The Future of Inspections:

Technologies Converge to Transform Asset Integrity Management

A Frost & Sullivan White Paper

www.frost.com

Sponsored by
Baker Hughes – a GE Company

March 2018

50 Years of Growth, Innovation and Leadership

 Frost & Sullivan

Introduction................................................................................................... 3

Chapter 1: Winning in Tough Market Conditions—Making the

Digital Shift in Industrial Inspection............................................................... 4
Industry Challenges........................................................................................... 4

Traditional vs. Digital Inspection....................................................................... 5

Digital Inspection for Asset Performance Management (APM).......................... 6

Benefits of Digital Inspection............................................................................. 6

Chapter 2: Cloud Computing to Democratize Inspection Data...................... 8

Growing Reliability of Cloud Solutions............................................................. 8

Cloud Enables Seamless and Improved Digital Inspection................................. 8

Chapter 3: Real-time, Online Corrosion Monitoring Yields Better Results..... 10

Importance of Corrosion Prevention Best Practices........................................... 10

Improvements in Sensor Technology Drive Real-time Monitoring..................... 10

Significant Benefits of Predictive Corrosion Management.................................. 11

Chapter 4: Monitoring Pipeline Asset Integrity.............................................. 12

API’s Focus on Pipeline Leak Detection............................................................ 12

Software Integration Platform for Asset Integrity Management......................... 13

Last Word: Digital Inspection Revolutionizes the Asset Integrity

Monitoring and APM Landscape................................................................... 14

Reference....................................................................................................... 15

TA B L E O F C O N T E N T S
 The Future of Inspections:
Technologies Converge to Transform Asset Integrity Management

INTRODUCTION

The convergence of operational and information technologies is causing a tectonic shift in many industries that is reverberating
through the non-destructive testing (NDT) inspection space. Boundaries between sensing, inspection, control, information,
and services have blurred, driving creative destruction and expansion of traditional business processes; the result is a digital
fabric that can connect all disciplines in an enterprise. Frost & Sullivan already sees several industries shifting from reactive,
diagnosis-type inspections to proactive and predictive programs to maximize asset performance, create new value streams,
and overcome what were once thought to be insurmountable problems.

Exhibit 1: Tectonic Shifts Impacting Industrial Markets Over the Next 10 Years

Industry Trends Market Trends

Integrated Selling
Oilfields Operations Selling Products Performance

Virtual Power
Power Plants and
Generation Digital Substations CAPEX TOTEX

Intelligent/ Need-based Continuous

Mining Connected Mines Optimization Machine Learning

Downtime
Process Avoidance
Manufacturing Digital Twin Downtime and Prevention

Traceability Trusted
and Continuous Technology and
Aerospace Monitoring Supplier Service Partner

Source: Frost & Sullivan

Exhibit 1 illustrates expected industry trends and market shifts over the next 10 years. Of the above-mentioned industries,
this paper will primarily focus on the implications of digital inspection in the oil & gas industry, along with a few asset
management trends in industries such as power generation and aerospace. Frost & Sullivan defines digital inspection as the
act of conducting inspection with the assistance of one or more of the digital technologies that help in streamlining the
overall inspection process, making it simpler and reducing lead times. Digital inspection can be as simple as using a common
application across the organization for easy exchange of inspection and maintenance information or can be as sophisticated
to include technologies such as installed sensors, cloud computing, and data analytics.

This paper is designed to help end users navigate the complex world of industrial inspection technologies, which are no longer
just supported by traditional, fit-for-purpose hardware. It will illustrate how industries can improve asset performance by
understanding the full potential of NDT inspection technologies. Three dimensions will be discussed:

• The evolution of inspection technologies;

• The impact of digital transformation on asset performance and integrity management; and
• The implementation of solutions that drive a “negative latency enterprise”—a condition in which today’s companies can
envision the future and operate accordingly today (e.g., a refinery with a predictive maintenance program can anticipate
a bearing failure in a pump and can plan for its repair or replacement).

All rights reserved © 2018 Frost & Sullivan 3

 The Future of Inspections:
Technologies Converge to Transform Asset Integrity Management

CHAPTER 1: WINNING IN TOUGH MARKET CONDITIONS—MAKING THE DIGITAL

SHIFT IN INDUSTRIAL INSPECTION
Over the past half-decade, the NDT market has experienced a significant evolution driven primarily by technological
convergence and the industry’s changing requirements. Fewer experts in the workforce and cost pressures across industrial
markets are steering companies to look at innovative means to maintain growth and enable expansion. As digital technologies
breathe fresh air into traditional markets, we expect the emergence of digital inspection.

New technologies, digital inspection in particular, have played a key role in the transformation of solutions such as corrosion
monitoring, leak detection, weld inspection, structural inspection, and visual inspection. Traditional inspection approaches
involve technicians manually taking measurements in the field and logging or storing the data locally, accessed by experts on
a case-by-case basis. Today’s digital inspection approaches, however, leverage connectivity and cloud infrastructure to store
and analyze inspection data, enabling collaboration and predictive asset management strategies.

Industry Challenges
Globally, process and manufacturing industries are under intense pressure to do more with less. Because asset integrity and
performance are critical to achieving production goals, maintaining uptime is fundamental to preserving the bottom line.
Digitizing inspection value chain data will help end users mitigate risks while negating the possibility of unknown failures.

Steep unplanned maintenance and repair costs: The oil & gas industry has undergone an arduous
period of adjustment to the new oil price norm after the 2014 price plunge, with a strong push to increase
efficiency across upstream (exploration and production), midstream (transportation and storage), and
downstream (refining and processing) operations. Any unplanned downtime or safety issue could be costly. An offshore
operator could face a loss of $7 million per day if an oil well is out of operation.1 On average, a liquid natural gas (LNG)
facility loses $150 million a year on unplanned downtime.1 In addition, according to the Pipeline and Hazardous Materials
Safety Administration (PHMSA)—an arm of the US Department of Transportation—the number of significant pipeline
incidents grew 26.8% from 2006 to 2015, with 326 significant incidents in 2015 alone.2 The PHMSA defines a significant
incident as one that causes a fatality or an injury requiring hospitalization; incurs a minimum of about $120,000 in total
costs; releases at least five barrels of highly volatile liquids or 50 barrels of other liquids; and/or releases a liquid that
results in an unintentional fire or explosion. To avoid unplanned downtime, companies are exploring digital inspection
technologies such as corrosion and asset integrity monitoring solutions that use ultrasound and surface visual inspection
techniques and measure other parameters such as temperature, strain, and acoustics.

Periodic inspection limits capture of critical failure indicators: NDT inspection to identify damage
due to corrosion and erosion has traditionally involved a portfolio of technologies including ultrasound,
radiography, electromagnetic, and pipeline inspection gauges. Inspections for corrosion-related damages are
typically carried out every one or two years, depending on the industry and the asset.3 This corrosion data, if continuously
monitored, can be put to good use to study the degeneration of assets and to engineer corrective and preventive actions. To
ensure continuous asset management strategies, the ability to correlate data and arrive at meaningful insights is important.
This is now being increasingly implemented with digital inspection technology.

Specialized NDT workforce is aging: Data, whether collected manually or automatically, must be
analyzed by experts against regulatory thresholds and structural integrity/reliability engineering calculations.
The aging workforce and the complexity of traditional inspection equipment and processes are creating a
shortage of skilled technicians. The average age of a Level III ultrasonic technician is 55 years.4 Looming

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 The Future of Inspections:
Technologies Converge to Transform Asset Integrity Management

retirements are forcing the NDT industry to consider how it will attract a new generation of workers and bridge the
impending knowledge gap. Digital inspection technologies are part of the solution.

Aging assets: More than 50% of the upstream and downstream oil & gas production assets globally have
passed the midlife point, directly affecting efficiency.5 Companies are demanding more frequent inspections to
extend asset life.

