A pipeline (of oleo , according to the direction of English oil " pétrole" , and ducere " conduire") is a tube of transport of Pétrole.

One very often indicates a pipeline by the term English pipeline . But this term includes the pipelines as well as all the other tubes of transport of liquids (like the Aqueduc S for the Eau) or of Gaz (like the Gazoduc S for the Natural gas).

Geopolitical importance

As this Raw material is currently fundamental for the savings in many countries, the pipelines are of an importance paramount Géopolitique.

Their monitoring is ensured by the armies of the producer countries, of the countries which they cross and the oil importing countries for the difficult areas, if not it is the owner or the owner (oil companies in general) who is in charge of this operation (air and terrestrial monitoring). The layout of the new pipelines is the object of many debates between regional powers and international.

Some existing pipelines

• Operation PLUTO, an underwater pipeline built during the Second world war

• Pipeline trans-Afghanistan (TAP)
• Pipeline trans-Alaska (TAPS)
• Pipeline Bakou-Tbilissi-Ceyhan (BTC)
• Pipeline Druzhba, longest in the world

Projects of pipelines

The layout of the new pipelines is the object of debates and conflicts of influence between the countries in competition for the passage on their territory, and where the importing countries take care jealously to choose an inexpensive and sure way.

Projects in the Caucasus

Currently, several projects of pipelines are under discussion between the Caspian Sea and the Mediterranean, in particular in the area of the the Caucasus for more Septentrion with. The conflicts of nationalities make complex the fixing of the layouts in the Russian Caucasus (in Chetchnia for example), in Ossétie of the South inside the Georgia, and between the Arménie and the Azerbaïdjan.

This zone would allow short layouts, therefore expenses of less important construction and toll. However, the conflicts make fear in the importing countries of the ruptures in the provisioning, detrimental for their economy. Certain countries around this area (Iran, Russia, Turkey) try to propose longer ways, but crossing their currently pacified territories.

Leakages of pipelines or aqueducts

Difficult to detect, expensive to repair and disastrous for the environment, the escapes of hydrocarbons represent a true headache for oil industry.

But a clever system inspired in the way in which blood coagulates in the event of cut is on the way to cure it. Developed by engineers Scot, it rests on the use of artificial plates, small malleable particles of elastomer whose size can vary from 0,8 mm to that of a ball of tennis, according to the importance of the escape to be blocked. Introduced into the pipeline, they are carried by the oil flood until the escape where, under the effect of the pressure, they agglomerate against the wall and end up clogging the point of rupture. Repair is carried out thus without human intervention. A considerable advantage whereas the new pipelines are often built in increasingly difficult zones of access. Before even stopping them, the plates, which are marked with the radioactive isotopes, also make it possible to locate possible escapes. The system was used successfully in Great Britain, Norway and Azerbaïdjan.

Other concerned approaches of the respect of the environment are based on the use of tracer, inert and possibly renewable gas. Sensitive ultra gas-detectors make it possible to locate without difficulty the points of épanchement. Some of these tracer gases are approved in such an amount of food additive E 939 and E 949, which returns them particularly adapted to these delicate tasks.

Tests are in addition in hand to apply the process to the aqueducts and the British water pipelines. In 2006, a quarter of water provision of Great Britain was lost because of escapes .