Oil pipeline operators and maintenance workers ensure that pipeline systems operate safely, efficiently, and reliably. Pipeline systems transport oil and oil products via:
- Flow lines, which connect oil wells to oil batteries (storage facilities)
- Pipeline gathering systems, which connect production fields to main pipelines
- Main pipeline transmission lines, which carry oil from major points of production to refineries or other markets
Workers’ responsibilities vary from one company to another. In general, pipeline maintenance workers:
- Check the equipment (pumps, motors, valves, traps) at pumping stations and related sites
- Co-ordinate operations with control centre operators
- Monitor the quality of the products shipped
- Make adjustments to equipment
- Respond to problems that occur along the pipeline
Although their overall duties are similar, different types of pipeline operators and maintenance workers have different levels of responsibility.
In some companies, tank farm operators work at pumping stations. These are most often located near tank farms (large storage facilities for oil and oil products). From control rooms, they:
- Monitor instruments that provide information about product levels in storage tanks, including the flow rates, pressures, volumes, densities, and temperatures of products being shipped
- Operate computers that remotely control valves, product separation mechanisms, and pumps
- Direct the work of gaugers and utility workers (described below)
- Monitor the work of contract personnel while at the tank farm and pumping station
- Check various areas of the pumping station to ensure safe and proper operation
- Check remote pumping stations
- Check specialty chemical rates and inventories
- Supervise bulk tanker truck unloading and loading
Tank farm operators report directly to station supervisors. They assume supervisory duties when station supervisors are absent.
In other companies, control centre operators monitor and control pipeline activities for large regions. For example, they may control activities for all of Alberta and British Columbia from one centralized control centre. From control rooms, they:
- Monitor operations, including measures of flow and product quality, storage levels, line balance, and leak detection
- Operate control valves, block valves, product separation mechanisms, and pumps
- Provide information to gaugers, maintenance workers, and other personnel
Other pipeline workers, often called gaugers and utility workers, may work at pumping stations. In general, gaugers:
- Do routine checks of the pumping station or remote stations
- Take readings and make necessary adjustments
- Keep detailed records of oil flow, temperature, density, and pipeline pressure
- Take samples of crude to assess quality
- Take precise readings from meters
- Maintain equipment
- Determine month-end tank inventories
- Prepare calculations for receipts and deliveries of oil and oil products
- Send pipeline pigs to clear blockages in lines
- Send batch corrosion inhibitor into pipeline, and then send filter pig to prevent corrosion
- Send batch solvent into pipelines obstructed with paraffin wax
- Change and grease pipeline valves
- Monitor corrosion with coupons (bits of metal that show corrosion rates)
- Inspect for pipeline leaks
- Suspend unused lines or abandon old lines in older fields
- Assist with Smart Tool runs
- Complete provincial One Call requests
- Complete aerial patrol sightings if required
Under direct supervision, gaugers also may route the correct product to the pumps from the tanks. They may:
- Check to see that incoming and outgoing products are moving through the correct meters
- Ensure meters are working properly
- Take samples of various products
- Conduct simple laboratory tests to check product quality and grade
Utility workers or roustabouts work closely with and help gaugers. As they gain experience, utility workers often receive more responsibility. After two or three years, they may advance to gauger positions. Further to their work with gaugers, utility workers take charge of general maintenance and safety. They also perform housekeeping in the pumping station, such as cleaning walls and floors.
