Beirut Arab University

Faculty of Engineering
Department of Chemical and Petroleum
Engineering

PTRE414: Gas Production Engineering

“Advancements (Artificial Intelligence) in Pigging Operation”

Submitted to: Dr. Kamel Bou Hamdan

Prepared by: Dima Al Kibbi

Date: March 12, 2020

Outline:

I. Abstract
II. Introduction
III. Fundamentals of Pigging Operations
i. Uses
a. Hydrostatic Testing
b. Pipeline Cleanup
c. Batch Transportation
d. Prevention of solid particles accumulation and
pipeline corrosion
e. Pipelines Coating
f. Pipelines Inspection
IV. The Type of Intelligent Pigs
V. AI-Based Intelligent Pigging Solution
i. Brief Introduction
ii. Process and Description
iii. Further Improvements
VI. Conclusion
VII. References
I. Abstract:

Pigging is a method that operators use to operate the oil and gas pipelines efficiently. The "Pipeline Inspection
Gauge", it requires PIGs conduction of various maintenance operations. Using the pressure inside the pipeline the
PIG device is placed in the pipeline. It is called the method of pigging. For certain purposes, the pipeline are cleaned
and inspected the pipelines. Moreover, the PIGs are launched and received using special-purpose parts that are
located at various pipeline locations called launching and receiving stations. This report provides a comprehensive
description of the advancement of pigging operations in the usage of intelligent PIGs for pipelines inspection.

II. Introduction:

The intelligent type PIG has several sensors to monitor the pipeline's safety details along its circumference.
Magnetic Flux Leakage (MFL), Ultrasonic, etc… are some of the most widely used sensors used for inspection. PIG
also compromises other sensors such as Gyro, Odometer for the estimated setting of the PIG and the other sensors
that are related to electronic diagnostic parameters. I covered PIGs in this report the “MFL sensors” that are used for
the pipelines inspection. This tool has a system for storing the data collected for post-processing and analysis by the
sensors. Upon completion of an inspection process, the storage device is used to transfer the data for review in any
computer device system. Generally, the specialized companies in pigging use their proprietary inspection data for
mechanical devices testing.

The storage data must include checked pipeline signatures. A professional analyst can identify the signatures with
the aid of the software tool. The classification is broken down into known pipeline features such as weld, magnetic
marker, cap, flange and more. Moreover, some other categories are the metal failure injuries, the dents, etc...
Structured identification and diagnosis of defects enable operators to take preventive action, improve operating
performance, lead life and reduce the likelihood of faults and unplanned shutdowns. The wall loss rate is due to the
metal loss, the depth formation, the repair factor, and the metal loss clusters are some of the important guidelines
used by work operators in assessing corrosion in the pipeline. Most of this report deals with tools to notice and
identify various metal loss characteristics in the pipeline. [1]
III. Fundamental Uses of Pigging Operations:

Hydrostatic testing: In the hydrostatic testing operations, pigs are used to allow the tank to be filled with
water or some other test medium without clogging the air. Then, the pig is placed in front of the fill stage,
and water is pumped in the back of the pig to hold the pipe full of water in order to push air out of the pig.
Then pigs are used to drain the test waters and dry out the tank. [2]

Pipeline cleanup: Regularly, operations perform pigging to clean solids, size, paraffin, and other pipe wall
debris to maintain high flow efficiency in the pipeline. In addition, pigs are used in Natural-gas pipelines
for cleaning to control liquid buildup and keep the pipe clear of liquids. Water and natural gas liquids can
condense out of the gas stream as it cools down and contacts the low zones in the pipe wall and pocket
which reduces flow efficiency and can lead to increased corrosion. [2]

Batch transportation: Pigs are usually used for physical isolation, or "packing," the variety of hydrocarbons
transported through the oil pipelines. The product pipelines that carry gasoline, diesel fuel, fuel oils, and
other products simultaneously are usually separated through the batching pigs. [2]

Prevention of solid particles accumulation and pipeline corrosion: The crude oil pipelines are often pigged
to prevent water and solid particles from collecting in stubby spots and from forming corrosion cells.
Multiphase pipelines are ought to be pigged periodically to reduce the holdup of liquids and mitigate the
slug amounts of liquid that the device can produce. [2]

Pipelines Coating: Pigs can be used in operating pipelines for the application of internal pipe coatings, such
as epoxy coating materials. Moreover, Pigs are operated for the distribution and coating of the entire
internal wetted surface with corrosion inhibitors. [2]

Pipelines Inspection: Pigs are more commonly used as tools of inspection. Gauging or sizing pigs usually
run in new constructions or for line repairing competitions to decide if there are any internal obstructions,
bends or buckles in the pipe. In addition, Pigs are fitted with cameras to permit internal viewing of the pipe.
Intelligent pigs have been developed and optimized using magnetic and ultrasonic methods to locate and
measure internal and external corrosion holes, dents, buckles and any other irregularities in the pipe wall. [2]

IV. The Type of Intelligent Pigs:

Intelligent Pigs: Advances in technology have led to pigs capable of executing complex tasks and recording data
as they walk the track. This can be done visualization, structure calculation, crack identification, metal failure
estimation and several other functions. Intelligent pigging is also a division of the business.