Traditional vs. Digital Inspection

One of the advanced digital technologies that can add value to digital inspection is connected instruments (either installed
sensors or smart, portable instruments with wireless connectivity) that transmit the data to the cloud applications so that
any stakeholder can access it anytime and anywhere. Leveraging the Internet’s ubiquity, connected inspection will help end
users drive agility and responsiveness to otherwise time-consuming inspection processes. Furthermore, smart sensors with
embedded processing capabilities push the boundaries and enable edge computing, which is the intrinsic ability of inspection
hardware to parse out critical data from non-critical data. This helps in achieving smarter and faster decisions for critical
processes closer to the point of acquisition and control. Digital inspection is also attributed to the increasing prevalence of
asset monitoring. Digital technologies are transforming corrosion monitoring, leak detection, and weld, structural, and visual
inspections. Exhibit 2 compares traditional and digital inspection processes.

Exhibit 2: Traditional Inspection vs. Digital Inspection

Initiation & Planning 2+ Weeks Inspection & Upload 3 Days Analysis & Reporting 2+ Weeks
Traditional
Inspection

• Manual, multi-step process • Inefficient procedures • Difficult to sort & interpret data
• Time to identify & validate process • Error-prone, inconsistent inspections • No actionable insights/follow-up info
• Constant procedural changes • Tedious & slow data uploading • Data stored independently

Trigger event prompts Operations Inspection completed Field Findings sorted, Field
need for inspection Manager manually onsite Inspector compiled & reported Inspector

Final report prepared

Inspection Expert Request submitted & Inspection Expert Results reviewed Engineer & asset condition
procedure created (re-inspection if necessary) determined

Prior inspection reports Engineer Data recorded & Field Recommendations Inspection
gathered & reviewed uploaded manually Inspector made to asset owner Expert
Digital
Inspection

Initiation & Planning 1 Day Inspection & Upload 1 Day Analysis & Reporting 1 Day
Easily share access to historical inspections & Enhance the level of consistency across Search & review organized data for simplified
up-to-date inspection procedures inspections & painlessly upload organized data reporting & more confident recommendations

• Automated processes • Consistent processes • Auto-sort data

• Upload procedures on device • Reduce risk of human error • Access actionable insights
• Easy app updates • One-click data upload • One-click reporting

Source: BHGE

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 The Future of Inspections:
Technologies Converge to Transform Asset Integrity Management

Digital Inspection for Asset Performance Management (APM)

APM is an integrated, enterprise-wide approach to improve asset safety, reliability, and utilization. Traditional APM involves
manual data collection and spreadsheet analysis; however, digital technologies and dedicated software have streamlined
collection, storage, sharing, and analysis. Data can now be continuously acquired even from assets in harsh or remote field
environments. Businesses can store terabytes of data and run computations based on physics models and probabilistic learning
that predict outcomes and prescribe maintenance. Exhibit 3 shows the digital technologies that have enhanced APM.

Exhibit 3: Digital Inspection Technologies Enable Improved APM

UBIQUITOUS SENSING CLOUD COMPUTING

Improve asset tracking and Enables connectivity,
reporting by gathering data interoperability, and flexible
from everywhere and turning computing power across a facility
that into actionable information and enterprise

ADVANCED ANALYTICS
INDUSTRIAL WIRELESS Analyze large assets, inspections,
NETWORKS and failure datasets, and combine
Enhance connectivity to remote analysis with physics models and
assets to expand asset coverage statistical methods to improve
and control Digital Inspection predictive capabilities
Technologies
BIG DATA STORAGE
AND PROCESSING MOBILITY
Capture and analyze diverse Enable asset tracking,
datasets from multiple sources monitoring, and
to improve operation and inspection on-the-go
maintenance performance

Source: Frost & Sullivan

Benefits of Digital Inspection

Reactive maintenance and repair in the oil & gas industry cost 3.3 times more annually than proactive maintenance, according
to research conducted by Frost & Sullivan. Digital inspection armed with installed sensors, cloud computing, and analytics
enables an improved and proactive approach to APM. Key benefits of such a digital inspection solution include:

• Elimination of unexpected downtime through failure prediction, machinery health analysis, and effective asset
performance management;
• Ensured safety by preventing catastrophic failures;
• Improved inspection quality and process performance;
• Collection of data richer in quantity and quality, and breaking data silos;
• Effective data analytics that enable well-informed operational and business decisions; and
• Optimized use of constrained resources through careful consideration of health and use monitoring.

