What is being suggested to you is possible but any and all the examples and explanations provided lack very specific detail and really do not describe a realistic scenario of how a pipeline like this can have a fire. This particular fire, i do not have the details necessary to determine a cause. Nefarious, yeah, possible but that is jumping to extreme conclusions of cause here.
That appears to be a open field failure and thus fire. Upstream and downstream flow direction and facility connection is info needed to rule out many possibilities here. Midstream or pump station etc. Ive worked on or around pipelines for over 25 years Bypass and diversion, shut off valves on main line natural gas high pressure are nearly always manual with pressure relief valves with redundancy safety measures, non automated, built into the the system in many cases failures like these are a cause of environmental and season temperature related, therefore impacting locations that have been subject to neglect. Where owner operator has not performed evals and maintenance appropriate to damage mechanisms detected. Could simply be a sleeve over that wore out or stress corrosion cracking accelerated by geo element, thermal or AC induction/reactions, or a previous hot tap failure, or poorly connected pup, or a dozen other very normal explanations other than bad guys blew it up.
What is being suggested to you is possible but any and all the examples and explanations provided lack very specific detail and really do not describe a realistic scenario of how a pipeline like this can have a fire. This particular fire, i do not have the details necessary to determine a cause. Nefarious, yeah, possible but that is jumping to extreme conclusions of cause here.
That appears to be a open field failure and thus fire. Upstream and downstream flow direction and facility connection is info needed to rule out many possibilities here. Midstream or pump station etc. Ive worked on or around pipelines for over 25 years Bypass and diversion, shut off valves on main line natural gas high pressure are nearly always manual with pressure relief valves with redundancy safety measures, non automated, built into the the system in many cases failures like these are a cause of environmental and season temperature related, therefore impacting locations that have been subject to neglect. Where owner operator has not performed evals and maintenance appropriate to damage mechanisms detected. Could simply be a sleeve over that wore out or stress corrosion cracking accelerated by geo element, thermal or AC induction/reactions, or a previous hot tap failure, or poorly connected pup, or a dozen other very normal explanations other than bad guys blew it up.