Compliance Verification Activity Report: CV2223-104 - Trans Mountain Pipeline ULC

Overview

Compliance verification activity type: Field Inspection

Activity #: CV2223-104

Start date: 2022-10-26

End date: 2022-10-28

Team:

Inspector 2769

Regulated company: Trans Mountain Pipeline ULC

Operating company: Kinder Morgan Canada Inc

Province(s) / Territory(s):

British Columbia

Discipline(s):

Integrity Management

Rationale and scope:

TMEP Inspection of Spread 6/7A

Compliance tool(s) used:

None

Facility details

Facilities:

TRANS MOUNTAIN EXPANSION PROJECT

Facility Types

Pipeline

Pipeline
Pipeline right of way (ROW)

Life-cycle Phases

Construction

Regulatory requirements

Regulatory requirements that apply to this activity:

Canadian Energy Regulator Act (CERA)

Canadian Energy Regulator Act (CERA)
Onshore Pipeline Regulations (OPR) 2020-03-16

Standards

CSA Z662-19 - Oil and Gas Pipeline Systems

Additional Project-specific requirements or conditions:

OC-65 Certificate for line 2 Condition 104 for alignment sheets Condition 70 for Strain Based Design pipeline area Condition 111 for welding Condition 114 for NDE/NDT (delayed NDE)

Observations (no outstanding follow-up required)

Observation 1 - INSPECTION REPORT

Date & time of visit: 2022-10-26 08:55

Discipline: Integrity Management

Categories:

Pipeline

Bends and Elbows
HDD/Drilling
Pipe Storage and Handling
Welding Operations
Pressure Testing
Repairs
Coating
ROW
Signage
Procedures

Facility:

TRANS MOUNTAIN EXPANSION PROJECT (Pipeline)

Observations:

DAY 1 (spread 7A)
DPI project, site #1 (114 av Fraser Heights, Surrey, BC)
CER IOs asked about the average repair rate for welding activities on Spread 6. TMEP said it is around 7.9%. Some girth welds (GWs) on this site have been repaired (see pictures “DPI site #1 GW repair 1” and “DPI site #1 GW repair 2”).

CER IOS checked and confirmed that the joint marking was effectively indicated on the coating spec (including CSA Standard designation & year of publication: CSA Z245.20-18, and flexibility test temperature FM30C). The pipe joints are coated with an Abrasive Resistant Coating (brown colour) (see Picture “Pipe Marking”).

There is a sticker with both QR and bar codes on each pipe joint (see Picture “QR and bar codes”). TMEP explained that these unique IDs were scanned into Trans Moutain’s Asset management database (Vintri software, see Picture “Trans Mountain Asset data sample”) to ensure traceability of asset data (e.g., pipe number, parameters, and Material Test Report (MTR) info) for future operation.
Several casings on site were stored waiting to be installed for the DPI crossing. (See picture “Casings”).
TMEP mentioned that once the DPI is completed, the casing will be removed and disposed of.

HDD project, site #2 (168 St, Fraser Heights, Surrey, BC)
Welding activities: (see picture “DPI second site welding”)
CER IOs checked:

the Welding Procedure Data Sheet (WPDS) used for these activities are for High Strain Capacity Pipe (HSC), strain-based design (SBD) and standard pipes (see pictures “HDD site #2 WPDS HSC” and “HDD site #2 WPDS Standard”).
the digital temperature probe (see picture “Temperature probe”) used to check the preheat temperatures and its calibration certificates.
Welder qualifications (see picture “HDD site #2 Welder qualification”)
Recording of Welding parameters. For manual welding, welding parameters are recorded in the TMEP welding inspector notebook (See Picture “welding inspector notebook”). Note that welding parameters are recorded daily, often for the first weld performed.
The segmentation list for HSC (with start-end KP) and the corresponding KP on site (marked on posts, See Picture “KP post”)

Non Destructive Examination (NDE) activities:
While the CER IOs were on-site, APPLUS RTD was conducting Automatic Ultrasonic Testing (See Picture “AUT Applus”).
TMEP mentioned that the AUT is the technique used on this project except when the velocity parameter is not known, therefore X-rays are used.
CER IOs checked the following:

NDE technicians’ qualification. CER IOs noted that one technician’s UT certificate card expired in the field, however, the proof of valid qualification was provided later during the inspection.
Binder with NDE procedures including CSA Z662-19 workmanship acceptance criteria (see Picture “AUT procedure”. ECA is used only in the case of GMAW fully mechanized welding.

