Improving Gas Controllers’ Competencies Through Computerized Simulation

Promigas is the only transmission company responsible for transporting natural gas to the majority of towns on the Colombian Atlantic Coast in South America. The natural gas is received from several production companies connected to Promigas’ pipeline transmission system, such as Chevron, Pacific Rubiales, Geoproduction and Solana.

Promigas renders service to more than 4 million users connected directly to its system, or indirectly through the local distribution companies (LDCs). The system, which includes 4 compressor stations, is managed from the control center in the city of Barranquilla. In 2009, it experienced a maximum peak of 0.58 Bcf/d.

The Natural Gas Control Activity
In our operation, gas controllers are responsible for monitoring and controlling the pipeline conditions, carrying out the system’s simulations, responding promptly to emergencies, taking care of the nomination process with clients and producers, and following the rationing codes during emergencies.

Given the complexity of activities involved, the firmness requirements of contractual commitments and our obligation of protecting the safety of communities, the critical importance of the gas controller position should be recognized with a certification process that validates and qualifies the ability of the individual assigned to this post.

With this in mind, we attended the AGA conference in 2007 and participated in the roundtable for Control Room Management (CRM), where we decided to implement Gas Controllers’ Certification according to the published standards to ensure our gas controllers’ competencies and skills. In order to achieve our objectives, we developed a certification process based on a systematic procedure which takes into account both normal and abnormal conditions in the pipeline.

Selection Of Standards
When we started to implement the standards to qualify operators (OQ), we first studied the API 1161 Guide for its applicability. Later in the research process, we concluded that the ASME B31Q standard was more suitable to our natural gas operation, since API 1161 was at that time mainly used for liquids while the ASME B31Q is a continuation of the ASME B31.8, on which our design, construction, operation and maintenance of natural gas systems is based.

Our main objective was to comply with the ASME B31Q Standard by means of a skill assurance program for gas controllers. A program that performs the “Operation of Natural Gas Transmission and Distribution Systems” as a main covered task was instituted. This skill assurance program is designed for operators who exercise this task daily. The program will allow them to recognize and effectively respond to abnormal operating conditions (AOCs), conditions that they could face while performing their job.

We adopted Appendix 6A of the ASME B31Q - 2006 Standard as the basis for identifying AOCs that could be faced by our operators. These abnormal conditions are listed below: