Company: ITT Corporation
Industry: Utilities
Location: Rochester, NY, United States of America

Rochester,NY--ITT Corporation announced today that Oklahoma Natural Gas has awarded ITT a three-year contract for their Airborne Natural Gas Emission Lidar (ANGEL) Services. The contract is for pipeline corridor mapping that includes new geospatial services (structure identification, pipeline class location analysis, and high consequence area calculations) along with traditional aerial photography and pipeline leak detection services.

More than 1,350 miles of natural gas transmission pipeline will be surveyed annually in Oklahoma. Operations are scheduled to begin in the first quarter of 2009.

"ITT submitted a very competitive project bid for work that included not only advanced geospatial applications, but also airborne natural gas leak detection services," said Bob Kenworthy, manager of pipeline integrity, Oklahoma Natural Gas. "They have taken great care to describe the work they'll be doing, walk us through the entire process, and give us a strong understanding of what to expect as the project unfolds."

ITT's ANGEL Services utilizes industry-leading digital collection and data analysis tools. This includes a digital mapping camera and photogrammetric software that produce high quality orthomosiac imagery.

ANGEL Services also incorporates differential absorption lidar (DIAL) laser technology to effectively and efficiently pinpoint natural gas pipeline leaks that current industry and regulatory best practices are missing. ANGEL Services is the only provider bundling these advanced technologies into an integrated service offering for the natural gas pipeline industry.

Oklahoma Natural Gas serves approximately 828,000 residential, commercial and industrial customers in Oklahoma. The company has affiliates that operate transmission and gathering operations in Oklahoma that include 2,348 miles of pipeline and five strategically-located underground storage facilities. Oklahoma Natural Gas is a division of Tulsa-based ONEOK, Inc., a diversified energy company. ONEOK is among the largest natural gas distributors in the United States, serving more than 2 million customers in Oklahoma, Kansas, and Texas.

"The work ITT is contracted to do for Oklahoma Natural Gas is a logical extension of our current corridor mapping and airborne pipeline leak detection services," said Daniel Brake, director, ITT ANGEL Services. "The corridor imagery that we collect is often superior to most existing base map imagery. It was a natural extension for our customers to request that we provide additional analysis of this imagery and update their GIS database."

ITT's ANGEL Services can survey up to 1,000 miles per day while guaranteeing at least 99% pipeline centerline leak survey coverage. Customer deliverables include GIS datasets of leak survey results and color orthomosaic mapping imagery.