Methods Selection for Natural Gas Pipeline Patrolling Operation Using Technical and Economic Decision

Abstract Natural gas is a source of clean energy and is the main fuel used for generating electricity in Thailand. Natural gas is transported from production to end users through pipeline systems. Therefore, pipeline patrolling and inspection is extremely important for maintaining pipeline integrity. This paper describes a case study incorporating a proposed framework for making decisions concerning selection of patrolling methods in terms of technical and capital investment criteria. For technical context, multiple criteria decision analysis (combining Voting Analytic Hierarchy Process (VAHP) and Fuzzy Analytic Hierarchy Process (FAHP)) is implemented to determine importance weights of selected expert and performance criteria respectively. For ranking patrolling methods, Fuzzy Technique of Order Preference Similarity to the Ideal Solution (FTOPSIS) is employed. In the context of capital investment evaluation of the patrolling methods, the equivalence uniform annual worth is used for ranking. A sensitivity analysis is also conducted by varying the importance weights of the technical performance criteria. Regarding technical and capital investment contexts, the results reveal that increasing patrolling frequency through outsourcing is the most suitable method for performing natural gas pipeline patrolling.