Real-Time Leak Monitoring and Loss Prevention during Commissioning and Start-Up of Oil and Gas Infrastructure in Saudi Arabia

Commissioning and start-up are unusually vulnerable phases in oil and gas projects because containment is being proven under changing pressure, temperature, composition, flow regime and control configuration while construction handovers, temporary systems and simultaneous operations may still be active. This review evaluates how real-time leak monitoring can be integrated with loss-prevention controls during hydrocarbon introduction and early operation in Saudi Arabia. An integrative review of peer-reviewed literature published principally between 2020 and 2025 was undertaken across Scopus-indexed and major publisher databases, emphasizing pipeline leak detection, continuous methane monitoring, acoustic and optical sensing, computational pipeline monitoring, digital twins, process safety and pre-start-up safety review. The evidence shows that no single technique offers dependable coverage across commissioning transients. Mass-balance and model-based systems provide continuous process-wide surveillance but can be destabilized by inventory changes and valve sequencing; acoustic, negative-pressure-wave and distributed fiber sensing provide fast local signatures but are installation- and noise-sensitive; optical gas imaging and continuous methane sensors independently confirm atmospheric releases but depend on meteorology, geometry and detection thresholds. The review therefore proposes a layered Saudi commissioning framework that links readiness assurance, dynamic baseline management, multi-sensor confirmation, alarm governance, escalation logic and post-start-up learning. Its central contribution is to treat leak monitoring not as a stand-alone instrument function but as a time-dependent barrier system whose configuration must change as the facility progresses from inert condition to line packing, first hydrocarbons, stabilization and performance testing. The framework supports faster detection, fewer nuisance alarms, disciplined isolation and evidence-based loss prevention without claiming that monitoring can replace mechanical integrity or safe commissioning practice.