Information Exchange: Publications

Research Brief No. 2: Vulnerabilities in the Oil and Gas Sector Pipeline Networks: Analysis of Office of Pipeline Safety (OPS) Data

Author: ICIS

Sector: Energy

Publication type: Acrobat PDF

This research brief includes summary information about incidents and accidents involving spills or releases of products related to petroleum and natural gas for three pipeline networks: hazardous liquid pipelines (which transport oil and other petroleum products), natural gas transmission pipelines and natural gas distribution pipelines. The data are maintained by the Office of Pipeline Safety (OPS) and provide information on the consequences associated with disruptions to these vital networks. The figures provide an idea of the potential consequences of a terrorist attack against these infrastructures. Some of the most important results of the analysis presented here are: -- Hazardous liquid accidents, which include spills of oil and other petroleum products, are more common than natural gas transmission and distribution accidents. -- Natural gas distribution incidents are associated with higher numbers of fatalities and injuries. In the last few years, however, a natural gas transmission incident had the highest number of fatalities. -- For hazardous liquid pipeline accidents operator property damage and other costs associated with the spills were the highest cost categories with the highest incidents having costs of $13.4 million and $24 million respectively for these categories. -- Over the last few years the incident with the highest property damages was a natural gas transmission incident ($87 million). -- Natural gas distribution incidents tend to be associated with lower property damages. During 2004-05 the maximum property damages associated with a single incident was $5 million.

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Date Created: June 2006; Date Posted: November 2006

Projects:

• Empirically Based Analysis of Supervisory Control and Data Acquisition (SCADA) Systems and Critical Infrastructures

Events:

• Process Control Systems Security Workshop: Demonstrations of Security Solutions and Research Findings for the Oil and Gas Industry

Sectors:

• Energy

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