forms at each of these locations on a daily basis allowing real time tracking of assets. All data regarding material and activities was stored in a secure, web-enabled database that allowed qualified personnel to manage the project and issues on a near real-time basis either on-site or remotely. Centralizing the design data with daily field data allowed the CMS to quickly reveal project issues through an extensive library of quality assurance rule-sets. Rules were deployed to track the sequence (time and location) of activity ensuring that all the proper materials and procedures were utilized. Resolving issues through the use of this geo-enabled rule set saved countless hours and unneeded delays in the construction process. The result of this approach was improved productivity, reduced costs and an on-time project allowing for the asset owner to begin generating revenue to recover their investment.

CASE STUDY - EXAMPLES

Pre-Survey vs. Contractor Route Survey
The solution implementation began in the pre-construction survey stages. The planned alignment that was created using the PGN commissioned initial survey of the route was captured into the CMS. This approved alignment was the basis of monitoring the actual pipeline construction.
Moving into the construction phase, the solution was deployed and implemented directly on the construction camp-sites capturing critical as-built information directly from the source. The first activity to be carried out by the construction contractor was a route survey. The alignments from the contractor’s route survey were then overlaid onto the initial commissioned survey, to get details on route changes if any. In this instance, apart from approved route changes, this overlaying of the 2 surveys indicated that the contractor and the initial survey did not match for a cumulative length of over 12 kms. It was ascertained that errors in the contractor’s survey had caused the mismatches.
In the absence of this early identification, the possible repercussions could have been additional efforts in terms of time, energy and finance in obtaining the additional right-of-way, increased pipe material requirements, direct effect on design conditions which may have necessitated re-working the fluid flow simulations.
The errors in pipeline route alignment carried out by the contractor in his survey were conclusively established which were subsequently corrected by the Contractor by carrying out re-survey at their own cost. It was a very strong validation of the solution’s benefits to all stakeholders. A GIS enabled CMS provides a means to compare detailed survey information, pre-construction and construction work over the life of the project and asset.
Material Tracking
The CMS material tracking feature tracks the manufacture of pipe, coating of pipe, and its delivery to the coating yards and construction site. This project was particularly challenging to track pipe activity as there were four mills supplying bare pipe to four different coating yards and then dispatching the material to two receiving ports. In addition to tracking location of materials, the system was required to database the pipe detail and all mechanical and chemical test results of the steel coil used in production and the properties of the final pipe product. As pipe progressed through the project, the CMS tracked its location providing transparency through the interactive GIS, reporting and built-in EDMS:

PGN and the contractor use the system to trace steel properties and all details of manufacturer and delivery.
Progress Tracking
Transparency through GIS reporting and drill-down into areas of interest provide near real-time information about activity progress and quality assurance issues. As all stakeholders are working off the same locational reference, reporting was aggregated and rolled-up to provide a complete interrelated view of progress:

• Compliance reports and checklists generated by the system (Pre-hydrotesting / Pre-lowering)
• Hyperlinked documentation (Reports signed off by third party inspectors)
• Automated alignment sheet generation

This process of locational aggregation supported the productive management of multiple sections, spreads, contractors and even projects simultaneously. The SSWJ-II Project had four pipeline packages, each being awarded to a separate construction contractor. The deployment of a GIS based CMS allows the PMC and the Owner to access information related to all the packages through a single interface and as a result, manage all contractors through a single unified system.
Welder Quality Assurance
The system provided PMC and the construction contractors with daily welder performance data referenced by location. The reports available on the system told them not only which welder’s in their team had high error rates, but also what kind of errors were being repeated by those welders frequently. This information being linked to the GIS allowed the manager to know where on the line the particular welder was deployed currently and which sections had been involved in welding since he started work. And since all other information was geo-referenced, it was possible to correlate other important factors such as pipe material, staging yards and even weather to the welder performance.
In one instance the system was used to weed out a welder who had an unusually high defect rate. The analysis reports from the system showed that the largest proportion of defects caused by him were those of “incomplete fusion”. It was also found that his speed at completing joints was unusually high. Putting these factors together, it was deduced that he might be turning the current down in order to be able to speed up. This was causing the Incomplete Fusion and his high speed.
According to the WPS (Welding Procedure Specification) that had been approved by the PGN, they were to follow the specifications as per API 1104. However it was found that by reducing the currents the welder in question was not following API 1104. It meant that other joints he had welded which had passed through the Inspector’s NDT analysis could also not be allowed.
Commission and Hand-Off
Historically, once a pipeline has been constructed and commissioned, the operations teams get a data dump (non-homogenous data) as handover from the Projects teams. Useful information for operations is then attempted to be culled from it. Compiling such large amounts of data in a meaningful way to assist easy retrieval over a long period & distance (considering the general pipeline life of 35-40 years,  average pipeline length being 400 kms ), is a laborious , time consuming task.

