Types of pipe lines and storage tanks

In general, pipelines can be classified in three main categories depending on its main purpose, the categories are as follows:

1. Gathering Pipelines – Group of smaller interconnected pipelines forming complex networks with the main purpose of bringing crude oil or natural gas from several nearby wells to a treatment plant or processing facility. In this group, pipelines are usually short, couple of hundred of meters, and with small diameters. Also sub-sea pipelines for collecting product from deep water production platforms are considered gathering systems.

2. Transportation pipelines – Mainly long pipes with large diameters, moving products (oil, gas, refined products) between cities, countries and even continents. These transportation networks include several compressor stations for crude and multi-product pipelines.

3. Distribution Pipelines – Composed of several interconnected pipelines with small diameters, used to take the product to the final consumer. Basically, feeder lines to distribute gas to homes and business downstream, or pipelines at terminals to distribute final product to tanks and storage facilities are included in this groups.

Gathering lines are constructed for collecting the oil produced from different wells of the oil field, for separating water and mud and for moving oil into reservoirs (vessels) or gathering tanks. From gathering tanks oil flows through the system by gravity into sedimentation plants. After the sedimentation is over oil is pumped into the oil field storage reservoir or storage tanks for further transportation. Now every sea port and nearly every railway station have some tanks for storing oil and its products. Tanks are known to be vertical and horizontal. The former are sometimes very high while the latter are low and long and look very much like the railroad tank cars. Big tanks are able to store hundreds of thousands of tons of oil or oil products. Both reservoirs and tanks are made of steel but sometimes concrete reservoirs are known to be used. Much metal is needed to build oil tanks of great capacity therefore the engineers constructing them should design them as economical as possible. The well known Russian engineer Shukhov calculated and designed the first tank as early as 1883. His works are often referred to by Russian and foreign specialists in oil transportation.

When an existing pipe line is no longer sufficient in capacity to meet the demand put upon it, a situation which often develops when the field served by the line suddenly increases in productivity, an expedient (an additional set of pipes) called "looping" is sometimes installed for the purpose of increasing the carrying capacity. This consists in laying and connecting several miles of additional pipes, parallel and connected at intervals, with the original line.

4. Find the corresponding English equivalents to the following words and word combinations.

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конструировать рассчитать спрос на ... ещё в … году больше не удовлетворять требованиям пропускная способность ёмкость нефтехранилищ