To effectively derive benefits from digital inspection, different pieces of the ecosystem have to fall into place and seamlessly
work together. However, few companies in the present-day market can claim to have a full portfolio stack of offerings that
cover sensing, inspection, information integration, and analysis. Baker Hughes, a GE company (BHGE), offers digital inspection
solutions dedicated to tackling the aforementioned challenges across several industries, such as oil & gas, power generation,
aviation, water and wastewater management, and chemical processing. BHGE’s comprehensive digital inspection portfolio of
hardware, software, and services includes several prominent tools:

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 The Future of Inspections:
Technologies Converge to Transform Asset Integrity Management

• Predix, a comprehensive application software development kit and Industrial Internet of Things (IIoT) platform
with machine-to-machine-certified hardware options, native asset and time series services, and predictive analytics
frameworks. Industrial leaders around the world are adopting Predix, which delivers the intelligence needed to
transform operations and generate new revenue with its combination of sophisticated asset modeling, Big Data
processing, analytics, and applications.
• Predictive Corrosion Management (PCM), a proactive maintenance solution of BHGE that combines a cloud-
based software application that leverages GE’s Predix platform and Rightrax PM-installed sensors to non-intrusively
monitor interior pipe wall thickness and temperature to determine the effects of corrosion and erosion.
• InspectionWorks, a cloud productivity platform by BHGE for NDT inspection, with services that lets you: store,
share, analyze and report inspection data. It also enables live collaboration (screen share) between the inspection in the
field and a remote expert.
• Vigilant, a distributed integrity monitoring solution of BHGE, displays insights in near real-time from a fiber optic
sensor installed along the entire length of pipelines — processing terabytes of data in seconds. The intuitive application
delivers actionable information for pipeline operations and reduces false positives, improves detection of smaller leaks
and reduces inspection costs.

CASE IN POINT
A French fertilizer major produces corrosive ammonium nitrate. Traditional inspections were unable
to reliably measure corrosion in the plant’s pipelines. It implemented ultrasound inspection to measure
corrosion and execute a preventive maintenance schedule to increase plant uptime.

Digital inspection technologies can support or replace traditional sensors and manual inspections to assess the health,
usage, and wear of turbine blades, foundry castings, pipes, tanks, vessels, pipelines, engine blocks, and other critical assets.
Portable devices, ubiquitous connectivity, and edge computing are making data acquisition, sharing, and analysis simpler
and smarter for a new generation of workers. The transformation to continuous monitoring means fewer shutdowns for
manual scrutiny or unplanned repairs.

BHGE’s comprehensive digital inspection portfolio gives clients unmatched value to help them improve efficiency and asset
availability, reduce performance variability, and increase safety.

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 The Future of Inspections:
Technologies Converge to Transform Asset Integrity Management

CHAPTER 2: CLOUD COMPUTING TO DEMOCRATIZE INSPECTION DATA

Growing Reliability of Cloud Solutions

Traditional inspections are bogged down by the time it takes to collect and organize raw data, search it for critical
indicators, and then generate reports. Field technicians may have to perform follow-ups or seek expert guidance for
complex processes. Digital technologies are a remedy, but some industrial users have been skeptical about the reliability
and security of wireless solutions. Reliability and network security have improved with the introduction of new global
wireless standards, including WirelessHART, LR-WPAN – IEEE 802.15.4e, 6LoWPAN, ZigBee, Bluetooth Low Energy, and
other cellular and WAN standards. These bolster user confidence in wireless solutions. The technology convergence of
Wi-Fi with global positioning system (GPS), geographic information system (GIS), radio frequency identification (RFID),
and mapping technologies is having a significant impact on mobility for asset tracking, monitoring, and inspection. Also, the
advent of very small sensors that can be non-intrusively installed on an asset and measure critical parameters opens up the
possibility of monitoring a wide variety of equipment that was previously not being monitored.

Cloud Enables Seamless and Improved Digital Inspection

Cloud computing has made data sharing seamless for enterprises across a variety of platforms, such as servers, desktop
PCs, mobile devices, and machines. A 2017 Frost & Sullivan study of ICT spending predicts that the market for cloud-based
platforms in the oil & gas industry is expected to be worth $6 billion by 2025. Over the last four years, demand for industrial
cloud solutions has doubled,6 largely because the cloud enables instantaneous access to field data. Global collaboration is
now possible among technicians, inspection experts, industry managers, and even original equipment manufacturers.

