SmartBall Case Study

May 27th 2008

Plains Midstream Canada North Ferrier Lateral

Plains Midstream selected SmartBall ahead of other
technologies for their pipeline leak detection program
because of its ease of deployment and the ability to
detect and locate leaks down to a very small size.
They requested a demonstration of the balls
capabilities in one of their operational crude oil
pipelines.
An 8-inch lateral line in Alberta, Canada was selected.
The low flow of the line made this a challenging
project for an in-line tool. Two very small artificial
leaks of 0.3gals/min and 0.03gals/min were created
using a 2-inch offtake fitted with a needle valve for
accurate flow control. The released oil was captured
in a graduated vessel for safe disposal. A series of 5
small releases were also made with the ball still in the
launcher for calibration purposes.
Both artificial leaks were clearly visible in the acoustic data. Considering the
low pressure and low flow in the pipeline, the
results were impressive. The magnitude of the
acoustic response for the test leaks and the
calibration leaks demonstrated that leaks as
small as 0.0025gals/min (less than 1 barrel per
week!) would be detectable.
On the basis of this trail, Plains Marketing
progressed to a series of commercial inspections.

Pure Technologies Ltd

705 11th Ave SW, Calgary, AB, T2R 0E3, Canada
Tel: 1 800 537 2806 / (403) 266 6794
info@soundprint.com
www.puretechnologiesltd.com