This study presents the attenuation characteristics of the first guided longitudinal wave mode propagating in water-filled, buried steel pipes in order to investigate the effects of soil saturation and compaction on the attenuation patterns. For numerical calculation of attenuation, 10 different combinations of S-wave velocity, P-wave velocity, and soil densities were considered. From the attenuation dispersion curves, which were obtained using Disperse software, we determined that the attenuation decreases as saturation increases, whereas it increases as compaction increases. Over the frequency range from 0.2 to 0.4 MHz, the first longitudinal wave mode has attenuations that are relatively lower than for other ranges, is faster than the first flexural wave mode, and is sensitive to defects aligned in the axial direction. Hence, the first longitudinal wave mode over the mentioned frequency range would be the proper choice for long-range buried pipelines that transport water.