European pipeline operators are being asked to do two demanding things at once: keep an ageing network safe and compliant, and prepare that same network for hydrogen and CO₂. Integrity programmes have become very good at understanding what happens inside the pipe: inline inspection, corrosion monitoring and NDT give a detailed picture of wall loss, defects and remaining life. The blind spot sits outside the asset: the excavator that arrives between patrols, the construction project that was never notified, the slow ground movement along a right-of-way that nobody is standing on. Third-party interference remains one of the leading causes of pipeline incidents in Europe, and it is not something an ILI run can see coming.
That is the gap we will be discussing at the 12th Pipeline Maintenance & Integrity Management conference, 22–23 September 2026 at the NH Collection Berlin Mitte am Checkpoint Charlie. Now in its 12th edition, it is a deliberately focused European gathering, around 120 attendees and some 22 speakers from operators including Gasunie, Repsol and Gassco, across two days of hydrogen-readiness, digital integrity management, corrosion control and asset lifecycle sessions. For LiveEO it is also a conference in our home city, which makes it a particularly good place to sit down properly with the European operator community.
Advancing External Risk Detection with SurfaceScout
At our tabletop in the networking area, we will be showcasing SurfaceScout, LiveEO's AI-powered monitoring solution for detecting and managing external risks along linear infrastructure. It combines high-cadence satellite imagery with AI-driven change detection to give operators continuous, wide-area visibility over their corridors — including the stretches that are difficult, expensive or slow to reach on the ground. It is designed to sit alongside existing integrity programmes rather than replace them.
With SurfaceScout, pipeline teams can:
- Detect excavation, construction and third-party activity early, while intervention is still possible, not after a strike has been reported
- Track ground movement, subsidence and erosion along the right-of-way, including on corridors under review for hydrogen or CO₂ conversion
- Prioritise response with AI-driven change classification and human-in-the-loop validation that keeps false alarms low
- Expand visibility across large, distributed networks without a proportional increase in patrol or aerial survey costs
- Improve coordination between control room, integrity and field teams around a single, current view of the corridor
- Strengthen documentation and traceability for risk management workflows, safety cases and regulator engagement
Built for Integrity and Risk Teams Managing a Network in Transition
SurfaceScout is built for the organisations responsible for safe, reliable operation across complex networksL transmission, distribution and multi-utility alike. Integrity engineers use it to see what has changed along the route since the last inspection, damage prevention teams to catch unpermitted work early, asset owners to compare exposure across a portfolio and evidence that external threats are identified and controlled. That evidence question becomes sharper during repurposing: when a line is assessed for hydrogen or CO₂ service, land use, encroachment history and ground stability along the corridor all form part of the case, and satellite monitoring provides a consistent, dated record of exactly that.
Join Antje Kunze's Session: "Detecting the Undetectable"
Session: Detecting the Undetectable
Date: Wednesday, 23 September 2026
Time: 11:40 – 12:20 CEST
Speaker: Antje Kunze, LiveEO
Topic: How satellite intelligence and AI surface the pipeline threats that conventional inspection cannot see
The session looks at the external risks that fall outside the reach of inline inspection and periodic patrols — third-party excavation, unnotified construction, ground movement, and at how continuous satellite monitoring turns them into something operators can detect, prioritise and act on before they become incidents.
Let's Connect in Berlin!
You will find the LiveEO team at our tabletop in the networking area across both conference days:
- Tuesday, 22 September — 08:30 to 17:30 CEST
- Wednesday, 23 September — 08:30 to 17:30 CEST
Our delegates in Berlin are Antje Kunze, Kevin Gomataty, Marie Lendway, Magdalena Smith and Janis Bauto. Come and see SurfaceScout in action, talk through the monitoring challenges on your own network, and pick up one of our custom LiveEO Lego kits. The conference also runs as a hybrid event, so if you are joining online, do reach out and we will arrange a walkthrough remotely.
We look forward to seeing you in Berlin!
