/

/

/

Pipelines, watched from end to end.

A pipeline crosses rivers, farms, faults and towns, and most of it is buried out of sight. Its operator must know where it leaks, whether its protection against corrosion works and whether the ground around it moves. An observation network along the right-of-way reads pressure and flow, cathodic protection, ground movement and stations, and keeps one record for the control room and the regulator.

Industry

Energy

Measurements

5

Sources cited

7

1. Energy · Pipelines and midstream

   Hundreds of kilometres, mostly out of sight

   A pipeline is long, buried and exposed to everything along its route: corrosion, diggers, landslides and rivers. Its control room sees pressure and flow, but integrity depends on what happens between the stations. Observation along the right-of-way fills that gap with readings that are tied to the line itself.

2. What is measured

   Pressure, protection, ground and activity

   Pressure and flow are read at valve sites; cathodic protection potentials at test posts and rectifiers; ground movement and strain at slopes and crossings; activity on the right-of-way by acoustic sensing and cameras; gas, fire and machine condition at stations. Satellite radar adds the ground between sensors.

   Instruments

   Pressure and flow · Cathodic protection · Slope and strain · Acoustic sensing · Cameras

3. The base node

   A node at every valve site

   Each valve site’s base node reads instruments through an industrial gateway and hears test-post endpoints through a LoRaWAN gateway. It ties every reading to the line’s stationing, signs it, keeps local trends and raises an alarm on a sudden change in pressure or flow.

4. Radio and links

   Links along the right-of-way

   LoRaWAN carries test-post and slope readings to valve sites. Satellite or 3GPP non-terrestrial links join remote valve sites to the control room, fibre laid with the pipe serves where it exists, and private networks serve stations and terminals. Each link is chosen per section from the survey.

   Radio

   LoRaWAN · Satellite · Fibre · Private LTE

5. How it works

   From a test post to the integrity record

   A test post’s potential is read by its endpoint, sent over LoRaWAN to the valve site, tied to stationing and signed by the node, then carried over satellite to the record. There it joins the protection history of that section and raises a flag if protection falls short.

6. From order to operation · Order

   Scope the line and its risks

   The scope reads the operator’s integrity management plan, high-consequence areas, known geohazards and leak detection approach. Nexus Observatory Inc. returns the sensor plan per section, the radio design along the right-of-way, the integration with the control room and a price per section and per station.

   Plan a deployment

7. From order to operation · Survey

   Walk the right-of-way

   Crews survey valve sites, test posts, crossings and slopes with the operator’s integrity engineers, measure coverage for LoRaWAN and satellite, confirm power at each site and check landowner access. Every position is recorded against the pipeline’s stationing so data and records line up.

8. From order to operation · Permits

   Landowners, crossings and the control room

   Work on the right-of-way follows landowner agreements, crossing permits and the operator’s excavation and hot-work rules. Changes that touch the control room follow its management of change, so new alarms reach controllers only after review. Every agreement and approval is kept with the section it covers, so the next crew knows the conditions before arriving.

9. From order to operation · Build

   Build per site type

   Valve-site stations, test-post endpoints, slope sensors and station kits are built and tested by type, each enrolled with its identity and labelled with its stationing. Gateways are configured with the section they serve, so each reading arrives tied to its place on the line.

   Open the Station Builder

10. From order to operation · Install

    Install section by section

    Gateways and backhaul go in first, then test-post endpoints, valve-site instruments, slope and crossing sensors and right-of-way cameras. Each installation is checked against the alignment sheets and photographed, and landowners are told what was installed. Gateways at valve sites are mounted inside existing fenced areas wherever possible.

11. From order to operation · Commission

    Commission against field readings

    Each node proves its identity, then remote cathodic protection readings are compared with a technician’s manual readings, pressure and flow with the control system’s values, and slope sensors with survey. Alarms are tested from the field to the control room console.

12. From order to operation · Operate

    One line, one picture

    Controllers see pressure, flow and alarms in context; integrity engineers see protection potentials, ground movement and crossing status along the line; station teams see machine condition. Every alarm and response is logged for review against the operator’s procedures. Alarms reach the right person first: controllers for pressure, integrity staff for protection and ground.

13. From order to operation · Maintain

    Keep the record complete

    Endpoints are serviced on schedule, sensors are added where new geohazards are identified and software moves in rings. The integrity record built from these readings feeds the operator’s inspection planning and its reports, year after year. Endpoints whose readings drift are flagged for a field check before their data is relied on.

