Leak detection, theft detection and pipeline simulation: key updates
The third quarter of 2023 has come to an end with a global customer base who continues to receive uninterrupted support from our leak detection, theft detection and simulation solutions.
With an impressive delivery of nine training sessions, a presence at six events and multiple wellness activities for colleagues, Atmos demonstrated our ongoing commitment to prioritizing people this quarter.
Quarterly achievements
- Three thefts detected
- Six events attended
- 14 Factory Acceptance Tests (FATs) completed
- Ten Site Acceptance Tests (SATs) completed
- Nine training sessions delivered
- Two software upgrades
Discover how we’ve been supporting our customers and colleagues in Q3 by reading the selection of handpicked pipeline leak and theft detection stories below:
- Events, training and wellness
- Detecting pipeline leak activity in the US
- Validating pipeline thefts in Africa and Latin America
Events, trainings and wellness: a quarter of prioritizing people
Continued global events activity
Building on more than 25 years of leading pipeline leak detection solutions for the oil and gas industries, we have continued our innovation in the water and waste water industries. To reflect our dedication to reducing water leakage, we’ve been present at a selection of Latin American events and UK water related events this quarter.
Water events
In September we sponsored and attended the Global Leakage Summit, where we showcased our water leak detection solutions and Business Development Director for water Martin Duff spoke on “Embracing the challenge of leak detection in trunk mains and rising sewer mains”.
Our CEO and Founder Jun Zhang also attended Women on Water this quarter, an event which aims to support women in the industry with their career and personal development. Jun was part of a panel that discussed what success looks like from the top.
Atmos' stand at the Global Leakage Summit 2023
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Our work in the water industry Leak detection solutions
Latin American events
CEO & Founder Jun Zhang presenting a demo of Atmos Simulation (SIM) Suite to a group of event attendees at Rio Pipeline Conference & Exhibition
Sales and Senior Research Engineer Harry Smith and Sales Engineer Rodrigo Salgado speaking with event attendees at Rio Pipeline Conference & Exhibition 2023
In Brazil, the focus of this year’s Rio Pipeline Conference & Exhibition was on building a channel of communication between industry and society. At the event, we continued our longstanding record of delivering expert presentations, with our product experts speaking on the following topics:
- “Progress and challenges in pipeline theft detection” - Harry Smith, Sales and Senior Research Engineer. Download the paper here.
- “Meeting the challenges of gas transmission and distribution systems with advanced technologies” - Jun Zhang, CEO & Founder. Download the paper here.
We were also available for Atmos SIM demos. If you missed out, contact us to arrange a demo.
Training sessions
As our R&D team continues to advance the hardware and software behind our industry leading leak detection, theft detection and pipeline simulation technologies, a key part of those advancements involves keeping our customers up to date on the latest improvements.
We delivered nine training sessions to our global customer base in Q3 to optimize our customers’ experience using products and services that include Atmos Pipe, Atmos SIM and Atmos Wave Flow.
Wellness for colleagues
To ensure we continue to successfully support customers across the world, a fundamental belief at Atmos is in looking after our colleagues’ wellness and providing a brilliant place to work.
In September Atmos colleagues took part in a "10k a day" walking challenge where daily prizes were on offer to help everyone build daily healthy movement habits. With a collective count of over 7 million steps we made a generous donation to UNICEF’s global emergency fund.
Detecting a pipeline leak in the US
This quarter we detected a large leak on a US pipeline. This was a challenge due to communication outage on the customer’s side and poor quality data. Atmos Pipe detected the leak against all odds and alarmed within minutes.
Since its release as the first statistical volume balance system in 1995, Atmos Pipe has been at the forefront of leak detection technology.
Learn more
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Suspicions confirmed: validating pipeline thefts in Africa and Latin America
Africa
While carrying out Atmos Theft Net analyses for a customer in Africa, we detected a number of suspected illegal tappings across the customer's pipeline network.
After providing the customer with theft locations, the customer was able to verify the tapping points, which were nearly exactly in the locations estimated by the Atmos Theft Net service.
Figure 1: The illegal tapping detected by Atmos Theft Net service
Experienced engineers trained in the latest theft detection techniques are a vital part of Atmos Theft Net, which combines the power of people with fixed and portable hardware solutions to collect and analyze pipeline data.
Learn more about the human element of pipeline theft detection
Atmos Theft Net service In the media
Latin America
Colombia
This quarter, Atmos Pipe detected seven illegal tapping points on a section of a customer’s pipeline in Colombia. The suspected thefts were later verified by the customer and we have since enhanced leak and theft location accuracy on this section of the pipeline.
Figure 3: One of the tapping points welded into the customer’s pipeline
Costa Rica
Using our leak detection system, we’ve detected multiple illegal tapping points for a customer in the region, which enabled the customer to locate the actual theft sites.
One of the tapping points had a 1 km long hosepipe attached to the tapping point which led to where the thieves were storing the stolen product (Figure 4).
Figure 4: The storage site being used by the pipeline thieves in Costa Rica
The use of longer hoses to extract stolen product from the pipeline is a characteristic of the “try and remain hidden” approach to pipeline theft, which aims to make it difficult for theft detection systems to detect theft activity.
Learn more about this style of pipeline theft
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Learn more about the company whose solutions have been applied to over 1,500 pipelines in more than 60 countries
Atmos International was originally founded in 1995 with a primary focus to detect pipeline leaks reliably on operational pipelines. This has not changed except advances in our technologies which continue to grow and adapt to the changes within the oil, gas, chemical, water, aviation and mining industries.