Working toward zero incidents on Canada’s energy highways

Canadian Energy Pipeline Association releases 2016 Pipeline Industry Performance Report

Mathematicians debate whether zero is a real number.

For the Canadian Energy Pipeline Association, zero is the only number.

Today, CEPA released its 2016 Pipeline Industry Performance Report—the organization’s second annual “report card,” so to speak, demonstrating CEPA and its 12 member companies’ ongoing commitment to openness and transparency about their operations, their safety performance, and continuous improvement in the area of environmental protection.

In terms of pipeline incidents and worker safety incidents, CEPA says it strongly believes that zero “is the only goal to strive for”—because the pipeline industry holds itself to the highest standards of safety performance, and because the Canadian public currently holds the pipeline industry to a standard of perfection.

“As an industry, we are committed to building trust and improving confidence by being accountable and transparent,” says Chris Bloomer, president and CEO of CEPA. “We set the highest standards for ourselves, and Canadians should expect nothing less from us.

“CEPA and its member companies,” adds Bloomer, “continue to be committed to safety and environmental protection—through strong leadership, a collective vision that no incident is acceptable, and the fact that we do not compete on these issues.”

Highlights of CEPA’s 2016 Pipeline Industry Performance Report include:

• Of the 1.2 billion barrels of crude oil and liquids moved by CEPA member companies in 2015, a total of 16 barrels were spilled on those members’ rights-of-way;
• CEPA members conducted 3,151 verification digs in 2015 to examine pipelines for defects, and make any required repairs;
• CEPA members conducted inspections on 31,196 kilometres of pipelines in Canada in 2015, with high-tech in-line inspection tools, or “smart pigs,” that use ultrasound or magnetic flux leakage (MFL) technologies;
• More than 20% of CEPA members’ 119,000 km of pipeline in Canada were inspected in 2015 by one or more in-line inspection tool;
• CEPA members stayed sharp on the emergency preparedness front by holding 386 emergency response drills in 2015; and
• CEPA members invested $1.3 billion in maintaining and monitoring their Canadian pipeline systems in 2015.

CEPA’s 12 member companies operate about 119,000 km of crude oil and natural gas transmission lines, or “energy highways,” that move about 1.2 billion barrels of oil and 5.4 trillion cubic feet of natural gas every year.

Despite the fact that this system is vital to the daily lives of all Canadians, research has shown that many Canadians have little or no knowledge of the transmission pipeline industry, notes Bloomer.

“The lack of knowledge indicates that we, as an industry, need to get better at communicating,” he says. “Through this report, our aim is to be clear about the progress we’ve made as an industry, but also to be forthright about the improvements we still need to make.”

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