Ovex Energy Intelligent Pigging Services

We offer a complete range of services for high resolution and quality defect identification using Magnetic Flux Leakage (MFL) and Ultrasonic Technology.

We partner with world leaders in pig technology to supply and run intelligent pigging tools for pipeline verification. We retrieve, analyse and report on the pipeline data and provide procedures for repair works where required.

Oursystem contains a horizontally placed transducer contained within the center body of the pig. The transducer sends it sound wave forward where it hits a 45° rotating mirror which then directs the sound wave perpendicular on to the pipe wall. From the inner pipe wall the next signal will travel to the outer pipe wall. Every time the signal hits a surface it will bounce back the same way it came allowing the computer to calculate the time of travel. This time of travel is then converted to distance and measurement exists.

Ultrasonic Testing is not suitable for very thin pipe wall thickness but for all practical purposes this is not relevant for the type of pipelines typically being inspected in the upstream, midstream and downstream oil and gas industries. UT tools work well with the vast majority of pipe wall thicknesses found in the oil and gas industry.

As the technique requires a liquid coolant through which the pulse can travel there must be a liquid in the pipeline although by using batching techniques where a liquid slug is sealed between 2 high sealing pigs it is possible to inspect gas pipelines with UT intelligent pigs.

We pride ourselves in our Intelligent Pigging service because of its ability to provide a highly accurate value for local wall thickness whilst being lightweight, small and easy to mobilize. With such high accuracy ultrasonic tools can be used for comparing actual wall thickness with nominal wall thickness, verifying previous inspections, fitness for service evaluations and baseline surveys.