CASE IN POINT
A California-based oil company, for example, uses an APM platform to manage its fleet of rotating equipment
in facilities throughout the United States. It uses base-level hardware to acquire data and transfer it to the
cloud so support engineers based in centers of excellence can analyze it to determine enterprise-wide asset
optimization strategies.

Web-based interfaces and mobile apps allow access to APM data from nearly anywhere. Managers can receive critical alerts
via mobile devices instantly, and technicians can receive guidance for maintenance instantly. As solution providers transition
from selling products to selling performance through value-based contracts, data is the biggest driver of profitability.

CASE IN POINT
A leading gas producer in the Middle East has a series of compressor trains in its facility and wanted to
reduce maintenance costs and risk exposure. It signed a long-term contract with GE that pays a bonus based
on the performance achieved from baseline measurements.

Comprehensive analytical solutions cannot exist without the elasticity offered by the cloud, as shown in exhibit 4. Data
for multiple variables is needed to create and fully leverage equipment process models or first-principle models to achieve
contracted efficiency levels. BHGE takes responsibility for consistent and reliable performance of entire systems. The risks of
this strategy are high, but so is the reward.

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 The Future of Inspections:
Technologies Converge to Transform Asset Integrity Management

Exhibit 4: Cloud Forms a Crucial Enabler and an Integral Part of Digital Inspection

Gateway & Cloud User

Edge
Connectivity Platform Applications

Physical objects that help Networks and devices Platform that helps store, Human intervention
gather information that help translate data manage, and analyze data interface
and connect

Sensors End-user
applications
Asset
Data storage performance
Connectivity management

Integration with
Machines business applications

Data processing
Data analytics and management
Devices Dashboards

Security layer

Source: Frost & Sullivan

Benefits of Cloud Computing in Inspections

• Flexibility to upgrade or downgrade cloud capacity and subscriptions;
• 24/7 data accessibility and seamless communication;
• Remote plant supervision;
• Centralized, virtual data storage that eliminates the cost of on-site servers;
• Edge connectivity and analytics;
• Real-time analytics and data visualization; and
• New business models that reduce total cost of ownership. Companies no longer have to own inspection equipment;
instead, they can hire a service provider that offers one of the following service-based business models:
»» Zero-cost inspection, in which hardware is provided at no cost; the provider is contracted to ensure asset
uptime for a defined period.

»» Inspection as a service, in which risk is shared between customer and provider. The provider is paid based on
the quality of outcomes.

»» Gain-based inspection, in which the provider is paid based on improvements from a defined baseline.

The BHGE InspectionWorks platform leverages cloud computing. InspectionWorks Insight allows field technicians
to instantly upload inspection data to a secure cloud and includes tools for maintenance engineers to easily organize,
search, and analyze it and create reports. Cloud-based inspection can have a significant financial impact: in the oil & gas
industry, an uptime improvement of 1% could save as much as $7 billion per year.6

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 The Future of Inspections:
Technologies Converge to Transform Asset Integrity Management

CHAPTER 3: REAL-TIME, ONLINE CORROSION MONITORING YIELDS BETTER

RESULTS

Importance of Corrosion Prevention Best Practices

According to the 2016 International Measures of Prevention, Application and Economics of Corrosion Technology
(IMPACT) study by NACE International, in 2013 corrosion-related failure, downtime, repair, and maintenance was
estimated to cost $2.5 trillion globally. This was approximately 3.4% of the global GDP. Frost & Sullivan estimated
that, in the oil & gas industry alone, annual corrosion-related costs total at least $200 billion. Frost & Sullivan
research found that oil well operators spend almost 25% of their operational expenditure (OPEX) budgets on corrosion
inhibitors. The oil & gas industry has realized that periodic corrosion testing is not effective: assets fail faster than what
testing can identify. Monitoring is now considered the best option. The NACE International study found that implementing
corrosion prevention best practices could save 15-35% of the cost of corrosion-related repair and maintenance.

