are primarily used in Russia. Their characteristics, as well as the
length of oil pipelines, are given in Table 1.
The countries that have the largest lengths of operating oil
pipelines are the USA (85 000 km), Western European countries
(35.3 000 km) and the Organisation of the Petroleum Exporting
Countries (OPEC: approximately 20 000 km).
1
Pipeline transport
accounts for almost half of the total freight turnover in Russia.
Despite the fact that the volume of gas transmission
decreased in 2012 and 2013, gas transmission’s trunk pipeline
freight turnover numbers were higher than those of oil or
petroleum products (Table 2).
In the USA, oil pipelines transmit three quarters of the total
oil transported through the country, whereas in Russia this
number is considerably higher (Table 3).
2
Operating in Russia
The largest operator for the oil-trunk pipelines in Russia is oil
transporting joint-stock company Transneft. This company
transports 93% of the oil extracted in Russia and owns more
than 500 pumping stations and 22 million m
3
of storage
capacity.
Natural gas produced in Russia is pumped into gas
trunklines. These trunklines are integrated into the Unified
Gas Supply System (UGSS) of Russia that is owned by public
joint stock company (PJSC) Gazprom. The UGSS is the world’s
largest gas transmission system. It is a complex that consists
of facilities for extraction, processing, transmission, storage
and distribution of gas. It comprises of 170 700 km of gas
trunklines and branches, 250 compressor stations with 3825
gas compressor units totaling 461 million kW in capacity and
26 underground gas storage (UGS) facilities, with the aggregate
active capacity of 71.1 billion m
3
.
3
More than half of the length of the UGSS is gas pipelines of
large diameter (approximately 1220 and 1420 mm). The average
distance of gas transmission to Russian consumers is 2785 km
and 3430 km to external consumers.
Underground gas storage (UGS) facilities are an
indispensable part of the Unified Gas Supply System of Russia
and are situated in the main gas consumption regions. UGS
facilities allow specialists to control seasonal fluctuations
of gas demand, reduce peak loads in the UGSS and provide
flexibility and reliability of gas supply. The network of UGS
facilities supplies Russian consumers with over 20% of total
gas volumes during the cold season when heating is necessary
and sometimes over 30% during sharp cold spells. There are 25
underground storage facilities in the Russian Federation with
the total operating gas reserve of 65.2 billion m
3
of gas.
4
Centralised control and considerable ramifications with
parallel transmission routes of the UGSS provide a substantial
reliability margin and ability to secure uninterrupted gas supply
even under peak season loads.
The importance of trunk pipelines
How strategically important a trunk pipeline is determines the
requirements for its technical condition. Although a substantial
margin of operational reliability is taken into consideration
when the trunk gas pipelines are being designed, age-related
transformations are the primary factors that determine the
strength parameters of trunk pipelines. The main bulk of Russian
trunk oil pipelines (73%) were constructed more than 20 years
ago.
5
Today, depreciation of all trunk pipelines exceeds 60%.
Almost half of the trunk oil pipelines are close reaching the end
of their amortisation period – 30% of oil pipelines have been in
operation for over 33 years and 37% have been in operation for
20 - 30 years.
6
However, an older age of a pipeline does not automatically
lead to putting it out of operation. Transneft, in conjunction
with scientists, has carried out a considerable amount (even by
the academic science standards) of experimental work on pipe
steel that has been in operation for over 25 years in order to
study the connection between age of pipelines and failure rate.
More than 370 pipe samples and about 3000 standard samples
of a pipe metal were tested during a period of six years. The
results of cyclic bench tests showed that the samples sustained
pressure that was stronger than of that applied during the tests
at manufacturing plants. Deformation ageing of pipeline metal
and degradation of its mechanical properties appear only in
certain sections of the pipes that have been in operation for
more than 25 years. These are the sections that have spots of
high pressure concentration that are caused by defects in the
pipe walls or welding. After the defects have been detected
Table 1. Total length of pipelines in Russia (year end, thousand
km)*
1990 2000 2005 2010 2011 2012
Trunk
pipelines –
total
212
215 225 233 242 250
Including:
Gas pipelines 144
152 160 168 171 175
Oil pipelines 52
48
50
49
51
55
Petroleum
product
pipelines**
15
15
16
16
20
* Source: Russia’s 2014 Statistical Pocketbook. Rosstat, Moscow –
Table 17.23.
** From 2011 – including the length of petroleum product trunk
pipelines in foreign states.
Table 2. Freight turnover by trunk pipelines (billion t - km)*
1990 2000 2005 2010 2011 2012 2013
Freight – total
2575 1916 2474 2382 2422 2453 2513
Including:
Gas
1335 1171 1317 1259 1302 1265 1289
Oil freight
1240 745 1156 1123 1120 1188 1224
Including:
Oil
1198 718 1123 1084 1083 1152 1182
Petroleum
products
42
27 33
39 38 36 42
* Source: Russia’s 2014 Statistical Pocketbook. Rosstat, Moscow –
Table 18.11.
20
World Pipelines
/
MARCH 2016
