As operators push the boundaries of pipeline monitoring beyond rapid response and into the realm of predictive asset management, distributed fiber optic sensing (DFOS) stands out as perhaps the most versatile and effective tool driving innovation and value creation for integrity applications today. More specifically, the impressive capabilities of DFOS systems for the early detection, accurate characterization, and continuous monitoring of geotechnical phenomena posing significant acute or long-term potential risks for pipeline assets makes them ideally suited to bolstering operators’ competencies for geohazard awareness and response.

High-fidelity distributed fiber optic sensing (HDS) represents a next generation of DFOS technology, providing highly sensitive integrated measurement of acoustics, temperature, and strain/vibration over long distances. Coupled with pipeline-specific Machine Learning (ML) algorithms, HDS has proven highly effective for real time pipeline monitoring, sensing every centimeter of the asset in real time for a broad range of reactive integrity events including pinhole-level leak detection, ground disturbance and third-party intrusion, as well as for high-value operational support functions like pig tracking and remediation support. But some of the most exciting potential for HDS lies in recent efforts focused on leveraging its one-time and cumulative strain monitoring capabilities to effectively capture and track the impacts of geotechnical risks towards true preventative integrity management. By combining the high signal-to-noise ratio fidelity performance of engineered sensing fiber with a suite of advanced ML algorithms, HDS has proven its ability to deliver accurate event detection - without false positives – over thousands of monitored pipeline kilometers globally.

This presentation will draw from commercial HDS applications focused on geohazards assessment, showcasing Hifi’s close collaboration with a number of major producers and midstreamers to provide an understanding of the technology’s capabilities, limitations and value-in-use for those tasked with safeguarding pipelines against this specific subset of integrity threats.