    Book field services

14. Data products

    Products for control, integrity and prevention

    Controllers receive alarms with context; corrosion engineers receive protection records along the line; geotechnical engineers see ground movement at crossings; damage prevention teams receive right-of-way alerts; station teams see machine condition. All are tied to the same stationing and the same signed readings.

    See the data products

15. Evidence

    An integrity record a regulator can read

    Every reading, alarm, response and change is signed and kept against the pipeline’s stationing. Monitoring follows the operator’s integrity management plan and the pipeline safety rules that apply, so inspectors can follow any conclusion back to the readings and the people who acted on them.

    Drawn against

    49 CFR Parts 192 and 195 · API RP 1130 · CSA Z662 · ISO 15589-1

16. What you get

    Structural and ground-movement monitoring

    GNSS, InSAR, tilt, strain and fibre sensing on bridges, dams, slopes, tailings and pipelines, with alert thresholds set by the owner. Delivered as managed service and data licence, for infrastructure, mining and pipeline operators, transport agencies. Scale: Asset portfolios. Service levels are written as numbers you can measure on your own dashboard.

    Talk to sales

17. Next step

    Plan pipelines and midstream with us

    Tell us the site, the measurements and the rules it answers to. We reply with a survey proposal, a design and a scope for pipelines and midstream. An engineer replies with a survey proposal and a scope, and the plan grows from one site to the network you need, at your pace.

    Plan a deploymentOpen the Station BuilderOpen the Studio

01The place and its hazards

Where it runs, and what can go wrong.

Operating contextTransmission and gathering pipelines carry gas and liquids over long distances between producing fields, processing plants, storage and markets, driven by compressor and pump stations. Integrity management covers corrosion, third-party damage, geohazards and leaks. Control rooms watch pressure and flow continuously, and regulations set duties for leak detection, inspection and emergency response.

Hazards

• Leaks and ruptures from corrosion, cracking or third-party damage
• Failure of cathodic protection against corrosion
• Ground movement, landslides and river scour at crossings
• Unauthorised excavation near the line
• Fire and gas release at compressor and pump stations

02What must be measured

What, where, how often, and under which rules.

Each measurement names where it is taken, how often, and the public standard or regulation behind it. Numbers in the sources column open the cited source below.

03The observation stack

From one base unit to a network.

The same blocks at every scale: instruments and a base node, a site with its radio, a fleet run as one, and a network federated on the open protocol.

1. 01

   Base unit

   A valve-site station: pressure and flow through an industrial gateway, cathodic protection test points on a battery endpoint, and a node that signs and keeps every value.

   Build a station →
2. 02

   Site

   A section between stations: valve sites, test posts, geohazard sensors and right-of-way cameras, joined by LoRaWAN and satellite to the control room.

   Plan a site →
3. 03

   Fleet

   Every section and station of the line run as one fleet, with one integrity record and one alarm policy.

   Managed offers →
4. 04

   Network

   Interconnected systems and the regulator’s reviewers read one federated record, each with the access the agreement gives them.

   The open protocol →

• 01Flow meter
• 02Acoustic sensor
• 03LPWAN endpoint
• 04LoRaWAN gateway
• 05OT gateway (OPC UA, Modbus)
• 06Edge node (Wedge)
• 073GPP NTN terminal
• 08Solar array
• 09Pole

Radio and links

LoRaWAN

Cathodic protection test posts and slope sensors sit every few kilometres with no power; battery endpoints report through gateways at valve sites.

Radio and links

Satellite

Valve sites in remote country reach the control room over satellite or 3GPP non-terrestrial links.

Radio and links

Fibre

Where fibre is laid with the pipe, it carries station data and can also serve as a distributed acoustic sensor.

Radio and links

Private LTE

Around stations and terminals, a private network carries cameras, crew devices and control data.

Edge computeStation and valve-site nodes keep pressure and flow trends locally and raise an alarm on a sudden change, while the control room’s leak detection compares the whole line.

PowerValve sites use station power where available and solar elsewhere; test-post endpoints run on batteries for long periods between visits.

04How it works

From the instrument to the product.

One observation’s path, tier by tier, with the interface on every link and a bill of materials below; then how the one node grows to a site, a fleet and federated networks.

05From order to operation

Every step, from the first call to a running site.

The same crew and the same record carry the work from scope to maintenance.