The CMS deployment re-engineered this situation on the PGN pipeline to one, where all this mass of information comes together in a single point repository from the initiation stage of the project. Hence, once the line was commissioned, the operations teams already had a completely mapped pipeline with a GIS linked to an as-built database which could form an aid to decision support through:

• Providing information on all as-built aspects and events that describe the pipeline, geo-referenced into a GIS providing a spatial perspective,

• Tracking revisions and changes to the asset over time to create an interlinked history tied to a common geo-reference,

• Providing relevant and focused information to the different user groups in the operating company in a convenient and user-friendly manner,

• Ensuring processed electronic documentation and information handover from multiple project teams in a uniform (homogenous) format, which are seamlessly migrated into operations,

• Providing web based access from any location translates to on demand project progress and detailed asset information,

Material Reconciliation
During the Haban Pipeline Project in Oman (commissioned by PDO) an interesting incident proved conclusively to the owners, the benefit of having deployed GIS based CMS. As part of the scope of this project, pipe material was issued to the construction contractor by PDO. During the project, the contractor placed a request with PDO for additional pipe material of around 640 pipe lengths. This seemed odd to the owners as according to their own planning, an additional quantity of only around 600 pipe lengths should have been required. To verify the authenticity of the contractor’s claims, PDO decided to perform analysis utilizing the CMS.

The entire pipe length which had been used for stringing and thereafter welding could be seen on the GIS. The GIS also had information on the entire proposed alignment and hence could also give details on the route yet to be completed. Detailed information down to pipe numbers, grade, diameters and thickness were available in the CMS which also contained very detailed information on the quantity of pipe that had been supplied to the contractors. Using these sets of information a system report was generated to reconcile the material and it was found that precisely 592 lengths of pipe were what were required by the contractors in addition to what they had in stock. PDO averted wastage and achieved a saving which might not have been possible had the system not have been present to solve this issue.

Non-Compliances
The CMS had been deployed for tracking construction on a pipeline project in the western state of Gujarat in India. The owners of have made the CMS a standard system used for tracking all of their projects (the build out of the Gujarat state gas transmission grid).

During the course of this project, welding statistics from the system showed that there was an unusually high defect rate in one of the sections. Welding reports and welder performance reports were brought up from the system. Since each welder’s qualifications are stored in the system along with his welder qualification certificates, the system can pick up which welder is authorized/unauthorized to perform a particular procedure or weld. It found that the contractor on that particular section was deploying unqualified welders. The contractor it seemed had not deployed enough qualified manpower as per the project plan, but wanted to stay on schedule. A non-compliance issue was filed by the owner’s QC personnel and probable issues were avoided through early detection using the CMS.

CONCLUSION

A GIS enabled CMS provides project transparency and decision-making support not available through normal hard-copy reports or simple database analysis. Decision-makers have a need to not only know what, but “where” the issue is located relative to other pertinent data so that they have a more holistic view of the problem at hand. This paper cited several project issues related to centerline design, material requisition, welder performance, progress tracking and post-commission documentation that each had an element of geospatial relevancy. This application of GIS clearly shows benefits of managing the risks of pipeline construction projects.