Infrastructure protectionQinetiQ's OptaSense to protect India's major oil pipeline
The 670 km Mangala Development Pipeline (MDP) is the world’s longest continuously heated and insulated pipeline; it will have access to 75 percent of India’s refining capacity; the company operating it will install QinetiQ’s OptaSense technology to secure the pipeline; OptaSense system is designed to detect, classify, and locate potential threats to buried pipelines
Monitoring the OptaSense system // Source: qinetiq.com
QinetiQ’s OptaSense technology has been chosen as the security system for the 670 kilometer Mangala Development Pipeline (MDP) in India. The contract was awarded by Cairn India and ONGC Joint Venture through QinetiQ’s distribution partner, Optilan, following successful field trials last year.
The contract calls for QinetiQ’s OptaSense system to be installed along the entire length of the pipeline to provide security. The OptaSense system is designed to detect, classify, and locate potential threats to buried pipelines. H. P. Bhalla, director, Midstream of Cairn India, said: “Pipeline integrity and safety are of prime importance to us and we believe the addition of OptaSense technology will help us prevent incidents to our new pipeline. We believe the OptaSense system to be a cost effective way of monitoring the security of our pipeline.”
The Mangala Development Pipeline (MDP) operated by Cairn India is the world’s longest continuously heated and insulated pipeline. It will have access to 75 percent of India’s refining capacity when it reaches Bhogat in Gujarat. The MDP originates from Mangala Processing Terminal in Barmer, Rajasthan and passes through eight districts in the states of Rajasthan and Gujarat before it reaches its end point at the coastal location of Bhogat near Jamnagar on the western coast line of India.
Magnus McEwen-King, managing director QinetiQ OptaSense, said: “This new contract with Cairn India will extend our reach into India and coincides with a major upgrade of the system functionality. The contract builds on our existing security and monitoring solutions for other linear assets principally in the oil and gas industry. We look forward to providing valuable security and monitoring information to protect this important pipeline.”
OptaSense system will be installed into existing pipeline block valve stations and will utilize the existing communications cable installed adjacent to the pipeline. The installation and commissioning of the project will be carried out by Optilan.
The contract with Cairn India follows a contract with BP to install the OptaSense system on the 1,770 km Turkey section of the BTC pipeline. The BTC is a long crude oil pipeline from the Azeri-Chirag-Guneshli oil field in the Caspian Sea to the Mediterranean Sea. It connects Baku, the capital of Azerbaijan; Tbilisi, the capital of Georgia; and Ceyhan, a port on the south-eastern Mediterranean coast of Turkey.
