Dario Stella | Jemena

Dario Stella
Jemena
Senior Pipeline Engineer

What does your role entail and what does your company do?

As a member of the Asset Management team I manage technical and engineering matters for Jemena’s Queensland Gas Pipeline.

Jemena owns and operates gas, electricity and water transportation assets across the east coast of Australia.

The QGP is a high-pressure gas pipeline transporting natural and coal seam gas from the Surat and Bowen basins to industrial users in the Gladstone region of coastal Queensland.

My tasks centre on the integrity management of the pipeline with a particular focus on; corrosion prevention, third party interference and pipeline repairs.

What has been your favourite corrosion project that you have worked on and why?

Because it is infrequently done in our company I was excited by the design, installation and commissioning of a new impressed current corrosion prevention system.

The initial siting of the cp unit made use of potential attenuation curves, coating defect concentration overlays and third arty anode bed location. The detail site investigation for the pole mounted cp unit considered: soil resistivity measurements, access to mains power, and land management.

Another aspect of this project is the ongoing management of interference due to an adjacent pipeline. This has required data gathering and analysis with follow-up excavations revealing the cause of current pickup.

What are the important corrosion related issues facing industry/your business today?

I. Inability – for whatever reason (technical, cost), to gather real-time corrosion prevention data. Whether that be; pipe potential, corrosion rates from ERP, attenuation, pH measurements.
II. Lack of guidelines/recommended practices for interpreting corrosion
prevention data.
III. Growing reliance on risk-based corrosion prevention rather than a prescriptive based approach.
IV. Poor technical understanding of the relationship between coating defects and corrosion prevention.

Why are you a member of the ACA?

The ACA is a well-run club; it is without politics, attracts interested people, encourages young corrosion prevention practitioners, and maintains a social cool.