 |
| Magal S3 masters sub-terrain intrusion detection in Mexico |
Magal Security Systems, Ltd. has received official notification from Pemex, the Mexican state-owned petroleum company, that PipeGuard™, Magal's sub-terrain intrusion detection sensor used for underground asset protection, has successfully detected 12 excavations out of 12 attempts with no false alarms, in a recently completed trial.
The trial involved actual excavation operations near a buried pipe and conducted manually using shovels or picks. Every excavation attempt was detected early enough by the system, which clearly distinguished nuisance alarms from real events. Zero false alarms were recorded.
Pemex's major concern is the theft of oil by clandestine jacks along its pipelines, a threat which has grown to become a national security issue. Pemex conducted trials of several technologies to solve this issue, including the PipeGuardTM trial.
Magal completed the installation within 3 days, including setting up the management system, based 120 kilometers away. The trial began in March 2011 along a pipe segment of 1,300 meters, protected by 8 sensors which were communicating through standard cellular links to the remote command centre. The specific segment was selected due to its proximity to a busy highway and right next to an agricultural gravel road.
Yehonathan Ben Hamozeg, Senior VP of R&D and Projects of Magal S3, commented: "The PipeGuard™ system drew the attention of the customer due to its unique capability to proactively alert when excavations are just starting rather than after the pipe has been penetrated, to enable effective and early response. We are proud to receive third-party validation of the outstanding performance of the system and hope to leverage the success into commercial projects."
Magal also announced that on March 22nd 2011, it achieved a sponsored contract by a large US gas utility company, to enhance the capabilities of its PipeGuard™ system, following another successful trial.
