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Chennai-based Detect Technologies, developers of industrial technology for process industries, has deployed advanced drone surveillance solutions for Oil India Limited’s crude oil pipelines in Assam. The project is aimed at getting complete visibility of crude oil delivery lines and flowlines and strengthening operations and ensuring the security of national assets.
The project at OIL’s field headquarters at Duliajan in Eastern Assam’s Dibrugarh district is India’s first autonomous drone project at this scale, an initiative by Digital Readiness for Innovation and Value in E&P with the support of the Ministry of Petroleum and Natural Gas, and the first digitised solution offering pipeline surveillance and mapping at this scale, says a press release from Detect Technologies.
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The pipelines are spread across hundreds of kilometres, passing through various terrains, making conventional methods like shutting down and manually inspecting pipelines extremely challenging. Pipe leaks and spillages cause massive damage to the environment, and illegal tapping leads to losses worth $12 billion worldwide.
The surveillance solutions ensure pipelines are surveyed 24 hours a day and monitored 365 days, enabling faster detection of fire incidents, crude oil leaks and spills, and near real-time detection of intruders, thus enabling OIL to initiate proactive steps to obtain better performance and improve productivity, the release said.