Crude contaminants such as hydrogen sulfide, hydrochloric acid, carbon dioxide, water, and sulfur cause corrosion in
upstream and downstream facilities. Frost & Sullivan found that, of the approximately 650 oil refineries in the world, about
400 have the scale to deploy a corrosion monitoring solution, but only 50% of them currently do;3 most of these only
monitor very critical assets.

Improvements in Sensor Technology Drive Real-time Monitoring

Sensing and monitoring solutions have matured and are much more affordable than they were five years ago. Sensor
technology has significantly improved; electronics miniaturization allows installation in even the tightest spaces. API (the
American Petroleum Institute) has helped drive the installation of monitoring solutions through recommended practices
such as API RP 580 and 581 for risk-based inspection and technology and API RP 1176 for assessment and management of
pipeline cracking.

CASE IN POINT
One of the largest refineries in the world installed connected sensors in the crude process streams and
vacuum unit furnace outlets. The refinery has been able to correlate this data with crude flow performance
data to arrive at a reliable metal loss model that has helped it manage crude blends and develop corrosion
management strategies.

Installed sensing is poised to be particularly impactful in North American refineries, where corrosion is a growing
problem because of the processing of different crude blends. Harsh environments can affect reliability. One of the major
challenges for permanent ultrasonic sensors in the field for corrosion monitoring has been the supply of a couplant (such
as water or gel) to carry out measurements. New material technologies, however, have overcome this. BHGE’s Rightrax
PM ultrasonic sensors use BHGE’s proprietary SolGel™, eliminating the need for couplant, adhesives, or welding. The
battery-powered Rightrax PM contains hazardous area-certified components, is designed to connect to a wireless mote
manager, and has a footprint of only 1 square inch (25.4 square mm)—ideal for permanent corrosion monitoring.

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 The Future of Inspections:
Technologies Converge to Transform Asset Integrity Management

Significant Benefits of Predictive Corrosion Management

Sensorization and predictive analytics have changed asset management from reactive to proactive. These technologies add
immense value to corrosion monitoring systems, as shown in exhibit 5.7

Exhibit 5: Plant Asset Management Strategies

Reactive Preventive Predictive/Proactive

• Maintenance on failure
• Planned maintenance as per
• Maintenance based on asset health
• High risk of unplanned schedule
and its condition
downtime
• Savings of 12 - 18% over
• Saving of 30 - 40% over reactive
• High pressure environment in reactive methods
case of asset breakdown • Cost saving of 8 - 12% over preventive
• Prevents major asset failures
by avoiding unnecessary
• Production losses and high maintenance
• Improves asset performance
lifecycle cost of asset
maintenance • Optimization of asset performance,
reliability, and life expectancy

Source: Frost & Sullivan

• Inspection costs decrease by 30% to 40% due to proactive maintenance and the elimination of unexpected
downtime with better decisions derived from continuous data flow.7
• Safety improves because asset operators receive warnings about critical faults and can prevent catastrophic failures.
• Process efficiency and asset life improve through better knowledge of corrosion tolerance levels.
• Corrosion inhibitor costs decline because of more effective usage.

Refinery operators use corrosion monitoring data to make decisions about the grade of feedstock that can be run through
pipes. Lower-grade feedstock can improve profit margins but tends to be more corrosive. In upstream operations, the higher
the oil extraction flow rate, the quicker pipes corrode. According to a research by Frost & Sullivan, some oil well operators
that have installed permanent wall thickness monitoring sensors are seeing payback in three to six months3.

BHGE’s Predictive Corrosion Management is a cloud-based proactive maintenance solution built on Predix, GE’s industrial
operating system and Software Development Kit for IIoT applications. It remotely monitors interior pipe wall thickness
and assists in estimating the time remaining until corrosion progresses beyond permissible limits so that operators can plan
for maintenance downtime. The move from periodic inspection to continuous corrosion monitoring is inevitable because
of the technological advancements, affordability, and high return on investment.

