‘Misinformation’ on gas pipeline

Wednesday, August 31, 2005 ‘Misinformation’ on gas pipeline ~ Reply to Shell ad in Western PeopleSIR - I refer to a Shell advertisement in your edition last week relating to the Corrib gas pipeline. The statement that the gas flowing through the proposed extreme high-pressure pipeline from the seabed to the refinery at Bellanaboy is “treated gas” because it will have had chemicals injected into the pipe at the well end is, from reading of Shell’s submissions to Mayo County Council, a deliberate piece of gross misinformation which might mislead those of your readers who are neither fully aware of those submissions or aware that while the gas will be treated with corrosion inhibitor and anti-freeze its basic unrefined nature will not have been changed when it passes through this pipe nor will the operating pressure of the order of 1700 to 3500 pounds per square inch within 230 feet of a house have been changed. Further the much quoted BS8010 is not even a standard any longer and the design pressure is so high (5000 psig) that it applicability is questionable. The estimated “fire ball zone” from a rupture of the pipeline is 1,000 feet, the safe distance for fire fighting with a water wall spray due to the amount of radiant heat would be of the order of 4,000 feet (0.6 mile) with all buildings closer to the epicenter melted. While the extreme overpressure zone (blast zone) were the 3,500 tons of gas in the whole line to escape and detonate would be some 2.5 miles radius, and the detonation would probably be heard as far away as Galway and Longford. The operating pressures mentioned for this pipeline are so high that if this pipe had compressed air in it and it burst, the fragments would be the equivalent of shrapnel and exceeds that found in most power generation steam boilers. I have deliberately expressed the pressures in imperial units since most members of the general public will be more familiar with them and the above information I believe is more informative. Yours sincerely.Dave J Aldridge PhD.Cloonfane, Charlestown,