Oil quality management experience of Colonial Pipeline and its enlightenment

In recent years, the construction of China's products pipelines is on the way to large scale and network, the oil products cannot reach the terminal market from the refinery unless running through multiple transit links, so the quality control of pipeline oil is extremely crucial. Therefore, it is necessary to constantly learn from the foreign mature products pipeline management experience and technologies. Colonial Pipeline is a typical representative of products pipeline construction all around the world. In this paper, the oil quality control practices of Colonial Pipeline before the oil products entering the pipeline, in the whole process of transportation and storage in the tanks, and its treatment methods for unqualified oil products were introduced. Then, based on the status of products pipeline design and operation management, a series of suggestions were proposed to make up for the deficiency of oil quality control of products pipelines in China. First, it is recommended to take full consideration of the market demand in the pipeline design, adopt small-capacity multiple tank design in the tank farm and select the short stroke time valve. Second, in the process of pipeline operation management, the quality standards of inlet oil products shall be formulated, the pipeline sections with dead oil shall be flushed, and mixed oil generated in the pipeline shall be treated by multiple participants. And third, it is necessary to focus on the research of pipeline oil products quality attenuation and expand the coverage of pipeline oil products research.