Features

In the United States, the annual cost associated with corrosion damage of structural components is greater than the combined annual cost of natural disasters, including hurricanes, storms, floods, fires and earthquakes(1). Similar findings have been made by studies conducted in the United Kingdom, Germany, and Japan.

For many years, gathering field data on existing piping systems remained basically unchanged. As piping systems became more complex, the people collecting field data were often required to place themselves in precarious situations to obtain the needed measurements. Those were the old days.

Even with the world having reached a modicum of consensus in Copenhagen, it is becoming clear that the global obsession with anything green has subsided. This is a good thing. We can now move from breathless anticipation of a green dawn, to the more sober work of systematically and thoughtfully building toward a low-carbon future.

P&GJ’s latest international survey indicates a much higher number of pipelines in the engineering and design phase vs. actual construction. This year’s figures show the international sector accounts for 90,624 miles of pipelines under construction and planned.