The current growth of hydrocarbon pipelines wordwide demand workable leak detection and location solutions that adapt to often times challenging installation, operating conditions and environmental scenarios and increasing performance requirements. The type of leak detection sensing technology for pipelines transporting potentially harmful fluids, such as sour gas and sour crude oil, must take into consideration potential risks posed by intrusive and conventional instrumentation installations, normally part of nowadays leak detection and location system provisions. Furthermore, the growing requirements of end-users for achieving high-performance in leak detection combined with the limitations of intrusive-convetional instrumentation lead to greater amounts of instrument tapping-points and increasing costs. This paper describes how emerging non-intrusive sensing technology are effectively used to overcome performance challenges, reduce risks and lower the total installed cost to deploy leak detection systems on pipelines.