NEO inspection is a 3P in-house developed technology that is in an advanced stage of development. NEO measurement does not penetrate into the steel; it has, therefore, only a single “reflector”, which is the steel surface, and can be combined with other ILI technologies. This cutting-edge technology provides ultra-high-resolution scanning of the internal pipe wall for metal loss and other features. Labor tests has shown that pinholes with a diameter of 1mm are visible in the NEO data.

NEO measures independent from the wall thickness and is therefore mainly designed for heavy wall inspection. The sensors can be used in liquid, gaseous and multi-phase environments and detect features up to a tool speed of 5m/s and operate in high temperature environment up to 130 degrees Celsius.

This paper is about the current state of development, the benefits to the pipeline operator and an outlook on market maturity.