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TopI. Introduction
Offshore production accounts about 30% of global oil production, and 27% of global gas production, while these figures have remained stable during the last two decades (Planete-Energies, n.d.). Most importantly, the mentioned percentages are expected to remain steady despite the rapid onshore development of unconventional methods such as Shale oil and gas, and oil sands. Currently, offshore oil and gas reserves are considered a critical component to stabilize the world’s energy supply while the deep-offshore productions are further expanding and currently it accounts to 6% of global production which was just 3% in 2008 (Planete-Energies, n.d.). However, special and sophisticated instrument is required to monitor the production and processing points, further a network of underwater pipelines is used to bring these resources onshore.
The structure of these offshore rigs and connecting pipelines is very complex and spread over the very large areas. Many oil companies with offshore operations always face the problem of leakages in pipelines connecting the offshore wellhead platforms to the land production facilities. Because, these pipelines are operated at high pressures, any failure can cause severe damage to human health and property as well as create environmental implications. For example, a spill of about 267,000 gallons of oil in the tundra of Alaska’s North Slope went undetected for five days in March 2006 (New York Times, 2006). Such leakages and explosion incidents due to high pressures occur often in Gulf of Mexeco. In first major incident, in March 1980, it faced 140 million gallons spill, further even worst situation was occurred in 2010 when not only 210 million gallons spills occurred but also it led to deaths and injuries of more than two dozen workers. Fixing such underwater leakages and network faults may take a very long time during which the pipelines will be fully or partially out of operation. Moreover, in the event of any such incident, not only the clean-up process is very expensive, but it poses major environmental hazards. Having a reliable monitoring and control system for these infrastructures can significantly help in inspecting and saving them.
Although we cannot ignore the intentional threats like terrorism but non-intentional threats like human mistake and natural disasters are of more concerns for underwater pipeline monitoring. For example, during another incident, several underwater pipelines in the Gulf of Mexico were damaged by hurricanes in 2005 (Pipeline Guerrillas, 2007). Resulting to these reasons, environmental regulations are constantly changing and becoming stricter day by day. In 2008, The Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC) approved a set of rules regarding the management of surface waste from oil and gas operations that force companies to haul highly contaminated soil and water to permanent disposal sites rather than spread it back over the land after closing a well. The OCC also approved stricter penalties to enforce industry compliance where the companies must develop new methods to follow these regulations, and to reduce accidents and emissions without impacting production.
A well-developed wireless sensors network on the pipeline facility can help to tackle the aforementioned issues. The sensors can be used for a range of applications like taking measurements inside or outside the pipelines. Inside measurements can be pressure, flow, and temperature measurements. While, examples of outside measurements are pipeline area monitoring, pipeline protection cameras, pipeline fire detection, and pipeline liquid leakages. Operation and maintenance of these subsea pipelines are extremely complex due to the severe conditions of the underwater harsh environment. Detailed monitoring makes it possible to fine tune operations and disclose early abnormal situations in order to maintain the production capacity by avoiding a major abruption or damage. Leaks and ruptures due to an aging and fast decaying pipeline system infrastructure cost millions of dollars a year. A well deployed network of wireless sensors can offer continuous, automatic monitoring systems that can provide early detection and warning of defects, such as corrosion and leaks, before they reach the magnitude of a major disaster.