Onshore Oilfield Security: A Thousand Wells, No Blind Miles
Desert, gobi, mountain and forest fields scatter wellheads, pipelines and tank farms across terrain a patrol cannot cover. This system pairs solar + 4G unmanned well stations with pipeline tamper detection, tank-farm thermal, Ex cameras and one control center — theft and leaks get found in minutes, not on next week's drive.
What Goes Wrong Across an Oilfield
The manufacturer's reference solution names the gaps of patrol-based field management:
Wells too scattered to visitHundreds of wellheads across hours of driving; each gets minutes of human eyes per week, and everything between visits is on trust.
Oil theft along the lineIllegal taps and theft crews work remote pipeline sections at night — by discovery, the loss is weeks old and the evidence is gone.
Leaks found by smellA pipeline anomaly announces itself as temperature change long before a visible pool — but only if something is reading the temperature.
Tank farms that can burnCrude storage concentrates the field's fire risk; a hot flange or a smoldering seal is invisible until thermal reads it.
Rules ignored in the fieldPPE violations and unauthorized entries happen where supervisors aren't — which on an oilfield is nearly everywhere, nearly always.
System Architecture
Per the manufacturer's reference design: solar + 4G kits watch remote wellheads unmanned; thermal reads pipelines and tank farms; Ex cameras cover gas zones; PPE and vehicle analytics run field-wide; station NVRs record locally and the oilfield control center manages everything by PC, web and app.
Simplified diagram. Well-station kits, thermal points and Ex zoning follow your field map and hazardous-area plan.
Six Jobs This System Does
Each card is a module of the manufacturer's reference solution, in field-operations language.
Wells watched without visitsSolar-powered, 4G-connected camera kits sit at remote wellheads with no mains and no fiber: pump operation, equipment state and any human activity stream back to the control center — the weekly drive becomes a remote patrol, and staff travel only on verified alarms.
Pipelines that report tamperingCameras and thermal units along the line watch for abnormal temperature (a leak's signature), physical damage and tampering behavior — someone digging at a remote section triggers the alarm chain with video, while the loss is still litres, not tankers.
Tank farms read for feverThermal cameras run spot, line and area temperature over crude tanks with fire and smoke early warning — the hot flange, the smoldering seal and the abnormal shell gradient alarm hours before flame, in the zone where the field can least afford one.
Ex zones covered, certifiedGas-hazard areas — separators, gathering stations, vapor zones — get Ex-certified, corrosion-resistant, high-temperature-rated cameras, so coverage and recording continue exactly where ordinary electronics are forbidden.
Crews kept to the rulesAI watches for missing hard hats and protective suits, unauthorized entry into danger zones and worker falls — each violation alarms with a clip, so safety enforcement reaches every wellhead the supervisor cannot.
Trucks logged, thieves flaggedANPR logs crude tankers, engineering and maintenance vehicles at every gate with blacklist alarms; face recognition manages staff; gathering-detection flags suspicious groups near infrastructure — the control center's e-map shows every alarm where it happens, and dashboards keep wells, people and trucks on one screen.
The Numbers That Matter
Key capabilities from the manufacturer's reference solution:
Unmanned well stations: solar power + 4G wireless for remote wellheads
Pipeline monitoring: temperature, leak detection, tamper-behavior alarms
Tank-farm thermal: spot/line/area temperature with fire and smoke early warning
Ex-certified, corrosion-resistant cameras for gas-hazard zones
PPE and behavior analytics plus ANPR for crude-transport fleets
System Components
These are the equipment roles the solution is built from. Exact models are chosen per site conditions, country requirements and budget — several of our product lines fit each role, so we spec the model list after receiving your requirement list.
