New Technology Magazine

Laser scanners and specialized software allow for faster, more effective testing of pipelines

Even before recent high-profile crude oil pipeline ruptures in the United States, North America’s pipeline carriers had good reason to adopt the latest in pipeline-testing technologies.

Today, with sharply increased scrutiny from regulators like the National Energy Board, and the negative fallout from the Michigan and Arkansas incidents, the industry has all the more reason to search out the most effective methods for testing the integrity of oil and gas pipelines.

Clearly, the pipeline sector is getting the message. Outside the sector, if anyone can see a silver lining to the increased scrutiny the sector is under, it’s likely the tech companies that are marketing improved testing tools and methods for finding and assessing damage, including corrosion, to pipelines.

In a sense, the case for using the best testing technologies available has been made largely in the public arena. Whenever there’s a pipeline leak or rupture, the public has made clear its sympathies rarely lie with the pipeline carrier. Under pressure to meet higher pipeline integrity and public safety standards than ever before, today’s carriers know they will be held accountable for any failure to do so.

On a purely practical level, adopting the most effective testing technology could mean much more for carriers than just having a ready answer when regulators come calling. Indeed, for some carriers, taking the right steps to improve public safety now could mean the difference between surviving and not surviving, in the long run.

It’s into this regulated, well-scrutinized environment that manufacturers of pipeline-testing tools venture, knowing the stage has been set by regulators, environmentalists and an often-skeptical public. One such manufacturer is Quebec’s Creaform Inc., which offers laser scanning technology to the pipeline industry through a range of products.

Vancouver company leverages earthquake detection expertise to monitor fracturing and pipelines

When you think of it, there’s a strong logic in the fact that a Vancouver-based company with an expertise in earthquake detection has developed a suite of other technologies that are also used to monitor what a company official calls “microseismic events” that occur deep in the earth as a result of fracking, as well as disturbances that could lead to pipeline ruptures.

Fast-evolving sector is building new defences to fight off attacks

Thanks to widely circulated stories—on TV, newspapers and the Internet—awareness of cyber-security risks and threats has shot up recently. Has anyone not heard of the Stuxnet worm that may have delayed Iran’s disputed nuclear program by as much as a year, or the Shamoon virus that was deployed against Saudi Arabian Oil Company last summer and wiped out the data from 30,000 company PCs?

Software's visual presentation of data makes the complex easy to understand

If you’re feeling a bit overwhelmed by all of the data you have to deal with in the highly technical oil and gas industry world of today, you’re not alone.

It’s been called the digital explosion—and com­panies like TIBCO Spotfire Inc. think they have at least a partial answer to dealing with that explosion.

London, England–based Steve Farr was so impressed with the Massachusetts-based company’s technology, that he left the consulting business he had founded two years prior to rejoin the corporate world, where he became Spotfire’s product marketing manager for the energy sector. That was earlier this year.

Hand-held technologies cut costs, improve safety and enhance oilfield equipment reliability

Steve Jobs, the late chief executive officer and co-founder of computer, tablet and smartphone technology giant Apple Inc., used to talk about the need for his company’s products to be elegant—a word that might not come to mind if he had learned that North America’s largest hazardous waste disposal firm would end up using his company’s iPads and smartphones in its operations.