Alternative Approaches to Pipeline Survey: The Pipeline Engineer’s View

Abstract

Annual ROV pipeline survey specifications tend to place considerable emphasis on visual records and the commentary made by the survey crew. However, the latter is based largely on the former which are, in turn, restricted by the field of view and the uncertainty of orientation of the boom cameras. Thus a slow and laborious process yields only limited and subjective results. In addition, re-visiting old records is not only extremely time-consuming, tedious and costly, but does not facilitate any comparison from year to year. This paper, which is based upon three recent studies, looks at the limitations of current survey techniques and explores, from the point of view of the pipeline engineer, some alternative and innovative approaches aimed at improving pipeline survey. By taking advantage of recently-developed techniques, it will be possible to obtain and present more pertinent data. The way these data can be used to advance the understanding of the dynamic interactions between pipelines and the seabed are discussed.