L40000 Materials of Construction for Use in an LNG Pipeline

The recent activities in the field of liquefied natural gas (LNG) has induced considerable interest in the possibility of piping natural gas in its liquid, rather than gaseous, form. Many national and international LNG projects are already commercially established. These plants are presently piping LNG within the plant and to and from loading terminals. Expansion of these facilities including piping LNG between widely separated storage depots is an anticipated future step in the advance of the LNG industry.

The objective of this report is to survey commercially available materials that are considered acceptable or potentially acceptable from a technical viewpoint for the construction of an LNG pipeline. Although material-cost figures are given and some discussion of them is presented, the scope of the current work does not include an evaluation of the economic feasibility of pipelining LNG. Because of the many evident alternatives in the actual design and construction of an LNG pipeline in addition to the many variables and uncertainties involved in economic studies in various parts of the country and the world, it was agreed that this investigation would summarize the data and information on materials of construction so that such economic studies could be made.