| Item | What it does |
|---|---|
| Field & perimeter long-range PTZ | 32MP panorama + 42× detail, 500 m IR — kilometres of field from one mast, night included. |
| Wellhead & station bullets | Equipment-state views and PPE analytics at each site. |
| Solar + 4G well-station kits | Panel + battery + 4G camera per remote wellhead — see our solar 4G solution page for the pattern. |
| Pipeline & tank thermal units | Leak-signature temperature reading and fire early warning at the high-risk assets. |
| Ex cameras (gas zones) | Matched to your certification scheme (ATEX/IECEx or national). |
| Station network & recording | Industrial rings at gathering stations; NVRs record locally through link cuts. |
| Face doors + ANPR + platform + video wall | Gates, vehicle management and the control-center platform — sized per field. |
Browse the full product catalog — cameras, NVRs & switches →
Send your field map with well count, pipeline routes and tank farms — we reply with a well-station kit list, thermal points and a control-center design.
Design Notes & Honest Limits
Read this before you order:
- Camera-based pipeline watch covers the sections you instrument — it complements, not replaces, SCADA leak-detection systems; its unique value is video-verified tamper alarms where fiber sensing is absent.
- Ex certification is jurisdiction-specific — confirm the scheme your inspector accepts before ordering; corrosion-resistant housing alone is not an Ex rating.
- 4G well-station kits need coverage checks per site and data-budget discipline (sub-streams routine, full stream on alarm) — where 4G is absent, microwave hops or store-and-forward recording are the fallbacks.
- Desert heat, dust and sand punish electronics — dust-sealed housings, sunshields and wide-temperature gear are specification lines, and lens cleaning joins the site maintenance schedule.
- Deterrence without response teaches thieves the site never follows up — pair alarms with a stated response procedure and, for chronic theft areas, coordination with local authorities; the camera provides the evidence chain either way.
FAQ
How is an unmanned well station monitored?
A self-contained kit per wellhead: solar panel and battery sized to the camera load, a 4G link (or microwave hop) for video, intrusion analytics running on the camera itself, and local buffering so nothing is lost during link drops. The control center runs remote patrols across all wells on a schedule, and any human presence at an unmanned site raises an immediate alarm with video — the well that got a weekly visit now gets a permanent guard.
Can cameras really detect pipeline tampering and oil theft?
On instrumented sections, yes, through two signatures: behavior — people or vehicles stopping and working at a remote section trigger intrusion and loitering analytics with video verification; and temperature — an illegal tap or leak changes the line's thermal profile, which the thermal units read continuously. The honest scope: you instrument the high-risk sections (past theft sites, road crossings, valve stations), not every kilometre — the design allocates posts where the risk history says they pay.
What does thermal add at the tank farm?
Continuous temperature reading where fire cost is highest: hot flanges, smoldering seals, abnormal shell gradients and pump-bearing heat all alarm hours before flame or smoke, with spot, line and area modes matched to each asset. It complements — never replaces — the mandated fire and gas systems; its value is the early hours and the exact location, so the response is a technician with a wrench instead of a fire crew.
Which zones need Ex-certified cameras?
Follow your hazardous-area classification: separators, gathering stations, tank-farm vapor zones and anywhere flammable gas can accumulate are classified zones requiring Ex-certified housings; open wellpads, roads, offices and most perimeter runs usually are not. The mixed BOQ — Ex where mandated, standard elsewhere — is most of the design work, and it is engineered from your zoning drawing, not guessed from photos.
How many cameras does an oilfield need?
It scales with assets, not area: 1-2 per wellhead (a solar kit at remote ones), bullets plus thermal at each gathering station and tank farm, thermal posts on high-risk pipeline sections, Ex units in classified zones, long-range PTZ on masts for field-wide patrol, and gates with ANPR. A mid-size field of 200 wells typically lands between 300 and 600 channels; the solar-kit count is what moves the budget, so the risk-ranking of wells comes first.
Send your field map — get a well-by-well monitoring design back
Well count, pipeline routes, tank farms and 4G coverage notes are enough for a first BOQ with solar-kit positions.