Technology

How do real-time monitoring technologies enhance operational safety, asset reliability and environment protection, particularly for large and remote assets such as pipelines?

In an exclusive interview with Oil Review Middle East, Denis Strazding, managing director of Petrofibre Arabia, discusses the company’s role in providing advanced distributed fibre optic monitoring solutions for the oil and gas, energy, and critical infrastructure sectors in Saudi Arabia. He outlines the company's main technologies, such as distributed acoustic and distributed temperature sensing, and how they provide real-time full asset protection, however large or remote the asset may be, enabling precise leak detection and security breach localisation.

“On thousands of kilometres of pipeline, we can pinpoint to one metre exactly where a leak is currently developing, so our partners can deploy their maintenance team with precision to immediately neutralise the leak and prevent the situation deteriorating further,” he explains.

He highlights Petrofibre's commitment to localisation, Saudisation, and local supplier engagement in line with Saudi Vision 2030, noting that 90% of materials are sourced in the Kingdom, important in the current volatile environment.

“The market is full of opportunity,” he says, discussing business prospects.

Strazding concludes by underlining the company’s commitment to innovation and sharing his insights on the potential for future developments in fibre optic sensing. 

"This technology will start opening new doors, and it will become more accurate and sensitive. We'll see new functionalities such as corrosion monitoring.

“I believe the future holds many interesting developments for us, and it is a priority to be at the forefront of these developments, pushing the boundaries of reality,” he says.

Watch the interview here: https://oilreviewmiddleeast.com/adipec-videos/exclusive-interview-with-petrofibre-arabia

The Sigma Enterprises team with the Scout 137 drone. (Image source: ScoutDI)

ScoutDI, the Norwegian manufacturer of the Scout 137 confined space inspection drone system, has entered a new partnership with Sigma Enterprises, a UAE-based provider of industrial products and solutions, boosting access to safe, data-driven confined space inspection across the United Arab Emirates and the wider MENA region

Inspecting tanks, flare stacks, confined spaces and other hazardous and hard-to-access assets remains a major challenge for the oil and gas industry. Increasingly, operators in the MENA region are deploying drone technology for inspections, thereby eliminating the risk to personnel, as well as saving time and costs compared to traditional inspections. Equipped with LiDAR, various sensors, thermal cameras, and high-resolution imaging, drones today can provide accurate and detailed real-time data, precisely pinpointing any threats to asset integrity. Capabilities continue to advance with technology advancements, with the integration of AI and data analytics facilitating real-time data processing and analysis. A recent report projects the drones for oil and gas market to grow from US$1,473.5 mn in 2025 to US$16,755 mn by 2035, recording a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 27.5% during this period.

Faster, safer, better inspections

Through the new partnership, Sigma Enterprises brings deep regional presence and technical service capability to industrial clients who need to inspect tanks, vessels and other confined assets without sending people into hazardous spaces. Combined with the Scout 137 drone system, this means faster inspections, better data, and a safer working day for inspection teams across the region's energy, petrochemical and maritime sectors.

The Scout 137 is a tethered drone built for GPS-denied confined spaces. It carries its own lighting, a 4K zoom camera and survey-grade 3D LiDAR, with an optional ultrasonic thickness measurement payload, and it captures every inspection as a positioned, repeatable record in the cloud-based Scout Portal. Because each flight follows a consistent, traceable path, asset owners can compare inspections over time and move toward genuine condition trending rather than one-off snapshots.

“The Middle East is one of the most important regions for industrial inspection, and Sigma Enterprises gives us a strong local partner with the reach and technical depth our customers expect,” said Håvard Eilertsen, chief commercial officer at ScoutDI. “Together we can help the region's asset owners inspect more safely and turn every flight into reliable, comparable data.”

“Adding the Scout 137 to our portfolio lets us offer clients a proven, safer alternative to manual confined space entry,” said a spokesperson for Sigma Enterprises. “It is a natural fit with our mission to bring advanced, reliable technology to industry across the region.”

Both companies will support asset owners across the UAE and MENA with inspection technology that reduces risk, improves data quality and supports long-term asset integrity.

ADNOC is combining the expertise of its people, deep operational experience, cross-functional collaboration and advanced technologies to accelerate well delivery. (Image source: Adobe Stock)

ADNOC has reported that it has achieved a new well delivery performance standard, routinely drilling well sections exceeding one mile in length within a single day in some of the UAE’s most complex carbonate rocks, including 6,428 feet drilled in 24 hours

The achievement reflects ADNOC’s commitment to operational excellence and its ability to combine the expertise of its people, deep operational experience, cross-functional collaboration and advanced technologies to accelerate well delivery, bringing energy online faster and supporting capacity growth more efficiently, the company says.

