EGGS AGM and Managing Landslide Risks

EGGS AGM and Managing Landslide Risks on Major Onshore Oil and Gas Pipeline Systems – 10 July 2013

The EGGS AGM and the evening talk by Dr. Mark Lee on 10 July 2013 were attended by approximately 45 colleagues ranging from Geological Society, ICE and IMMM members. Mark spoke to the group on “Managing Landslide Risks on Major Onshore Oil and Gas Pipeline Systems”, a subject he is particularly familiar with as a world leading expert!

Mark explained why and where input from ground engineers is valuable for the early stages of routing an onshore pipeline. He showed examples of where this was achieved through remediation or avoidance of landslides. He also showed some other examples where landslides were not properly mitigated, which led to environmental, cost and public relations damage. The risks far outweigh any of the time spent on ground engineering input.

An interesting observation to be taken away from the evening was that we, as ground engineers, understand our value early in a pipeline routing project, but pipeline engineers are less familiar. We are getting more recognised within this industry, but how can we bring our expertise into the guidance that pipeline engineers actually read?