HOUSTON, Feb. 18 (UPI) -- Exxon Mobil said it awarded a contract to Providence Photonics, a company in Louisiana, to develop an infrared gas leak detection system for processing plants.
Sara Ortwein, president of upstream research at Exxon, said in a statement Monday the detection system is "very accurate" and can operate in some of the harshest plant environments in the world.
"This system automatically and relentlessly scans for hydrocarbon gas leaks from process equipment and notifies operators to take action before the leak can become a hazard," Yousheng Zeng, the managing partner at Providence, said in a statement.
The system was designed in part through a four-year test program at a liquefied natural gas plant in Qatar, the largest exporter of LNG in the world.
No time frame for deployment was announced.
