Current situation of oil/gas pipeline monitoring technologies

Monitoring of pipeline running condition is an important guarantee for the safe operation of pipeline and now there are several monitoring technologies which can be divided into two categories, optical fiber type and non-optical fiber type, and more specifically video monitoring, acoustics sensing based on electricity, hydrophone technology, floating ball, optical fiber technology and so on. For the non-optical fiber monitoring techniques, this paper introduces the working principle and current situation of five methods including acoustics sensor system of PIGPEN, underground acoustics sensor system of PipeGuard, video monitoring device of A-GAS, acoustics invasion detection system ThreatScan based on satellite relay communication, and floating ball method. For the optical fiber monitoring technology, this paper introduces the technological performance and application cases of pipeline invasion detection product Secure Pipe of the Australia FFT (Future Fibre Technologies) Company, the safety monitoring product OptaSense of the UK QinetiQ Company, distributed acoustics sensing system Helios of the England Fotech Solutions Company, the DiTEST tester based on the BOTDA of the Swiss Omnisens Company. Of all this, optical fiber sensing method has unique advantages because of its concealment, low cost and safety, and has a good prospect for popularization and application.