CWP 45 bending site (176 St, Anniedale, Surrey BC)
TMEP stated that all field bending for spread 7 is performed at this site. Some factory-produced bends are also shipped to this site before moving them to actual construction sites (See Picture “factory produced bends”).

Bending activities: (see picture “IMG_0047 Bending”)
CER IOs noted the following:

A total of 129 bends were executed so far.
The distance between a girth weld that must remain straight is 1 m up and downstream of the GW.
The bend was properly executed and the seam weld was located along the neutral axis of the curvature. (See Picture “Bending SWD”)
The pipe joint (double-jointed pipe) was bent up to 10°(equivalent to a 10D curvature). This is an iterative process along which several verification are performed to verify adherence to the bending procedure (see picture “Pipe Bending Procedure”)
- The angle is measured every 4-5 pulls using a specific pro tracker (see on the bottom left of picture “Angle and neutral axis verif tools”)
- The pipe bend temperature is checked pior to and after completion of the operation,
- The neutral axis is verified using a specific tool: “Top Dead Center Finder” (see bottom right of the picture “Angle and neutral axis verif tools”).
- A template is used in the end to verify the absence of unacceptable ovalization (in this case, 8 and 15 mm were measured).
After bending, ovality is checked using a caliper tool (See Picture “Ovality check caliper tool”). TMEP also confirmed that they will perform Quality Checks such as visual inspections for coating integrity, ripples etc.

Site #3 (Redwoods golf course, Langley BC)
Direct Pipe Installation (DPI) project site #3 (see picture “DPI Site #3 Golf Course” and “DPI site #3”)
CER IOs checked the DPI activities and noted the following:

A 249 m DPI was in preparation,
The borehole was already drilled, and casing was installed for the first 20 m,
The speed of the DPI is about 450 millimeters per minute,
The field coating at the girth weld is different than the Abrasive Resistant Overcoating (ARO) on the pipe body, the Fusion Bonded Epoxy (FBE) coating is thicker than usual,
TMEP mentioned that the fibre optic cable will be installed once the DPI is completed, using a separate hole.
All the construction data/records are stored in software called OMEGA.

Horizontal Directional Bore (HDB) site (see pictures “HDB Site Pull Up”, “HDB Site side booms”)
TMEP said that the crossing will be approximately 225 m at a maximum of 16.5 m deep. The borehole (see picture “HDD Site borehole”) is 40 inches and the hole is not cased.

CER IOs verified the following:

Coating: during the inspection, several repair patches were identified. TMEP said that it does pre-jeeping of the pipe for holiday detection before pulling up and during the pull-up (see picture “HDB Coating repair”). Also, jeeping is executed again to detect any coating damage that would have occurred during the handling and pull-up (see picture “HDD Jeeping during pull up”).

Once installed, a resistivity test of the HDD crossing will be performed to detect potential damages. CER IOs observed that during the pull-up coating was repaired and asked TMEP to provide the report at the end of the inspection.

All the coating repairs are noted in a notebook by the coating inspector.

TMEP mentioned that any coating damages that occurs below grade during pullback is measured by coating resistivity after installation, the ratio will provide an estimate of the damages (TMEP follows NACE TM0102, Table 5 acceptance criteria for coating conductance testing).

Four fibre optic cables are attached to the pipeline segment (see Pictures “HDD start_4 fiber optic cables” and “HDD Pipeline - 4 fiber optic cables”). TMEP explained that for standard use, there are two fibre optic cables attached to the pipeline through the golf course (see Picture “Pipeline - 2 fiber optic cables”): one will be used for pipeline monitoring purposes, and the other will be rented out; however, in this case of HDD, a total of 4 are attached for redundancy purpose.

CER IOs also witnessed pulling activities occurring during the inspection (see pictures “HDB pulling #1” and “HDB pulling #2”).

