To what end do they need lidar/infrared data? Like, what are they actually trying to do? Meet regulatory compliance?

And what does "more efficient" mean in this context?

I guess in some sense I'm saying that shouldn't the explanation for this be something like: "owners of gas pipelines need to meet regulations imposed by Federal Agency X. They are currently spending $y dollars on it. Using our product they can be compliant and only spend (y-large number)."

or: "owners of gas piplines are at risk of multi-billion dollar fines and lawsuits. Right now they can't properly measure where they are leaking gas. Our solution lets them find the problem spots and only costs $y per year for them to mitigate their large risk"