Oil and Gas Pipeline Accidents in US and Their Inspiration

In US history,a few serious oil and gas pipeline accidents happened which draw the public attentions in pipeline safety and drive the pipeline operator paying more attention to advancing the pipeline safety management.This paper introduces the reasons of three pipeline accidents in US and safety management problems of pipeline companies.In the explosion accident happened in Bellingham,Washington.1999.the main responsibilities of pipeline company lied in the ignorance of monitor,not having repaired the digging defects in time,not having fully assessed the internal inspection results,not having debugged the newly-installed safety device in the terminal,not having investigated and calibrated the block valve which was shut down several times unexpectedly and not having debugged the pipeline automatic control system.For the explosion accident happened in Carlsbad.New Mexico.2000.the direct reason was the reduction of pipe wall due to internal corrosion of pipeline,which reflected that the internal corrosion control was not enough and at the same time it revealed that the US Transportation Department did not pay enough attention to monitoring the pipeline safety.The leakage accident happened in Prudhoe.Alaska.2006 was also due to corrosion problem.This accident drew the public scold on BPs pipeline safety management and brought the media to interrogate the federal pipeline safety guideline.This paper discusses the effects on pipeline law in US from the aspects of pipeline integrity management,damage prevention from third-party,internal corrosion control,low-pressure pipeline management guideline and energy supply.It should be a mirror for domestic oil and gas pipeline management.