How IoT Sensors Monitor Underground Oil & Gas Pipelines in Real Time

A sudden roar and a towering blaze erupted from a gas pipeline along Jalan Putra Harmoni shattered the early morning calm of the second Syawal (1 April 2025) in Putra Heights, Malaysia. Residents were jolted by a powerful blast, followed by tremors strong enough to rattle windows and set off car alarms. Some thought it was an earthquake and some thought an airplane crashed from the sky. Within minutes, flames shot high into the sky, visible from several kilometres away.

Emergency teams arrived swiftly, and firefighting efforts continued through the morning. The exact cause of the explosion is still under investigation, with authorities working to determine what triggered the blast.

Incidents like this highlight the need for early warning systems. With the right technology—such as IoT sensors and AI-powered monitoring—abnormal pressure drops, vibrations, or gas leaks can be detected in real time, allowing operators to act before disaster strikes. While the damage has already been done in Putra Heights, it raises an urgent question: Are we doing enough to monitor the pipelines beneath our cities?

Using IoT to Monitor underground oil and gas pipelines

Using IoT to monitor underground oil and gas pipelines is a practical way to improve safety, prevent leaks, and detect issues early. Here’s a breakdown of how this is done (an example):

1. Types of Sensors Used

To sense what’s happening underground, we typically bury or attach sensors along the pipeline that can detect:

Sensor Type	What It Detects
Pressure sensors	Sudden drops or spikes – may indicate a leak or blockage
Temperature sensors	Abnormal changes – could signal a leak or surrounding fire risk
Acoustic sensors	Sound waves from pipeline walls – leak noise has a signature pattern
Fibre optic sensors	Changes in light signals – used for intrusion detection, leak, or vibration
Gas sensors	Presence of leaked gas in the soil or air
Vibration sensors (Geophones)	External digging or tampering near the pipeline

2. IoT Architecture Overview

• Sensor Layer: Buried or clamped sensors gather data continuously.
• Gateway/Edge Layer: Devices collect data from multiple sensors, do basic processing, and send to the cloud.
• Communication Layer: Uses LoRaWAN, NB-IoT, 4G/5G, or even satellite if in remote areas.
• Cloud Layer: Data is sent to platforms like FAVORIOT, AWS IoT, or Azure IoT for visualisation, alerts, and analysis.
• Application Layer: Dashboards, mobile apps, or Telegram/WhatsApp alerts when issues are detected.

3. Use Cases

• Leak Detection: Immediate alerts when pressure drops or unusual gas is detected.
• Preventive Maintenance: Monitor wear and tear by tracking pressure trends.
• Intrusion Detection: Vibration or acoustic sensors detect illegal tapping or nearby digging.
• Corrosion Monitoring: Some solutions include electrochemical sensors to check metal degradation over time.

4. Smart Features with AI

• AI models can be trained to differentiate between real leaks and false alarms.
• Predictive maintenance algorithms flag pipelines at risk before failure occurs.

5. Challenges

• Powering the Sensors: Underground sensors need long battery life or energy harvesting.
• Connectivity: Remote or deep underground areas may have signal issues, which is where LoRaWAN repeaters or satellite gateways help.
• Sensor Durability: Must withstand pressure, humidity, temperature, and corrosion for long periods.

6. Real-World Example

Let’s say you’re monitoring a 500m pipeline section:

• Install pressure sensors every 100m.
• Use LoRa-based sensors to send data to a gateway at one end.
• Gateway pushes data to the FAVORIOT platform every 15 minutes.
• The dashboard shows live trends, and if a pressure drop occurs, it instantly sends a Telegram alert to the maintenance team.

