GIC in pipelines


The Finnish pipeline

The Gasum Oy company and FMI/GEO have collaborated in investigations about GIC in the Finnish natural gas pipeline for several years. The Finnish pipeline has not suffered from serious GIC problems but the northern location of the country makes GIC research important. A special project was carried out in 1998 to 1999 in which GIC flowing along the pipeline was monitored as 10 s mean values by using two magnetometers, one of them affected by the GIC. The measured data combined with theoretical modelling permitted the derivation of probability statistics of the occurrence of GIC and pipe-to-soil voltages at different sites of the pipeline. The recordings of GIC are still continuing, and the data are transferred to the Nurmijärvi Geophysical Observatory daily.

See animation of modeled GIC in the Finnish pipeline during passage of a westward traveling surge (WTS) and animation of Auroras and pipeline GIC during the event occuring on February 18, 1999.

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