Statistical analysis of failure consequences for oil and gas pipelines

Pipelines are among the safest methods to transport oil and gas, but when an incident occurs, it can lead to disaster. Pipeline failures often cause injuries, fatalities, explosions and fires due to product ignition, property damage, and spills that can lead to environmental impact. The likelihood and consequence analyses of pipeline failures from past events are necessary for the development of realistic risk models. For this reason, a statistical analysis of failure consequences between 2010 and 2015 based on the Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration (PHMSA) database is provided in this paper. Relationships between the pipeline failure consequences and the basic pipeline design variables are investigated. They provide a valuable contribution to pipeline risk modeling. Results show that recently installed hazardous liquid pipelines of large diameters and high operating pressure are more likely to cause ignitions. In contrast, older installed hazardous liquid pipelines of small diameters cause larger release volumes and more expensive property damages. The portion of fatalities and injuries that is caused by distribution pipeline accidents is higher for the public than workers compared to other pipeline types.