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About SoundPrint® AFO - Oil and Gas

Theft Prevention

The theft of petroleum products from pipelines is a major problem in many countries.  Previously, there was no way to detect and prevent the illegal tapping of pipelines in remote areas, resulting in losses of tens of millions of dollars for pipeline operators and petroleum companies.

SoundPrint® AFO can prevent these losses by identifying and locating unauthorized interference with pipelines, allowing the operator to respond to suspicious events. A continuous acoustically-sensitive optical fibre can easily be attached to the pipe or installed in a trench above the pipeline.  Optical processing and data acquisition (“OPDAS”) nodes located up to 40 kilometres apart analyze the acoustic information acquired by the sensor and transmit data from events that meet pre-set criteria back to a control centre, where the PureLink GIS interface displays the nature and location of the event.

Accidental Damage Avoidance

Damage to pipelines caused by construction equipment is the most common cause of pipe ruptures and explosions.  SoundPrint® AFO can provide early warning of construction activity in the vicinity of a pipeline so that such accidents can be avoided.

Leak Detection

Instrumentation-based leak detection monitoring systems such as flow metering and CPM (computational pipeline monitoring) can only detect relatively large leaks, typically not less than one percent of the flow rate.  This can result in undetected environmental damage from oil pipelines and in significant explosion hazards from gas pipelines.  Because of its acoustic sensitivity and continuous contact with the pipe wall along its full length, SoundPrint® AFO detects the acoustic energy resulting from the pressure drop through the pipe wall.  This provides greater than an order-of-magnitude increase in sensitivity, resulting in early detection and optimum mitigation of leaks. 

 Anti-Terrorism

Pipelines have become a favourite target of terrorists around the world because of their strategic importance and because of the dramatic economic and environmental impact that explosions can have on a country or region. Conventional security measures have been ineffective at preventing terrorist attacks because of the practical impossibility of continuously patrolling hundreds of kilometers of pipeline. SoundPrint® AFO can provide immediate warning of potential threats allowing rapid response units to investigate and apprehend the perpetrators.