Abstract
It is well known that pipelines have the highest capacity and are the safest and least environmentally disruptive form of transporting oil and gas. However, pipeline damage caused by both internal and external corrosion is a major concern threatening the reliability of oil and gas transportation and the soundness of the pipeline structure. In this study, we estimate the allowable damage by comparing the ASTM B31G code to a modified theory considering diverse detailed corrosive forms. The ASTM B31 G code has been developed as the evaluation method for reliability and incident prevention of damaged pipelines based on the amount of loss due to corrosion and the yield strength of materials. Furthermore, we suggest a method for estimating the expected life span of used pipelines by utilizing the reliability method based on major variables such as the depth and length of damage and the corrosion rate affecting the life expectancy of the pipelines.