In North Dakota, a farmer’s nose led him to discover one the largest inland oil pipeline accidents in the United States. The New York Times reports that the farmer, Steven Jensen, followed the smell of crude oil and discovered a six-inch spurt of oil. Although state officials said the spill from the leaking pipeline posed no immediate environmental risk, the incident is getting a lot of press because of the proposed Keystone XL pipeline that will cross the country bringing crude oil from Canada to the Gulf Coast.
In the NY Times article, officials from Tesoro Logistics acknowledged their remote monitoring of the pipeline’s pressure “was not enough.” Adding WIN-911 to Tesoro’s or other pipeline companies’ SCADA software would allow the company to be notified of issues, such as a change in pressure, as soon as they are detected.
Thanks to WIN-911’s intelligent decision matrix, should a situation be detected, it will be escalated to the appropriate personnel and not ignored. Using the WIN-911 mobile app, responsible parties can communicate with each other and manage the alert via WIN-911. Notifications can be reassigned to the closest personnel and emergency response people kept in the loop, should an emergency occur. Alerts can also be received via a desktop system, SMS/Text, mobile devices or phone lines, so a fast response to a leak detection can be mobilized.
By keeping a constant watch on your system, WIN-911 eliminates the need to spread your valuable field personnel over remote areas. With WIN-911 sounding the alert, field staff can concentrate on emerging issues, maintenance and inspections and be deployed where and when they are most needed.
WIN-911 serves the top petroleum companies including five of the top ten Fortune 500. Give us a call to see what WIN-911 can do to alert you to pipeline issues before you end up in the national news.
