Oil and natural gas are still the world’s leading energy sources with a market value larger than valuable raw material markets combined. An enormous number of pipeline networks across the globe are used to transport these energy resources from exploration and production sites to consumers through extreme geological and hazardous environments. Since these modes of resource transportation are of high value, leakages, pressure loss, faults in structural integrity, as well as illegal tapping can be detrimental to the environment, in the process incurring huge losses for the respective stakeholders as well.

Even with advanced, evolving and cutting-edge technological solutions, pipeline environments require intelligent and unconventional use of pipeline management and inspection approaches. However, new techniques sometimes have major limitations when put into practice. Existing underground pipeline systems are not always designed to be used with the newest techniques and having them adapt to the latest technology requires huge investments, running into billions of dollars.

Due to these technical limitations, as well as high environmental and economic threats, the pipeline leak detection market has raised its demand for a more effective approach to identify leaks in an economic, fast and efficient way.

Unlike high-end technology, simple, conventional methods such as the use of Sniffer Dogs can prove to be the cost-effective, easy-to-deploy and customised offering for pipeline leak detection. Trained sniffing dogs have a natural capability to detect specific smells. The sensitive nose of sniffing dogs, in combination with a lengthy and thorough training journey, makes it possible to search for leaks in underground pipelines.