Specially trained dogs are able to smell corrosion under insulation coatings on gas pipelines with a high degree of precision, a research project has found. This means that such canine detectives could find a role in maintenance work at petroleum processing plants and receiving terminals.

The dogs would not be deployed in the actual plant, but used to sniff at samples taken from a pipeline and brought to the laboratory.

“The results are very good, and we see that this represents a reliable and cost-effective approach,” says Thorbjørn Svendsen, executive vice president for technology at Gassco.

“Using dogs to identify areas to be stripped of insulation for a general check won’t eliminate the need for visual inspection, but offers an important aid to setting the right priorities.”

Tags: Gassco