The Fault in Our Pipelines

09/14/2016
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Maggie Zhang

An update while working on an investigative mentorship under Dr. Muralee Muraleetharan,

a professor at University of Oklahoma School of Civil Engineering and Environmental
Science.

For an OSSM student, embarking on a mentorship is a rite of passage, as well as a way of

passing time outside of schoolwork and other academic duties. So, when I was first
acquainted with my mentor over a project investigating current and possible improvements
in regulating the design of oil pipelines in the state of Oklahoma, I was intrigued. Since
pipelines are the physical intersections of state agencies that regulate the flow of petroleum
products and the agencies that supply them, they are often neglected in terms of the
efficiency of their design and their ability to withstand earthquakes, which have increased in
frequency due to new techniques like hydraulic fracturing. Combining my interests in public
policy, urban planning, environmental engineering, and structural engineering, I was
immediately on board. After all, a 5.8 magnitude earthquake had just shaken the town of
Pawnee last weekend, so the timeliness of this project was also appealing.

During the meeting, my mentor, a jovial middle-aged Indian man by the name of Dr. Muralee
Muraleetharan, laughed as he announced that just last year he had given a Reuters
reporter the recommendation that any earthquake over 5.0 in magnitude would pose
serious infrastructural effects in the state of Oklahoma.

A shudder of confusion and (a little terror, perhaps?) went down my spine. I kept smiling as
he proceeded to hand over a stack of documents as my assigned reading. Through the
readings, I was supposed to formulate answers to the following questions:

1. What are the possible failure mechanisms for oil (liquid petroleum products) and gas
(natural gas) storage tanks and pipelines during earthquakes?
2. How are oil & gas (natural gas) storage tanks and pipelines in U.S. designed for
earthquakes? Who regulates their designs?
3. What are the best guidelines available to design these structures for earthquakes?
4. How were the facilities in Cushing designed?
5. What are the possible seismic hazards in Cushing?
6. What are the consequences (environmental, social, and economic) of a failure in
Cushing?
7. Can the facilities in Cushing be designed better?
8. If necessary, how can the existing facilities in Cushing upgraded to handle higher
seismic loads?

I am by no means an expert on the background of these questions nor am I able to

definitively answer these questions yet. But, I look forward to analyzing what the experts
say to craft a sufficient response and recommendation to the challenges we face in
adapting current models of pipeline design for seismic situations.

Just this weekend, I listened to a podcast series from Planet Money, where a team of
reporters bought 100 barrels of oil and followed it out of the ground, through a refinery, and
into someones tank. Oil is everywhere and in everything and has driven industrial progress.
Yet it has also contributed to air pollution and climate change. It made me think of how
ubiquitous oil is, yet how it is remarkably invisible (NPR).

Through this mentorship, I expect to elucidate at least a part of that picture.