Publications

Maintaining safe and reliable operations are top priorities in the Oil and Gas Industry with all identified vulnerabilities including external factors. Banyu Urip (BU) facilities experienced soil erosion in certain segment of export pipeline due to high rain intensity area which may impact to pipeline monitoring and Leak Detection System (LDS). LDS plays a pivotal role as a safeguard for preventing safety and environmental damage of BU export pipeline that transports crude oil from Central Processing Facilities (CPF) to Floating Storage and Off-loading (FSO) along 96 km pipeline.

Soil erosion may impact physical damage to underground fiber optic (FO) cable located nearby export pipeline. FO cable used for LDS communication between Valve Stations and Central Control Room at CPF. Losing LDS functionality may lead to undetected leak and severe operational hazards. Means, disturbance to the FO hardwire installation could causes blind surveillance to the export pipelines operation. In the past couple of years, we have experienced more than 5 times of disturbance on the pipeline and was required 120 minutes, in average, to manually response the situation. To prevent that situation from occurring as pre-caution, an initiative for implementing Internet of Things (IoT) to the LDS is considered as the best fit-for-purpose solution and safeguard enhancement when the FO cable unavailable.

This paper explores example of IoT using Long-Term Evolution (LTE) wireless communication with end-to-end encryption as a backup communication solution for LDS, ensure continuous Operations if any primary FO cable failure. Additional wireless HART (Highway Addressable Remote Transducer) transmitter attached into Motor Operated Valve (MOV) and connect to Access Point and LTE Gateway in Valve Station to send valve status, pressure and temperature parameter to LDS server in CPF. During simulation of FO failure scenario, this IoT solution confirm providing stable backup communication for LDS and export pipeline monitoring in BU Operations.