Gel Pigs: A feasible alternative to operating mechanical pigs is the use of gel pigs for certain activities and under
certain circumstances. A gelled material can perform the same function, rather than using a strong barrier between
fluids. Different mediums, including water, glycol, methanol, solvents, petrol, and oil can be gelled. The gels may be
precisely formulated with a specified viscosity or cast as solid with chemical components that are meant to break
down the gel after a given time or after a set temperature or pH has been reached.
 V. AI-Based Intelligent Pigging Solution:

i. Brief Introduction:
Analyzing pigging data is critical and requires skills to use special-purpose software and the ability to understand
signals data captured from the sensors. PIGs from every manufacturer used binary encrypted data that is analyzed
using their proprietary software. Though the software and PIG construction is different for different manufacturers,
the principles remain the same. An MFL PIG or PIG having MFL sensors captures information about metal loss
using the principle of magnetic flux leakage change when the metal width changes near the MFL sensors. A
seasoned analyst can identify the metal losses by looking at the sensor's data plots.

The automated tools are based on scientific principles of Magnetic flux leakage. A powerful magnet issued to
magnetize the steel. In areas where there is corrosion or missing metal, the magnetic field «leaks» from the steel. In
an MFL tool, a magnetic detector is placed between the poles of the magnet to detect the leakage field. The recorded
data is analyzed by the tool for signatures to identify metal loss with its estimated span and depth. After the
automated analysis and manual verification is completed a report is published to a data viewer. Viewer generally
contains graphical rendering capabilities to view critical defect charts and other identified features. It does not have
any data analysis capabilities.

Each feature and defect is registered as a pattern in the sensor plots, hence using pattern recognition technology is
the right fit to identify them. We used Artificial Intelligence models to train the data using deep learning and other
self-learning models. Using AI has its advantages and disadvantages. A well-trained model performs well to identify
the features and defects but requires large data sets for training. The training data sets should also be well tagged for
the model to identify accurately in test data sets. In our process of development, we have use terabytes of raw data
sets from PIGs of various sizes to train the models. We also employed the use of a manual augmented dictionary to
list different features and defects with their details like length, width, and depth. The data was also augmented using
the dig site verified information. A dig site verification is done for critical defects in the pipeline that can cause
faults and unplanned shutdowns. [3]

Figure 2—The Ultrasonic PIG Type [5]

 Figure 1—The PIG launching station [4]

ii. Process and Description

This section outlines the processes used in the study of intelligent pigging results. This further defines the
techniques used for visual inspection of defects and characteristics, grouping, and rendering .

a) Data source and format: The magnetic detector in the PIG detects the leakage field and converts it into voltage
data. The data is recorded in the storage module to be analyzed later. The data is in binary format with n bit
encoding (n=8 – 32). A complete binary file contains data from MFL, odometer, gyro and other sensors
installed in the tool.

Figure 3—The Sample of data pulled out from the PIG storage module [6]

b) Data cleansing and preparation: During a pigging run the tool can encounter many small-scale and large-scale
faults e.g. broken sensor, noise, vibration and more. These faults can generate data resembling the signatures
of defects or simply induce processing errors in detection and classification algorithms. Data cleansing and
preparation is an essential part of the process and allows the reduction of errors while the data is analyzed for
defects and features. PIGs for different pipeline sizes have different sensor configurations e.g. placement of
axial and radial sensors, odometer count and other sensors. The data from these sensors is published as a
separate channel in the binary file. That means odometer can be channel 1, axial sensors can be 2, 4, 6 and so
 on. This configuration is mapped with each PIG size and type. [7]

Rejection of noise and faulty sensor data is another important data cleansing process. Each sensor has a
working condition threshold and reliability band, any data received beyond this band is considered unreliable.
During the data cleansing process, we designed algorithms that searched the data for these outlier events and
reject the data before processing. There were two most common cases encountered while building the
rejection criteria. Rejection of a complete channel or multiple channels with faulty sensors and Rejection of a
partial set of channels data with induced noise. In case 1, the complete data from the faulty sensor was rejected
because any information gathered was unreliable. In case 2, only some parts of the channels' data are faulty
and are rejected for processing.

The faulty sensors can be seen on the image rendering engine as black or white lines representing no MFL
detection or 100% MFL detection. Moreover, a user can plot the sensor's graphs to conclude faulty sensors

c) Multiple Convolutional Neural Networks were designed to operate on grayscale images from the in-line
inspection magnetic flux leakage data captured by I-PIG.
Label data from historical runs was used to train the CNN for

1. Feature Detection
2. Metal Loss Detection

Feature Detection CNNs were trained for over >100 iterations to identify circumferential features such as
welds, flanges, sleeves using more than 20,000 such images. These images were subjected to transformations to
increase the number of training images and improve upon identification accuracy by the CNN. Training accuracy
of over 99.6% was achieved on the available data.
Metal loss CNNs were designed differently than the feature identification CNNs as metal loss defects appear
only over a few sensors and time samples as compared to circumferential features such as welds. These networks
were trained for over >200 iterations using about 2000 images. These networks were so designed as to provide
the location of such metal loss defects with reasonable accuracy. Training accuracy of over 99% was achieved
on the available data. [8]

d) Trained data verification: Validation accuracy of over 99.5% with over 99% correct identification was
achieved for feature detection networks and about 99% validation accuracy with over 75% correct
identification for metal loss detection networks.

