The Interstate Natural Gas Association of America (INGAA), a trade organization that advocates for the natural gas pipeline industry in North America, meets regularly to review current topics in their industry. One of the featured case studies to be presented at the group's summer workshop is the 2018 iPIPE demonstration project in North Dakota.

The iPIPE consortium addresses continued efforts at pipeline safety. It is a platform to put new technologies through their paces in a real operating area, which is often missing in most R&D analyses. Leaders within the oil & gas industry in North Dakota proposed the intelligent Pipeline Integrity Program (iPIPE) in direct response to a challenge made by Governor Doug Burgum last year to eliminate pipeline leaks through innovation. The project has been publicly and privately funded at an overall cost of $4 million. Governor Burgum observed during his 2019 state-of-the-state speech that the iPIPE consortium showed that energy production and environmental stewardship aren’t mutually exclusive. “A good example is the intelligent Pipeline Integrity Program, or iPIPE — a public-private partnership studying emerging technologies to detect and prevent pipeline leaks. Six projects have been funded so far, showing exciting and promising results. Again, this is happening because we believe innovation — not regulation — is the best way to solve complex challenges in a digital age.” Current iPIPE consortium partners include Andeavor, Hess Corporation, Equinor (formerly Statoil), Goodnight Midstream, Oasis Midstream Partners, ONEOK, Whiting, and DCP Midstream.

Jay Almile, Principal Engineer of the iPIPE Partnership, will present the projects and technologies tested in 2018 at this week's INGAA workshop. INGAA participants will have the opportunity to review iPIPE's work with Satelytics, such as this discovery of a previously unknown leak near an oil pad.

Satelytics is fortunate to have been chosen as one of the emerging technologies in 2018 (and again in 2019) for codevelopment activities. "Through our relationship with iPIPE, we were able to take our technology to the next level," said Satelytics' CEO Sean Donegan. "They challenged us to develop a mobile version that will give customers the capability of working offline, when internet access is limited. The ability to work in an unconnected world will be a game changer for field assessment." That mobile platform is one of the focuses of our 2019 project.

iPIPE is adding new partners, as many in the industry see this concept as a “win-win,” even if they don't have assets in the North Dakota area. Contact Jay Almlie for more information.