IoT Architecture Diagram for Underground Oil & Gas Pipeline Monitoring

 [Sensors Underground]
  ├── Pressure Sensor
  ├── Temperature Sensor
  ├── Acoustic Sensor
  ├── Gas Detector
  └── Vibration Sensor (Geophone)
          ↓
     [LoRa/NB-IoT]
          ↓
   [Edge Gateway Device]
   └── Does basic processing
   └── Aggregates sensor data
   └── Sends via 4G/5G/Satellite
          ↓
    [FAVORIOT IoT Platform]
   └── Real-time monitoring
   └── Data storage
   └── Anomaly detection
   └── Alert system (e.g. Telegram)
          ↓
     [Web Dashboard / Mobile App]

How-To Collect Sensor Data From Underground

Collecting sensor data from deep underground (especially in the context of pipelines) comes with some technical challenges—like signal interference, long distances, and power constraints. Both wireless and cabled methods are used, depending on depth, location, cost, and purpose. Here’s how each works:

1. Cabled (Wired) Method

When it’s used:

• When you need reliable, high-speed data transfer
• For long-term permanent installations
• In areas with difficult wireless connectivity (deep, metallic, rocky terrain)

How it works:

• Fibre Optic Cables: For long-distance and high-speed data. Also used for Distributed Acoustic Sensing (DAS) or Temperature Sensing (DTS).
• Coaxial/Ethernet Cables: For shallower sensors or where fibre is too costly.
• Power-over-Ethernet (PoE): Can supply power and data to shallow sensors at the same time.

Example:

A buried oil pipeline has a fibre optic cable running along it, acting as a “nerve” to sense vibrations, temperature changes, or tampering in real time.

2. Wireless Method

When it’s used:

• Where laying cables is too expensive or impractical
• For temporary installations or in remote areas
• When sensors are battery- or solar-powered

How it works:

• Wireless Sensor Nodes (WSNs) are installed underground (shallow depth or near manholes).
• They use low-power wide-area networks (LPWANs) like:
  • LoRa / LoRaWAN: Long range, low data rate. Good for pipelines.
  • NB-IoT: Uses existing cellular towers. Good for urban settings.
  • 433 MHz / 868 MHz: Short-range custom solutions.

❗But here’s the catch: RF signals don’t travel well through soil, especially wet or dense soil. So…

Workaround:

• Buried-to-surface relay nodes: Underground sensors send short-range signals to a nearby surface unit, which wirelessly sends data to the cloud.
• Repeaters: These extend the range where direct transmission isn’t possible.

Hybrid System (Best of Both Worlds)

A lot of real-world systems use both methods:

• Cabled power + wireless data
• Wired sensors with gateways above ground
• Wired backbone (like fibre) with wireless sensor clusters

Practical Setup (Example)

For a deep pipeline under a remote area:

• Pressure & gas sensors every 100m, buried with the pipe.
• Each sensor is connected to a local edge node via cable.
• Edge node uses solar power and sends data via LoRa to a gateway on the surface.
• Gateway transmits to the FAVORIOT platform over 4G.

References and Sources

1. Research Articles & Industry Reports
   • Pipeline Leak Detection Handbook by Morgan Henrie – explains sensor types and their use cases.
   • “IoT in Oil & Gas Industry” – MarketsandMarkets report 2023.
   • Research paper: “Application of IoT and Wireless Sensor Networks in Oil Pipeline Monitoring” (IEEE Access, 2021).
2. IoT Technology Providers
   • FAVORIOT Documentation – https://www.favoriot.com
   • Semtech (LoRa Technology) – Used for long-range low-power transmission.
   • Honeywell Process Solutions – Pipeline monitoring sensor technologies.
   • Libelium – Provides plug-and-play environmental and gas sensors suitable for underground monitoring.
3. Real Projects
   • Petrobras Brazil: Fiber optic sensors were deployed in deep pipelines for leak and intrusion detection.
   • BP & Shell: Use AI-driven pipeline monitoring platforms with IoT sensors.
   • Indian Oil Corporation: Uses LoRa-based IoT networks for real-time leak detection in remote areas.
4. Technical Standards
   • API 1130: American Petroleum Institute standard for computational pipeline monitoring.
   • ISO 13623: International standard for pipeline transportation systems.