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 The Future of Inspections:
Technologies Converge to Transform Asset Integrity Management

CHAPTER 4: MONITORING PIPELINE ASSET INTEGRITY

The network of pipelines for oil & gas transmission is vast and aging, making costly failures and leaks more likely. According
to the API-AOPL (Association of Oil Pipe Lines) Annual Liquids Pipeline Safety Excellence Performance Report & Strategic
Plan, liquid pipeline operators reported spending $2.2 billion on system evaluation, inspection, and maintenance in 2014.
Also, recent oil spills have had a tremendous financial impact on the companies involved, affected their reputation,
and created dangerous and toxic conditions for the environment and people in the areas affected. A 2016 oil spill in
Saskatchewan that was left undetected for two days resulted in negative effects to the water supply for more than 70,000
people in the area and the operator spent in excess of $100 million in clean-up activities.

“ As an operator, we are always looking for better ways of creating a database for
organizing information for audit purposes.”
– Pipeline integrity manager, a leading North American energy distribution company

API’s Focus on Pipeline Leak Detection

API offers several recommended practices for pipeline leak detection systems and safety. API RP 1130, Computational Pipeline
Monitoring for Liquids, divides leak detection into internal systems that monitor flow, pressure, or fluid temperature, and
external systems that employ infrared radiometers or thermal cameras, vapor sensors, acoustic microphones, or fiber optic
cables. Ultimately, real-time monitoring is an integral function when it comes to ensuring asset integrity. Advancements in
sensor and connectivity technologies have made real-time remote asset monitoring possible. Exhibit 6 shows how technology
is being used in risk assessment.

Exhibit 6: Data Fusion for Asset Risk Assessment

Other channels Remote Sensing Online Monitoring

of data gathering Surveillance Technologies
Field Inspection (Fiber Optic Sensors/ Ultrasonic
Transducers/Acoustic Transducers/
Unmanned Aerial Vehicles)
Data Storage
Intelligence
Installation Data Integrity Management

Environmental
Conditions
Decision Making Process
RISK ASSESSMENT
Traceability Data Data Analyzing
of Components Government Regulations

Company Regulations

Operator Data Chemical Data

Pool of Raw Data SCADA Maintenance Data Physical Data

Source: Frost & Sullivan

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 The Future of Inspections:
Technologies Converge to Transform Asset Integrity Management

Related API recommended practices include:

• API RP 1173, Pipeline Safety Management System, provides guidance in developing or maintaining a safety
management system. It covers leadership and management commitment, risk management, operational controls, and
safety assurance.
• API RP 1175, Leak Detection Program Management, provides a risk-based approach to managing a leak detection
program, including developing a strategy, selecting the appropriate system, and monitoring program performance.
• API RP 1176, Assessment and Management of Cracking in Pipelines, provides support to pipeline operators in
assessing and managing cracking defects, including selection of the most applicable assessment method considering
the pipeline condition and the cracking features.

“ From a risk management perspective, it is important to prove you have a high-

quality product and system. And companies want to see a strong safety record.”
– Production manager, a leading integrated oil & gas company

Software Integration Platform for Asset Integrity Management

A minor failure or leak in a remote pipeline can go undetected; the multiplication of small issues can result in a catastrophic
failure. A pipeline failure at a river crossing or in a heavily populated area, a location prone to earthquakes, or a sensitive
facility could pose a significant threat to life, property, and the environment.

Fiber optic sensors are ideal for pipelines to detect leaks, temperature, vibration, and strain in real time. They can be laid
for more than 30 miles without data loss and are not affected by electrical noise or harsh environments. Predictive analysis
using data from multiple sources provides better quality insights and is increasingly ensuring asset integrity, and operators
can achieve notable cost savings by preventing failures. Exhibit 7 demonstrates the technologies that a software integration
platform can link.

Exhibit 7: Software Integration Platform for Digital Inspection

Instrumentation
NDT Inspection
and Monitoring
Technologies
Technologies
• Ultrasonic • Sensors (Fiber Optic Sensors,
• Radiography Acoustic Transducers, Ultrasonic
• Computed Tomography Transducers, etc.)
• Eddy Current • Wireless Connectivity
• Visual Inspection • Cloud
• Others Software • Data Analytics
Integration
Platform

Control
Technologies
• Supervisory Control and Data Acquisition
• Programmable Logic Controllers
• Human Machine Interface
Source: Frost & Sullivan

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 The Future of Inspections:
Technologies Converge to Transform Asset Integrity Management

“ We want the latest technology to prevent failures, and then once the failures
are discovered before they happen, we want them to be repaired without
disrupting the function of the asset.”
– Maintenance manager, a leading integrated oil & gas company

