Enhancing Reduction of Oil Pipeline Vandalization and Leakage Using Intelligent IoT Solutions

Oil pipeline leakage and vandalism significantly hinder economic growth, inflating fuel and consumable goods prices, which most heavily affects the poor. The primary cause is the lack of effective mechanisms to detect and address these issues promptly. Implementing IoT can mitigate this problem by reducing pipeline leaks and vandalism. This approach involves characterizing the delivery process based on fluid flow rate, pressure, and temperature, and developing an IoT-based fuzzy rule system to detect and reduce these incidents. Additionally, an IoT-based SIMULINK model is created to implement this technology during pipeline delivery, alongside an algorithm to prevent pipeline vandalization. An integrated SIMULINK model combines conventional and IoT-based technologies on the MATLAB platform. A program is also developed to detect pipeline leaks using IoT, with simulation results evaluated through predictive validation. Results indicate that the conventional oil pipeline temperature of 36°C, failing to meet the 37-38°C threshold, causes leaks. However, integrating IoT sensors stabilized the temperature to 37°C, ensuring free oil flow without leaks. The conventional pressure of 29 bar, below the 30.35 bar threshold, leads to leaks or vandalism, reducing financial stability. IoT integration detected and reported leaks, maintaining the required pressure. This approach showed a 4.7% improvement in pressure stabilization for leak prevention. The conventional oil flow rate of 2.5 miles/hour, below the 3-8 miles/hour threshold, caused leaks, while IoT integration achieved the necessary 3 miles/hour rate, showing a 20% improvement. The conventional volume of oil passing through was 14 m³, below the 15.82-337.4 m³ threshold, causing leaks. IoT integration detected and normalized it to 16.8 m³, improving detection and normalization by 20%. The conventional oil leakage percentage was 31.9%, which reduced to 29.12% with IoT integration, showing a 2.78% improvement in leakage reduction. These results demonstrate that incorporating IoT enhances the detection and resolution of pipeline leaks and vandalism.