New Technology Development to Bring Pig-Tracking into 21st Century

In a bid to revolutionize how operators manage pig tracking within pipelines, the team behind an award-winning portfolio of advanced leak detection and monitoring solutions has introduced a brand-new pigging-oriented technology to the energy market.  

PipeSense, the U.S-based provider of obstruction, leak, and anomaly detection technology, has officially launched its PipeTrack solution.   

Utilizing cutting-edge pressure monitoring and integrating established leak detection software, PipeTrack is a user-friendly and accessible sensor and signal processing system that provides operators with real-time visibility of pipeline pigs. Accessed via a bespoke customer dashboard, PipeTrack stores detailed event data for verification and ongoing analysis should anything unexpected occur during your run.  

Developed in-house by PipeSense expertise, early results from customer trials and installations have yielded accurate and repeatable results in challenging conditions, including reducing downtime and personnel exposure. Backed by AI-enabled data analysis, PipeTrack analyzes the pressure pulses created as the pig moves along the pipeline, determining the pig’s average speed and precise location.   

The introduction of PipeTrack aims to help customers minimize or even move away from traditional methodologies, including Above Ground Markers (AGM), acoustic monitoring, and manual spot checks. While these traditional methods created operational and safety challenges, relating to the uncertainty of specific pig locations when lost or stuck, PipeTrack offers round-the-clock visibility and precise location tracking by maintaining a view of the pig inside the pipeline rather than above it.   

Additionally, PipeTrack handles the entire pig run with a simple installation of sensors utilizing above ground small-bore branch locations, spaced accordingly, mitigating the need to move or repeatedly set up equipment.   

Discussing the development of the software, Stuart Mitchell, President and Chief Technology Officer at PipeSense, commented: “Applying a common-sense approach to pipeline maintenance and integrity is the ethos at PipeSense. Like many other pipeline maintenance processes, pig tracking methodologies have long been outdated and ineffective. Operators have long been overdue a solution that shakes up pig-tracking and meets the modern demands of the industry, and we’re proud to provide it.   

PipeTrack will help empower the industry with a field-proven and reliable solution that transforms time-consuming and resource-heavy manual efforts into an adept platform that offers live feedback.   

For the last two+ years, we have been laser-focused on developing and introducing solutions that can help take midstream operations into the 21st century and beyond. PipeTrack is the latest worthy addition to that aim.”