Note: for accuracy, Pictures “HDD start_4 fiber optic cables” and “HDD Pipeline - 4 fiber optic cables”, correspond in fact to HDB site instead of HDD.
DAY 2 (Stockpiles and spread 6)
Stockpiles (see picture “Stockpiles #1”):
TMEP and Michels provided the CER IOs with some explanation of the overall process related to pipe joints management (handling, loading, stockpiling, traceability):

Traceability of the pipe joints: all the pipe joints are marked and have their own bar code (see picture “Stockpile bar code”).
Before any pipe movement to the field, a tailgate meeting is set up between Flint, the transporter, and Michels. A document, “Tally Out Sheet”, is edited for the shipping where it is indicated the Pipe number, the characteristics of the pipe (size, wall thickness, grade, coating type, etc.), their unique ID, weight, and length.
For each movement, a visual inspection of the pipe condition is performed. If any coating damage is identified (visually), Michels refers to TMEP for follow-up.
Regular audits of the pipe racks are done on a weekly or monthly basis.

In the stockpile area, CER IOs noted pipes joints with standard coating, ARO coatings, casings, valves, bare pipe for welder’s qualification tests, and fibre optics reels. CER IOs also verified that the pipe joints were properly stocked, capped, and marked (see pictures “Stockpile #2”, “Stockpile #3” and “Stockpile #4”). Some rectangle-shaped coating repairs (see Picture “Rectangle-shaped coating repairs”) were observed at the stockpiles, which were referred to as “manufacturing coating repair”. TEMP clarified that when the coating damage was identified before shipping pipes to the construction sites, the coating repairs were performed by the coating company or its contractor The repairs were executed according to the field coating repair procedures.

Welding activities (site #1 Chilliwack, Fairway St)
CER IOs verified the following:

Pipe joint alignment and internal clamping (see picture “Spread 6 Clamping”)
Root pass mechanized welding (see picture “S6 Root pass welding”)
Temperature checks
10° bevel verification (see picture “S6 Bevel verification”)
Automatic SMAW welding: CER IOs checked that the minimum pre-heat temperature was followed (see picture “Min Preheat 80C”). Hot Pass, Pass #1 and #2 and CAP were performed.
The welding parameters are recorded daily for the first weld executed.
CER IOs also checked the welding supervisor and the welders‘ qualifications.

CER IOs confirmed with TMEP that the joints installed along the spread (As-Built) aligned with alignment sheets (As-Designed) at KP 1093+531 (see Pictures “Alignment Sheet 1” and “Alignment Sheet 2”). A segmentation list (see Picture “Segmentation list”) was presented to the CER IOs. This list is updated in the field if needed and modifications are reflected in the alignment sheet. So far, TMEP confirmed that there were no deviations from the alignment sheet.

CER IOs also observed that above line 1 and line 2, there was approximately 2-3 m of topsoil pile and an excavator on top of that (see picture “Topsoil + excavator on top of line 1 and 2”). CER IOs asked TMEP to provide their surface loading assessment to ensure that no damage would occur on lines 1 or 2.

Vedder DPI crossing site (KP 1100+800 – KP 1101) Vedder South Dkye Trail, Chilliwack)
An HDD crossing was in preparation, and TMEP mentioned that the second hook-up was planned for the 28^th of October.
Hydrotesting equipment was in place (see picture “Hydrotesting”). The first section pretest was done 2 days ago and the second section 1-hour duration pre hydrotest will be done the 28^th of October.
TMEP mentioned that a mainline valve will be installed at this site at the same location as for line 1 and that another valve will be installed on the other side of the crossing (KP 1099+592)

Document review:
CER IOs reviewed the following documentation:

TMW-1C- Daily Welding Quality & progress Inspection report (see Picture “TMW-1C- Daily Welding Quality & progress Inspection report”) indicating the repair ratio (around 7%) for SMAW/GMAW/FCAW and MCAW welding activities for spread 7A (date 26-10-2022)

And verified that the below WPS and WPDS (see Pictures “TMEP-SA-WPDS-03-rev 5”, “TMEP-SA-WPS-03-Rev 0”, “TMEP-SA-WPDS-04-rev 8”, “TMEP-SA-WPS-04 Rev 1”, “TMEP-SA-WPDS-01-17-2 HSC RP” and “TMEP-SA-WPDS-01-17-2 HSC”) were aligned:

