Penspen and QiO Technologies Launches THEIA for Pipeline Operators

Penspen has developed THEIA in partnership with QiO Technologies as an environment for pipeline operators across the world to access Penspen’s leading expertise in defect assessment and asset integrity management. The project is part of the company’s ongoing commitment to the digital transformation of its services.

Penspen’s CEO Peter O’Sullivan explains: “There is no secret about the challenges we face in the energy industry. Ageing pipeline assets mean greater risks that are in turn set against a background of industry-wide cost reductions and increased regulatory demands.

“Furthermore, loss of skills and a dearth of new talent mean personnel resources for the time-consuming analysis of inspection data are limited. THEIA responds to all these constraints by empowering operators to make critical and timely decisions for the optimum management of their pipelines.”

THEIA combines Penspen’s 65 years of technical experience, industry knowledge and quality assurance skills with QiO Foresight Maintenance® technology to provide a complete picture of pipeline assets under a wide range of different environmental and operating scenarios. Penspen believe harnessing predictive data analytics in this way will enable its clients to gain future insights into how best to manage pipeline integrity alongside whole life-cycle technical assurance.

“The more operators use THEIA in tandem with our expertise at Penspen, it’s more likely that defects will be quickly identified and prevented from causing failure,” O’Sullivan maintains.

The ability to run complex assessments securely, providing predictive or real-time information and analysis, forms the backbone of the current THEIA offering. Further ahead, QiO’s specialist skills in machine learning and AI will contribute to the further development of THEIA’s capabilities and Industry 4.0 standard, as part of the growing trend for automation away from manual processes, and the unlocking of trapped business value through the use of the most advanced analytical techniques.

THEIA is a cloud-based, subscription service designed to allow clients a high degree of flexibility in accessing their pipeline information and the level of analysis required, while at the same time ensuring maximum security for all their critical data. Over the next 12 months, Penspen aim to make instant first level checking of defects available to every pipeline operator worldwide.

“Working with Penspen and the THEIA platform has been a perfect example of what complimentary skill-sets can achieve. The combination of deep industry expertise coupled with QiO’s AI software services allows customers to dramatically benefit from improved efficiency and safety of their operations. We look forward to enabling Penspen to successfully scale the THEIA platform to its global customers,” said Baz Khuti, QiO’s Co-Founder & CEO.