Damage to oil and gas pipelines and other energy infrastructure can be tracked in near real-time from space, using new heat-sensing images.
The heat from damaged or leaking pipelines is detected and captured with infrared thermal imagery at high resolution from low-earth orbit satellites. This could be a flare that would lead to a bright light, or a break in the pipeline, or puddles of oil from a leak known as a seep.
The imagery is now being distributed by Saudi Arabia's first national Earth observation data platform, Neo Space Group's UP-42.
Scott Herman, chief technical officer for SatVu, the British start-up operating the satellites, said analysis of the heat signature can help better understand what is happening with a high level of detail – enough to see inside pipes and buildings.
“It would show up as a pretty bright flare or difference in temperature than what you would expect in a pipeline,” Mr Herman told The National. “We can watch for [seeps] as well because they will have a different heat signature than the surrounding terrain.
“You would normally see a consistent temperature running along the entire pipeline. If you see a break, then that’s going to tell you there is something going wrong at that particular facility.”
Saudi Arabia's Aramco is studying an expansion of the East-West pipeline and the establishment of new export routes to bypass a maritime blockade by Yemen's Houthi rebels. The pipeline runs across Saudi Arabia to the Red Sea and has been key to circumventing the Iranian blockade of the Strait of Hormuz.
Increased activity on the East-West pipeline is visible through infrared images, as is the low rate of oil tankers leaving the Gulf, Mr Herman said.
Energy and industrial facilities in the Gulf have been targeted frequently by Iran during the US-Iran war. In April, a pumping station of the East-West oil pipeline was hit in a drone attack.
Some knock-on effects of war are difficult to assess on the ground. Some facilities may temporarily shut or reduce operations to mitigate the risk of attack. Oil tankers may be anchored in the Gulf for longer than expected.
High-resolution thermal imagery can provide an accurate and “transparent” insight into this, Mr Herman said. “It means you can go into an energy facility and see detail at a subcomponent or subassembly level and really identify the pattern of activity.”
This is key for economic monitoring of the energy sector in the Gulf. “If you're an energy trader you’ll want to know which facilities are on and what level of production capacity are they running at,” he said. “What's happening to their operations? That's a huge question for energy traders.”
SatVu’s infrared cameras are 30 times more powerful than those of Nasa’s Landsat and the European Space Agency’s Copernicus programmes, which have been used for scientific research purposes. This allows SatVu to detect areas of heat from inside spaces as small as a car.
It launched its latest satellite, HotSat-3, in April and it began publishing its first images two months later.
The US is thought to have satellites with powerful thermal imagery that is shared only within other members of the so-called Five Eyes alliance – the UK, Australia, Canada and New Zealand. But SatVu's new commercially available images can be used to increase intelligence-sharing with allies in the Middle East without releasing sensitive information.
Existing images captured by SatVu and shared with The National include one of the Saudi Aramco refinery in Jazan, which was targeted by the Iran-backed Houthis, and the Yasref refinery in Yanbu Industrial City, Madinah province, which was the subject of two drone attacks last week.
The images are now being resold through Saudi Arabia’s Neo Space Group and the geospatial data platform UP-42. Though the platforms will reach customers worldwide, there will be particular focus on those from the Gulf region.
Mr Herman said: “We're seeing both the actual damage and the changes in operating mode, either because the facilities can’t get the oil or the LNG [liquefied natural gas] out of the Gulf, or because they’re worried about being hit and having that cause more damage. So things shut down just in case.
“We're seeing impacts to facilities on both sides of the conflict, across all the infrastructure,” he added. “We're seeing shutdowns and lower production in facilities all throughout the region.”
The images can also be used to assess the environmental impact, of urban or industrial environment.
One thermal image of the Saudi capital, Riyadh, by night shows how the city’s road network stores and radiates heat, highlighting the challenges faced by rapidly growing cities in hotter climates.
Such images can provide urban planners with data by which to measure the effectiveness of existing cooling strategies and whether buildings are in compliance with local regulations.
“We're looking for urban heat islands and how much residual heat is being caused by impervious surfaces like pavements, rooftops, or which building may be leaking more air conditioning than it should,” Mr Herman said.
“Are there opportunities for energy efficiency, and how does tree cover support cooling the city down? An urban planner might look at that and make some decisions on better ways to do this in the future,” he added.
