OREANDA-NEWS. On September 09, 2008 Karachaganak Petroleum Operating B.V. (KPO) has recently installed state of the art pipeline monitoring technology along export routes from the Karachaganak field, reported the press-centre of KPO.

The installation of this new fibre optic based security and sensing technology is a first for Karachaganak and for Kazakhstan.

Speaking today, Brian Drinkhall, Operations & Maintenance Superintendent for KPO’s KATS Export Pipeline said, “KPO takes pipeline security very seriously and illegal tap incidents can pose serious safety and environmental issues.

This new technology will detect disturbances around the export lines and feed live and detailed information directly to KPO’s central processing control room. This will enable us to pinpoint the location of the activity, reduce our response time and rapidly deploy security measures”.

In addition to this new fibre optic technology, KPO will be increasing its physical security presence along pipeline routes. When a disturbance of the soil is detected around the pipeline, KPO will deploy mobile security units to the exact location and contact the appropriate Authorities.

The theft of hydrocarbon products by an illegal tap typically involves drilling a hole in a section of pipeline and siphoning off the product. In addition to the serious safety and environmental impacts this can have, it also causes major disruption to ongoing field operations.

This technology used by KPO has been developed by the Australian based company, Future Fibre Technologies (FFT). FFT were established in 1994 and have installed more than 100 systems throughout the world, primarily in high security and sensitive military and government facilities.