BHGE’s Vigilant is a digital pipeline monitoring software solution consisting of a Predix cloud-based application combined with
Hifi Engineering’s fiber optic sensors for temperature, strain, and acoustics. One of the highest costs a pipeline operator can
incur is a shutdown due to a suspected leak. In most cases, pipeline operators have a few minutes from the time of an alarm
to assess whether a shutdown is necessary. Vigilant provides advanced visualization, alarms, and notifications at the control
room to quickly identify failures and critical problems to help operators quickly make decisions. A key feature of the Vigilant
software is data fusion algorithms that combine information from different sensor types to derive high-quality insights that
reduce false positives, prioritize preventive actions, and improve response time.

Advanced sensors, connectivity, and software technology underpin digital inspection to enable monitoring that ensures
pipeline asset integrity in remote, high-consequence locations. This can translate into significant cost savings for pipeline
operators by preventing equipment downtime and catastrophic failures.

LAST WORD: DIGITAL INSPECTION REVOLUTIONIZES THE ASSET INTEGRITY

MONITORING AND APM LANDSCAPE
By leveraging the IIoT ecosystem, digital inspection is changing how businesses monitor and manage asset integrity and
performance, as shown in exhibit 8.

Exhibit 8: Changing Landscape of Asset Integrity and Performance Management

Attributes 2017  2020

User Attitude Unavoidable Expenses Strategic Business Function

Technology Complex, Standalone Integrated, Collaborative

Widespread Coverage across Asset

Asset Coverage Limited to Critical Assets
Classes
Limited to Condition Predictive/Prescriptive Insights for
Adoption Level
Monitoring Performance Optimization

Strategies Reactive and Preventive Predictive and Prescriptive

Fault Detection and Failure

Analysis Level Root Cause Analysis and Diagnostics
Analysis
Oil & Gas, Power, and Widespread Acceptance Across Industry
Industry Acceptance
Aerospace Segments

Source: Frost & Sullivan

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 The Future of Inspections:
Technologies Converge to Transform Asset Integrity Management

Digital inspection solutions for asset integrity and performance are becoming a necessity, and operators are witnessing
game-changing, tangible benefits from the technology. In the next two to three years, a major shift will disrupt the inspection
landscape. Anchored by predictive and prescriptive maintenance strategies, integrated and collaborative technology will
be employed to monitor and manage a variety of asset classes and transform operational and business decisions about
performance and safety.

Companies of all sizes are ramping up digitization to build smarter, faster, and more responsive asset protection strategies,
and are broadening their focus from capital expenditure to total (capital and life cycle operating) expenditure. In short, they
are considering the life cycle costs of entire systems, as illustrated in exhibit 9.

Exhibit 9: Integrated Operations and Maintenance

Integrated Operations
and Maintenance

Software
Services Monitoring Inspection
Analytics

Source: Frost & Sullivan

While industries are making progress, operators can better manage asset integrity and performance by aligning with an
experienced and dedicated solution provider. BHGE is making significant investments in applying new NDT technologies
to inspection domain, connecting NDT technologies to cloud computing resources and applications, and developing next-
generation predictive analytics.

REFERENCE
1. GE Reports—Minds of Giant Subsea Machines (https://gereports.ca/software-can-read-minds-giant-subsea-machines)
2. EcoWatch—220 ‘Significant’ Pipeline Spills Already This Year Exposes Troubling Safety Record (https://www.ecowatch.com/pipeline-spills-2061960029.html)
3. Frost & Sullivan—Analysis of the Global Corrosion Monitoring Market (https://www.frost.com/mc2b)
4. GE Inspection Technologies—Mentor: The Right Tool for the Job (https://geinspectiontechnologies.wordpress.com/)
5. Oil & Gas Financial Journal—Opportunity in Aging Assets (http://www.ogfj.com/articles/print/volume-13/issue-3/features/opportunity-in-aging-assets.html)
6. Frost & Sullivan—Manufacturing in the Cloud (http://www.frost.com/mcae)
7. Frost & Sullivan—Convergence in the Plant Asset Management (PAM) Market (http://www.frost.com/q296124315)

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