When an operator conducts an MAOP reconfirmation in accordance with §192.624(c)(3) “Method 3” using an ECA to establish the material strength and MAOP of the pipeline segment, the ECA must comply with the requirements of this section. The ECA must assess: Threats; loadings and operational circumstances relevant to those threats, including along the pipeline right-of way; outcomes of the threat assessment; relevant mechanical and fracture properties; in-service degradation or failure processes; and initial and final defect size relevance. The ECA must quantify the interacting effects of threats on any defect in the pipeline.

(a) ECA Analysis.

(1) The material properties required to perform an ECA analysis in accordance with this paragraph are as follows: Diameter, wall thickness, seam type, grade (minimum yield strength and ultimate tensile strength), and Charpy v-notch toughness values based upon the lowest operational temperatures, if applicable. If any material properties required to perform an ECA for any pipeline segment in accordance with this paragraph are not documented in traceable, verifiable and complete records, an operator must use conservative assumptions and include the pipeline segment in its program to verify the undocumented information in accordance with §192.607. The ECA must integrate, analyze, and account for the material properties, the results of all tests, direct examinations, destructive tests, and assessments performed in accordance with this section, along with other pertinent information related to pipeline integrity, including close interval surveys, coating surveys, interference surveys required by subpart I of this part, cause analyses of prior incidents, prior pressure test leaks and failures, other leaks, pipe inspections, and prior integrity assessments, including those required by §§192.617, 192.710, and subpart O of this part.

(2) The ECA must analyze and determine the predicted failure pressure for the defect being assessed using procedures that implement the appropriate failure criteria and justification as follows:

(i) The ECA must analyze any cracks or crack-like defects remaining in the pipe, or that could remain in the pipe, to determine the predicted failure pressure of each defect in accordance with §192.712.

(ii) The ECA must analyze any metal loss defects not associated with a dent, including corrosion, gouges, scrapes or other metal loss defects that could remain in the pipe, to determine the predicted failure pressure. ASME/ANSI B31G (incorporated by reference, see §192.7) or R-STRENG (incorporated by reference, see §192.7) must be used for corrosion defects. Both procedures and their analysis apply to corroded regions that do not penetrate the pipe wall over 80 percent of the wall thickness and are subject to the limitations prescribed in the equations' procedures. The ECA must use conservative assumptions for metal loss dimensions (length, width, and depth).

(iii) When determining the predicted failure pressure for gouges, scrapes, selective seam weld corrosion, crack-related defects, or any defect within a dent, appropriate failure criteria and justification of the criteria must be used and documented.

(iv) If SMYS or actual material yield and ultimate tensile strength is not known or not documented by traceable, verifiable, and complete records, then the operator must assume 30,000 p.s.i. or determine the material properties using §192.607.

(3) The ECA must analyze the interaction of defects to conservatively determine the most limiting predicted failure pressure. Examples include, but are not limited to, cracks in or near locations with corrosion metal loss, dents with gouges or other metal loss, or cracks in or near dents or other deformation damage. The ECA must document all evaluations and any assumptions used in the ECA process.

(4) The MAOP must be established at the lowest predicted failure pressure for any known or postulated defect, or interacting defects, remaining in the pipe divided by the greater of 1.25 or the applicable factor listed in §192.619(a)(2)(ii).

(b) Assessment to determine defects remaining in the pipe. An operator must utilize previous pressure tests or develop and implement an assessment program to determine the size of defects remaining in the pipe to be analyzed in accordance with paragraph (a) of this section.

(1) An operator may use a previous pressure test that complied with subpart J to determine the defects remaining in the pipe if records for a pressure test meeting the requirements of subpart J of this part exist for the pipeline segment. The operator must calculate the largest defect that could have survived the pressure test. The operator must predict how much the defects have grown since the date of the pressure test in accordance with §192.712. The ECA must analyze the predicted size of the largest defect that could have survived the pressure test that could remain in the pipe at the time the ECA is performed. The operator must calculate the remaining life of the most severe defects that could have survived the pressure test and establish a re-assessment interval in accordance with the methodology in §192.712.

(2) Operators may use an inline inspection program in accordance with paragraph (c) of this section.

(3) Operators may use “other technology” if it is validated by a subject matter expert to produce an equivalent understanding of the condition of the pipe equal to or greater than pressure testing or an inline inspection program. If an operator elects to use “other technology” in the ECA, it must notify PHMSA in advance of using the other technology in accordance with §192.18. The “other technology” notification must have:

(i) Descriptions of the technology or technologies to be used for all tests, examinations, and assessments, including characterization of defect size used in the crack assessments (length, depth, and volumetric); and

(ii) Procedures and processes to conduct tests, examinations, assessments and evaluations, analyze defects, and remediate defects discovered.

(c) In-line inspection. An inline inspection (ILI) program to determine the defects remaining the pipe for the ECA analysis must be performed using tools that can detect wall loss, deformation from dents, wrinkle bends, ovalities, expansion, seam defects, including cracking and selective seam weld corrosion, longitudinal, circumferential and girth weld cracks, hard spot cracking, and stress corrosion cracking.

(1) If a pipeline has segments that might be susceptible to hard spots based on assessment, leak, failure, manufacturing vintage history, or other information, then the ILI program must include a tool that can detect hard spots.

(2) If the pipeline has had a reportable incident, as defined in §191.3, attributed to a girth weld failure since its most recent pressure test, then the ILI program must include a tool that can detect girth weld defects unless the ECA analysis performed in accordance with this section includes an engineering evaluation program to analyze and account for the susceptibility of girth weld failure due to lateral stresses.

(3) Inline inspection must be performed in accordance with §192.493.

(4) An operator must use unity plots or equivalent methodologies to validate the performance of the ILI tools in identifying and sizing actionable manufacturing and construction related anomalies. Enough data points must be used to validate tool performance at the same or better statistical confidence level provided in the tool specifications. The operator must have a process for identifying defects outside the tool performance specifications and following up with the ILI vendor to conduct additional in-field examinations, reanalyze ILI data, or both.

(5) Interpretation and evaluation of assessment results must meet the requirements of §§192.710, 192.713, and subpart O of this part, and must conservatively account for the accuracy and reliability of ILI, in-the-ditch examination methods and tools, and any other assessment and examination results used to determine the actual sizes of cracks, metal loss, deformation and other defect dimensions by applying the most conservative limit of the tool tolerance specification. ILI and in-the-ditch examination tools and procedures for crack assessments (length and depth) must have performance and evaluation standards confirmed for accuracy through confirmation tests for the defect types and pipe material vintage being evaluated. Inaccuracies must be accounted for in the procedures for evaluations and fracture mechanics models for predicted failure pressure determinations.

(6) Anomalies detected by ILI assessments must be remediated in accordance with applicable criteria in §§192.713 and 192.933.

(d) Defect remaining life. If any pipeline segment contains cracking or may be susceptible to cracking or crack-like defects found through or identified by assessments, leaks, failures, manufacturing vintage histories, or any other available information about the pipeline, the operator must estimate the remaining life of the pipeline in accordance with §192.712.

(e) Records. An operator must retain records of investigations, tests, analyses, assessments, repairs, replacements, alterations, and other actions taken in accordance with the requirements of this section for the life of the pipeline.

[Amdt. No. 192-125, 84 FR 52249, Oct. 1, 2019]