Northern Transmission Pipeline
Client: Israel Natural Gas lines (INGL)
Overview
INGL requested a design and permitting project that consisted of 60 km pipelines and five block valve and branching stations.
Challenges
There were several complex challenges derived from the location: safety, domestic and environmental issues, all required unique expertise and seamless resolution. The main challenge was crossing Mount Carmel range, a UNESCO World Heritage site. Another sensitive issue that required expert involvement was related to land ownership: the land is privately held by a minority population. Last but not least was running a high pressure gas pipeline inside the populated city of Haifa, Israel’s third largest city.
Activities
TMNG came up with a plan to address all challenges efficiently.
• Safety: The company conducted specific quantitative risk assessments and implemented a unique Safety Measurement System that complies with the industry’s most stringent standards. The Safety Management System (SMS) quantifies external safety levels in order to define and avoid potential hazards within the urban environment
• Domestic politics: There was an increased cultural and political sensitivity in the fact that the land rights belong to the Israeli Druze population, a religious and ethnic minority. Managing the land rights required series of talks between Druze dignitaries and INGL. TMNG provided close guidance in exploring the project’s feasibility and discuss INGL’s project with great cultural sensitivity
• A unique GIS application was developed internally to enable interactive queries, analyze spatial information, edit data in maps and present the relevant information
Results
TMNG managed to overcome all engineering, environmental and political challenges involved in the execution of the linear infrastructure.
The land rights were successfully negotiated; Discussions resulted in an agreement to run the pipeline within the desired territory, with minimal rerouting according to land owners’ requests. To ensure the utmost safety, TMNG met the most uncompromising standards in the field for steel pipelines, including the Dutch standard NEN 3650. In fact, TMNG took measures beyond the standard’s recommendation to provide an optimal solution. In terms of the environmental challenge, the company provided a meticulous design that was conceptualized to minimize the project’s footprint, including for the execution phase. This project management demonstrates TMNG’s unique experience and expertise in handling unique challenges and resolving them to the satisfaction of the customers and other stake holders alike.
TMNG provided a comprehensive design solution that addressed all the complexities while taking into consideration landscape recovery.
Conducted in-house, the multidisciplinary design adhered to uncompromising standards and was the backbone of further stages in the Northern Transmission Pipeline project.