Field deployment of ENI vibroacoustic pipeline monitoring system (e-vpms™): Long term performance analysis

Abstract

Real-time monitoring of pipeline integrity is a key factor for the environmental sustainability and for the reduction of production downtime in oil & gas industry. In 2009 eni promoted an R&D project for developing a novel real-time technology, based upon vibroacoustic pipeline sensing. In fact, any interaction with a pipe filled with gas or liquid generates pressure waves that are guided within the fluid for long distances, carrying information on the source event. Among these events, leaks (due to corrosion, third party interference, theft, incidents, etc.) are the ones where real-time monitoring has a paramount value. Starting from 2010, experimental campaigns in controlled scenarios were carried out and validation of the mathematical models of pressure wave's propagation in fluid filled pipes was performed. The field experience has been used to upgrade the prototypal version of the system to an industrial version (e-vpms™). Today the system is operative, or in an advanced installation phase, on several pipelines in Italy and in Nigeria, and it has detected tens of bunkering activities with a localization accuracy of about 25 m, from a distance up to 30-35 km from the sensing point. Moreover, the utilization of original environmental noise removal procedures has brought to an increased system sensitivity and performance, in terms of a reduction of detectable leak holes and of a decrease of false alarms rate. The paper describes the performance, reliability and flexibility of the system, analyzing the operation of several successful field deployments over a long time period.