This is grist to the mill as the UAE looks to ratchet up oil production to 5mn bpd by 2027 and accelerate its integrated global gas growth strategy, as illustrated by the recent US$6.2bn (AED22.6bn) final investment decision (FID) to develop the Umm Shaif Gas Cap in the Umm Shaif and Nasr offshore concession, Abu Dhabi. Further increases in oil production could be on the cards following the UAE’s exit from OPEC, which leaves it untrammelled by OPEC production quotas.

Improving performance

Playing a critical role in ADNOC’s transformation is its Real-Time Intelligence Centre (RTIC), where engineers, operational specialists and subsurface experts work together to optimise performance, support faster, smarter decision-making and apply lessons learned from one well to the next, leveraging live data, advanced analytics and frontline experience. Every well generates thousands of data points and valuable operational insights. By combining these insights with the expertise of its people and advanced digital capabilities, ADNOC is continuously improving performance, accelerating learning and unlocking greater operational efficiencies, while maintaining the highest standards of safety and environment protection.

Dr. Ahmed Mohamed Alebri, CEO of ADNOC Onshore, said, “Technology, data and collaboration are helping us continuously improve performance across our operations. By combining ADNOC Onshore’s deep understanding of our reservoirs with ADNOC Drilling’s world-class capabilities, we are unlocking greater value from every well, accelerating the delivery of production capacity and bringing energy to market more efficiently in support of ADNOC’s growth ambitions.

Abdulla Ateya Al Messabi, CEO of ADNOC Drilling, added, “Every well teaches the next. Every operation generates new insights that help improve the one that follows. By combining AI, real-time intelligence and decades of operational experience, we are creating a continuous improvement engine that is transforming performance across our business. The result is safer operations, smarter execution, faster well delivery and more value from every well as we help power the UAE’s energy future.”

ADNOC Drilling, which has just reported record 1H revenue and profits, acknowledges its technology-led growth strategy and automation-led productivity among the factors behind its success. It recently deployed the first AI-enabled, fully automated walking island rig, which combines advanced automation, digital systems and hybrid power capability, improving utilisation and reducing delivery times and unit costs. Together with five additional planned island rigs, it is expected to support future offshore expansion, revenue growth and value creation.

Embedding AI throughout the value chain

These developments all feed into the advancement of ADNOC’s ambition to become the world’s most AI-enabled company, as it works to embed AI right across its value chain. Critical to this has been the development and deployment of ENERGYai, in collaboration with G42, IAQ and Microsoft, a first-of-its-kind agentic AI solution, which is being rolled out across all ADNOC’s upstream assets. Built on 70 years of proprietary data and knowledge, it combines large language model (LLM) technology with cutting-edge agentic AI, which is trained for specific workflows across ADNOC’s upstream value chain. It brings a new level of efficiency and precision to critical tasks, from seismic analysis to geological modelling and real-time process monitoring, reducing time for essential business processes from months to days, minimising cost, and reducing emissions in the process. The agents harness state- of-the-art machine learning and predictive analytics, improving decision-making and operational efficiency.

The TESCOM RC-X motorised injection rate control valve. (Image source: Emerson)

Emerson has launched the TESCOM RC-X motorised injection rate control valve, which helps offshore refineries achieve accurate, repeatable chemical injection, reducing chemical waste, downtime and overall operating costs

Flow assurance is critical for offshore production facilities, especially as the industry moves to deeper water, longer tiebacks, deeper wells and higher temperature and pressure reservoirs, where conditions such as hydration, corrosion or the buildup of wax, asphaltene, scale and emulsion can restrict flow.

Chemical treatment can help mitigate these blockages, but there are dangers with over or under injection of chemicals. Over injection increases chemical consumption and resulting costs as well as additional field trips to replenish chemical storage tanks. It can also adversely impact downstream processing or treatment programmes and result in contamination penalties. Under injection can be ineffective, risking mechanical integrity and production output.

“Proper chemical dosing in deepwater and high-pressure/high-temperature refining environments can prevent blockages and flow instability, helping to ensure optimum fluid behaviour, protect asset integrity and stimulate production,” said Julia Villa, product marketing manager with Emerson´s fluid and motion control business, noting the TESCOM RC-X control valves enable accurate dosing that reduces downtime and chemical waste associated with over injection.

The value is specifically designed to work with Micro Motion Coriolis flow meters in offshore chemical injection processes, which deliver reliable flow measurement for liquids, gas or slurries.

Product features

• Precise flow assurance - With a short-stroke design (less than 1/8 of an inch), TESCOM RC-X control valves are accurate up to 15,000 pounds per square inch (psi) and offer ultra-low flow rates of 0.02-500 liters per hour and repeatable function with 4-20 milliampere (mA) control
• Electric actuation eliminates air requirements, an advantage when compressed air is unavailable or unreliable.
• Available in medium- and high-pressure models
• Lightweight and compact
• Fewer moving parts than comparable products, reducing risk of mechanical failure over time, performing more consistently and requiring less maintenance.
• Explosion-proof, waterproof (IP67-rated) and corrosion resistant (compliant to NACE MR0175).