TMEP-SA-WPDS-03-rev 5 and associated TMEP-SA-WPS-03-Rev 0
TMEP-SA-WPDS-04-rev 8 and associated TMEP-SA-WPS-04 Rev 1
For the welding repairs observed in the field, CER IOs also checked the essential variables alignment of the TMEP-SA- WPDS-03-R5 associated with TMEP-SA-WPS-03R5 and the WPDS TMEP-SA-04R8 associated with TMEP-SA-WPS-04R1
For the welding repair of HSC pipe, CER IOs checked alignment of the essential variables for TMEP-SA-WPDS-01-17-2 HSC RP associated with TMEP-SA-WPDS-01-17-2 HSC-R8R5. Note that the WPDS is more stringent than the WPS (e.g., bevel angles, travel distances values)

Also, CER IOs checked:

Welders' qualifications as per the excel spreadsheet provided by TMEP. One welder qualification was expired but TMEP provided evidence that it was a reporting error. (see Pictures “Log of approved welders” and “Welding inspector certificate”).
Calibration certificates of the Fluke Thermometres used for temperature checks during welding activities (see picture “Temperature metre”), the temperature surface probe AC/DC clamp meter and infrared thermometer (see Pictures “surface probe calibration certificate”, “ACDC clamp meter calibration certificate”, “Infrared thermometer calibration certificate”)
Welding / NDE Daily reports #MO12-S7A-26-10-2022-143422 and #MO12-S7A-12-10-2022-137513 (see Pictures “Daily welding report #MO12-S7A-26-10-2022-143422” and “Daily welding report #MO12-S7A-12-10-2022-137513”)
Daily bending reports (see Pictures “Daily bending report 1” and “Daily bending report 2”)
Certificate of coating inspector, calibration certificate for coating thickness gauges, daily coating reports, and coating repair report for the repair (145.7A) executed during the HDB pull-up on spread 7A (see Pictures “Coating Inspector certificate”, “Coating thickness gauge calibration 1”, “Coating thickness gauge calibration 2”, “Daily coating report”, “Holiday and repair report 1” and “Holiday and repair report 2”).
Non Destructive Testing (NDT) records, including Applus RTD site reports, AUT audit reports, associated daily NDT report, daily weld repair report and repair lists (see Pictures “Applus RTD Rotoscan examination report”, “AUT audit report”, “Daily NDT report”, “Daily weld repair report” and “Repair list”).
- Comments of “Delay” are noted for some welds in the AUT audit reports. TMEP explained that these are tracked to ensure meeting the minimum 20% “Next day delay NDT” (18 hours) requirement.
- TMEP clarified that there were no final tie-ins that are subject to 48 hours delay NDT requirement performed for spreads 6 and 7.
For the NDT technician who did not provide the most current UT certification card on Day 1 Site #2, TMEP provided the required certifications and test results (see Pictures “NDT Inspector certificates” and “NDT technician test result”).

CER IOs reviewed TMEP documents related to the evaluation of surface loading as per the observation on spread 6, site #1 Chilliwack, Fairway St (see Pictures “UPI project memo”, “UPI project memo 1”, “UPI project memo 2” and “Design change notice”). The Canadian Energy Pipeline Association (CEPA) software is used. TMEP mentioned that an RFI was issued on the 1^{st of} April 2022 and a Design Change Notice 2021-11-03 only for line 1. The conclusions of the evaluation showed that there was no additional risk to the integrity of line 1.

However, there was no mention of a combination of a soil pile with an excavator. CER IOs requested TMEP to provide further details on how it is addressed.

For line 2, TMEP mentioned that even if line 2 was subject to deformation, it would be captured by the caliper run and the location would be excavated if necessary.

Compliance tool used: No compliance tool used

Observations (company follow-up required)

Identified non-compliances to company plans or procedures are non-compliances either to:

- the condition of an authorization document that requires the implementation of that plan or procedure; or

- the relevant section of the regulations that requires implementation of that plan or procedure including those sections that require implementation of plans or procedures as a part of a Program

Language selection

Search

Menu