Conversion of Old Crude Oil Pipeline to Product Service

Due to capacity expansion of one of our refineries located in Western India, there was a need to evacuate additional products. Pipeline, being the most economical, reliable and environment friendly mode of transportation was the obvious choice. Laying a new pipeline would have required making substantial initial capital investment. However, a crude oil pipeline, owned by another oil company, was terminating at the refinery and was not in regular use. It was decided to convert this pipeline to product service. The pipeline was taken on lease, extensively cleaned, tested and successfully converted to product service with necessary hook-up/modifications at both the ends and in-between. The paper covers the experience gathered during the process of conversion of the crude oil pipeline to product service, including modifications carried out in the pipeline system, methodology adopted for cleaning, hydro-testing and commissioning of the system, and the lessons learnt.