January 2014 Tube Products International
9
business & market news
Pipeline monitoring system installed
Fotech, a specialist in distributed
acoustic sensing (DAS) technology,
has completed installation and
commissioning of its LivePIPE pipeline
monitoring system for Hindustan
Petroleum Corporation Ltd (HPCL), in
partnership with Commtel Networks.
The system will monitor activities on
75km of the Mumbai-Pune-Solapur
product pipeline, protecting it from
theft and interference, while preventing
nuisance alarms caused by innocuous
activity.
The specific installation environment is
highly prone to nuisance alarms due to
heavy industrial and agricultural activity
along the pipeline.
Fotech developed localisation features
that effectively segregate nuisance
activity from genuine unusual events,
increasing the confidence levels of
detecting genuine intrusion incidences.
The System Acceptance Certificate was
signed and released by HPCL and the
system is now under stabilisation.
Based on Fotech’s Helios distributed
acoustic sensing technology, LivePIPE
is a pipeline monitoring system that
detects and locates intrusions and
interference activity along thousands
of kilometres of pipeline in real time.
Events are detected and classified
within seconds to a location accuracy
of a couple of metres, giving pipeline
operators the information to prevent
environmental damage and unforeseen
cost.
Shriprakash R Pandey, Commtel’s
CEO, said, “The Fotech LivePIPE
system addresses a pressing safety
and security need of the oil and gas
industry where pilferage and accidental
damage to pipelines are real problems,
and the completion of this installation
is a key milestone for us and the wider
industry. We have worked together
with Fotech to commission a highly
reliable system. The system is providing
an unprecedented level of visibility of
activity and threats around the pipeline
to our customer.”
Fotech CEOChris Shannon commented,
“With a significant number of system
installations underway around the
world, completion of the LivePIPE
commissioning for HPCL is testament
to the success of the Fotech-Commtel
partnership. This installation also
presented an extremely challenging
environment from an acoustic point of
view. That we have been able to deliver
such an accurate and reliable service
while filtering out substantial local
‘noise’ really demonstrates the power of
our LivePIPE monitoring system.”
Operating primarily in oil and gas and
pipeline sectors, Fotech has developed
the Helios system that converts an opt-
ical fibre up to 40km long into a solution
that is equivalent to tens of thousands
of individual vibration sensors.
Real-time detection of the vibrations
caused by acoustic disturbances along
the fibre is translated into information
that will aid the oil and gas operator
in exploration, production and delivery
activities, or a pipeline operator with
intrusion detection, leak detection or pig
tracking activities.
Commtel Networks provides advanced
engineering and technology solutions
focused in oil and gas, power,
transportation and defence sectors,
delivering high-performance converged
communication and surveillance
systems in India and abroad.
The company builds converged
telecommunication networks for voice,
video surveillance, data and Ethernet
traffic over optical fibre, radio or copper
links.
Fotech
– UK
Commtel Networks
– India
Heavy industrial activity around the
Mumbai-Pune-Solapur pipeline
can cause nuisance alarms