1. 01 Order

   Scope the line and its risks

   The scope reads the operator’s integrity management plan, high-consequence areas, known geohazards and leak detection approach. Nexus Observatory Inc. returns the sensor plan per section, the radio design along the right-of-way, the integration with the control room and a price per section and per station. 45

2. 02 Survey

   Walk the right-of-way

   Crews survey valve sites, test posts, crossings and slopes with the operator’s integrity engineers, measure coverage for LoRaWAN and satellite, confirm power at each site and check landowner access. Every position is recorded against the pipeline’s stationing so data and records line up.

3. 03 Permits

   Landowners, crossings and the control room

   Work on the right-of-way follows landowner agreements, crossing permits and the operator’s excavation and hot-work rules. Changes that touch the control room follow its management of change, so new alarms reach controllers only after review. Every agreement and approval is kept with the section it covers, so the next crew knows the conditions before arriving.

4. 04 Build

   Build per site type

   Valve-site stations, test-post endpoints, slope sensors and station kits are built and tested by type, each enrolled with its identity and labelled with its stationing. Gateways are configured with the section they serve, so each reading arrives tied to its place on the line.

5. 05 Install

   Install section by section

   Gateways and backhaul go in first, then test-post endpoints, valve-site instruments, slope and crossing sensors and right-of-way cameras. Each installation is checked against the alignment sheets and photographed, and landowners are told what was installed. Gateways at valve sites are mounted inside existing fenced areas wherever possible.

6. 06 Commission

   Commission against field readings

   Each node proves its identity, then remote cathodic protection readings are compared with a technician’s manual readings, pressure and flow with the control system’s values, and slope sensors with survey. Alarms are tested from the field to the control room console.

7. 07 Operate

   One line, one picture

   Controllers see pressure, flow and alarms in context; integrity engineers see protection potentials, ground movement and crossing status along the line; station teams see machine condition. Every alarm and response is logged for review against the operator’s procedures. Alarms reach the right person first: controllers for pressure, integrity staff for protection and ground.

8. 08 Maintain

   Keep the record complete

   Endpoints are serviced on schedule, sensors are added where new geohazards are identified and software moves in rings. The integrity record built from these readings feeds the operator’s inspection planning and its reports, year after year. Endpoints whose readings drift are flagged for a field check before their data is relied on.

06Data products and integration

What it delivers, to whom, and into which systems.

Data products

• Leak and pressure alarms with contextControl room controllers
• Cathodic protection records along the lineCorrosion and integrity engineers, regulators
• Geohazard and crossing monitoringIntegrity and geotechnical engineers
• Right-of-way activity alertsDamage prevention teams
• Station condition recordsStation maintenance teams

Integration

• Pipeline SCADA and leak detectionField data arrives through industrial gateways over OPC UA and DNP3 alongside the control system’s own points.
• Integrity management and GISReadings are tied to pipeline stationing and delivered as layers in the operator’s GIS.
• Damage preventionRight-of-way alerts reach the one-call and patrol workflows.

Exchanged through OPC UA (IEC 62541), DNP3 (IEEE 1815), OGC SensorThings API.

07Questions buyers ask

Before you scope it.

Does this replace our leak detection system?

No. It adds field data and alarms beside the control room’s leak detection, which remains the system of record.

Can remote cathodic protection reads replace annual surveys?

Remote reads add continuous data between surveys; whether they replace any survey depends on the rules that apply to the line.

How are geohazards found between sensors?

Satellite radar interferometry covers the line between ground sensors and flags movement for a closer look.

Can we start with high-consequence areas?

Yes. Most programmes start with high-consequence areas and known geohazards, then extend along the line.

08Resources

The sources behind this page.

Public standards, regulations and guidance, cited where they apply. Each applies only where its jurisdiction or scope does.

1. 1API RP 1130: Computational Pipeline Monitoring for LiquidsAmerican Petroleum Institute
2. 249 CFR Part 195: Transportation of hazardous liquids by pipelineUS Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration (eCFR)
3. 3ISO 15589-1: Cathodic protection of pipeline systems, on-land pipelinesInternational Organization for Standardization
4. 449 CFR Part 192: Transportation of natural and other gas by pipelineUS Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration (eCFR)
5. 5CSA Z662: Oil and gas pipeline systemsCSA Group
6. 6Copernicus Sentinel-1 radar missionEuropean Space Agency
7. 7ISO 20816: Mechanical vibration, measurement and evaluation of machine vibrationInternational Organization for Standardization

09Related

Use cases and solutions.

10Energy: specialized fields

Other fields of this industry.

Bring us the site.

Plan a deployment, configure a station, model it in the Studio or talk to sales. The form names who receives your details.