Third party interference and leak detection on buried pipelines for reliable transportation of fluids

Third Party Interference (TPI) and fluid leaks are the most frequent cause of failure in oil&gas pipelines infrastructures, and constitute a major risk for safety and environment. In order to mitigate such risks and to minimize environment exposure, it is possible to deploy remote real-time monitoring technologies, which in turn need to be field tested and qualified in a real production scenario. Not only it is necessary to assess their performance, but also to evaluate their integrability within the company business processes, as well as, their easy-of-use, and the training efforts required. Two technologies were identified that allow remote real-time detection, classification and geo-localization of TPI and leak events. The first one is based on Fiber Optics (FO) standard communication cable, typically buried along the pipeline for communication purposes. In this technology the fiber optics cable is used as a distributed vibration sensor, able to detect remotely possible threats to the pipeline infrastructure. The second one is discrete Acoustic Sensing (AS), and comprises a set of dynamic pressure and vibroacoustic sensors installed on the pipeline, at relative distances of a few kilometers. Both technologies require a significant amount of development and field tests, in order to qualify detection and classification algorithms. We have started in Y2010 a long term field trial on an oil pipeline in service in the North of Italy to evaluate the benefits that such technologies might contribute to the asset integrity. In this paper, we report and discuss the preliminary results of an extensive set of tests performed by simulating intrusions, impacts and leak events.