How mIQroTech Could Have Potentially Prevented the Recent Keystone Pipeline Leak
Every other week, we plan to do live updates on the status of our campaign and the project. We will also have a Q&A session at the end of the events where invited investors will have the opportunity to ask their questions live.
About the Keystone Pipeline Leak
A few days before the launch of our campaign, I received a storm of emails about the breaking news of the Keystone Pipeline leak. I wanted to discuss this matter as a case study for the systems we are creating here at mIQroTech.
For those of you who are not aware, here are some quick stats on the event:
- 400 barrels, or about 200,000 gallons, of oil, from the Canadian Sands regions in Alberta, were leaked in North Dakota
- The pipeline is 2,147 miles in length
- Same pipeline that was protested this summer over concerns of leaking into waterways
This was a horrific event, a tragedy, and exactly what we aim to prevent with our product. Stopping these disasters before they happen is our mission.
The Keystone Pipeline is a “new” pipeline; commissioned in 2010 the oldest sections could only be seven years old, however, this section is much newer than that. Based on data we have collected, 60% of pipeline leaks are related to corrosion. Due to the age of this pipeline, unless there was a heat treatment failure or a coating failure, I do not suspect the leak was caused by corrosion. What this leaves, primarily, is operator error, mechanical failure, weld failure, damage from others, or earthquakes.
We can quickly rule out earthquakes as there was no seismic event detected by USGS.
However, deducing further is impossible. Pipeline monitoring systems may have been in place for TransCanada, but the cause wasn’t easily determinable as they are still “trying to determine the cause”.
That is where our device, the mIQroAware system, shines. Not only could we have potentially caught this event long before it happened, but even if it were unpreventable, we could have shortened the detection times and given definite causes for the rupture. We are still waiting on a price tag for TransCanada to pay, but our analysis shows it will cost anywhere between $180,000 and $4,000,000+ depending on a variety of factors.
Video below:
The discussion will appear here.