e) Feature & defects dictionary: Anomaly detection methods were used to create a set of defects available in the
pipeline. The dictionary was designed to standardize features and defects and their signatures.

f) Distance calculation of defects: A PIG generally has multiple odometers for redundancy and calculation
accuracy. Odometer wheel diameter and the pulse count provide the distance measurement calculation
formula.

g) Visual verification of results: The results produced by networks were visually verified in the form of overlay
over the grayscale image data from I-PIG. In majority cases, the outcome from the networks was found to be
within 2-5 samples of manually identified locations.
h) Augmenting features and defects dictionary: The dictionary from anomaly detection method and CNN models
are augmented by finding signatures for anomalies not classified by the CNN models into known features.
Thus, a new signature is learned, and the dictionary is augmented. For the system to learn new features we
created a standard procedure.

i) Data rendering on HMI: To ease the analysis of features and defects the interface was created with raw data
and processed data visualization functions. This allows the analyst to identify suspects and anomalies in the
data using the intensity of the shade. The greyscale image is the direct conversion of MFL data. Sensor data
overlay was used to identify the metal loss not visible in the greyscale rendering. This allows manual visual
analysis of sensor charts overlay on greyscale image for identification of signatures that resemble metal loss.
Using the voltage from the MFL data, the heat map shows the color transition in metal addition and metal loss
scenarios, making it easier to identify smaller and shallow metal loss signatures.

Figure 5— Metal Loss shown in Greyscale image of processed PIG data [10]

Figure 6— The greyscale image of a sensor plot overlaid [11]

Figure 7— Metal loss shown through a Heatmap image of processed PIG data [12]
 iii. Further Improvements:

Often data cleaning and planning don't eliminate enough noise in the data processing stage to provide good
results. If very strict approaches are used, we have experienced data errors, e.g. standardization of the entire
binary file based on absolute maxima and flux data minimum.

Attributes with lower incident rates are either unclassified by the designers or misclassified. To train the
models on those features, a better method is needed. Noise induces signals that often match the signatures
on which the models are trained. In the final study report, this produces lots of false positives. A closely
distributed mixture of features and faults produces relationships that are frequently misclassified where a
single object covers one of the more classifications.

VI. Conclusion:

Artificial Intelligence frameworks such as Neural Networks offer a reliable framework for the study of
pigging data both today and in the future. Increased access to data sets and input from field verifications
would make the models more effective in detecting the smallest of metal failure defects.

VII. References:

[1]. Pipeline Operators Forum, Specifications and requirements for intelligent pig inspection of pipelines, 2009 API
STANDARD 1163 SECOND EDITION.

[2]. https://petrowiki.org/Pipeline_pigging#Uses

[3]. Liu N., Chen K., Fu J., 2005, Intelligent pigging technology and application for gas pipelines Cheng, Y.; Huang,
W.L.; Zhou, C.Y. Artificial neural network technology for the data processing of on-line corrosion fatigue crack
growth monitoring. Int. J. Press. Vessel.

[4]. Nidhi, V., Rao, R., & Mittal, A. (2019, November 11). AI-Based Intelligent Pigging Solution. Society of
Petroleum Engineers. DOI:10.2118/197723-MS

[5]. Nidhi, V., Rao, R., & Mittal, A. (2019, November 11). AI-Based Intelligent Pigging Solution. Society of
Petroleum Engineers. DOI:10.2118/197723-MS

[6]. Nidhi, V., Rao, R., & Mittal, A. (2019, November 11). AI-Based Intelligent Pigging Solution. Society of
Petroleum Engineers. DOI:10.2118/197723-MS

[7]. Nidhi, V., Rao, R., & Mittal, A. (2019, November 11). AI-Based Intelligent Pigging Solution. Society of
Petroleum Engineers. DOI:10.2118/197723-MS

[8]. Nidhi, V., Rao, R., & Mittal, A. (2019, November 11). AI-Based Intelligent Pigging Solution. Society of
Petroleum Engineers. DOI:10.2118/197723-MS

[9]. Nidhi, V., Rao, R., & Mittal, A. (2019, November 11). AI-Based Intelligent Pigging Solution. Society of
Petroleum Engineers. DOI:10.2118/197723-MS

[10]. Nidhi, V., Rao, R., & Mittal, A. (2019, November 11). AI-Based Intelligent Pigging Solution. Society of
Petroleum Engineers. DOI:10.2118/197723-MS
[11]. Nidhi, V., Rao, R., & Mittal, A. (2019, November 11). AI-Based Intelligent Pigging Solution. Society of
Petroleum Engineers. DOI:10.2118/197723-MS

[12]. Nidhi, V., Rao, R., & Mittal, A. (2019, November 11). AI-Based Intelligent Pigging Solution. Society of
Petroleum Engineers. DOI: 10.2118/197723-MS