Status and whole process management system of high consequence areas of oil and gas pipelines in China

In order to enhance the safety management of high consequence areas (HCAs) of oil and gas pipelines and effectively control the safety risk of personnel intensive HCAs, an investigation was performed for the causes of HCAs, the typical accident cases and the influence scope of consequence in personnel intensive HCAs were analyzed, and comparison was made to the identification criteria of HCAs at home and abroad. According to the statistics of the current situation of the personnel intensive HCAs of the existing and new pipelines in China, there are 1 523 and 517 personnel intensive HCAs for every 1×10⁴ km existing oil and gas pipelines, respectively, and the pipeline section in the personnel intensive HCAs accounts for about 18% of the total length of the new oil and gas pipelines. In this study, the two main reasons for the continuous formation of the HCAS were analyzed, including lack of optimization for new pipeline routing and effective control of land using around the existing pipeline, and the whole process management system of the HCAs was put forward, including prevention before planning, assessment during planning and control after formation. Further, suggestions were proposed from the aspects of formulating the land division method and control requirements around the oil and gas pipelines, defining the safe distance of oil and gas pipelines and promoting the construction of urban pipeline corridor.