Drone Alone: Unmanned Aircraft in Oil, Gas Inspection
Last December in the UK, a "drone" was a must-have Christmas present for your typical gadget-obsessed geek with money to burn. Along with many technologies that began life as a military tool, the drone finally found its way into the consumer sector – with hundreds of thousands of the devices being sold in the UK during the run-up to Christmas. Admittedly, most of those sold were of a size that would likely not concern a commercial airline pilot too greatly, but the sight of sizable hovering machines being remotely controlled by an anoraked, middle-aged man is becoming more common in England.
Like them or loathe them, drones are increasingly a fact of life and, if online store Amazon gets its way, the advent of drone-based delivery services will mean that seeing a drone flying overhead will become just as uneventful as seeing an airplane in the sky.
Regular use of drones within the oilfield services industry is also relatively new, with the two leading UK-based companies providing drone inspections to the sector – Sky Futures and Cyberhawk – having been in existence for less than a decade. However, California-based unmanned aircraft specialist AeroVironment first demonstrated the feasibility of unmanned aircraft systems for the oil and gas industry in the early 2000s, according to Steven Gitlin, the firm's head of marketing strategy.
"These demonstrations included surveying offshore oil rigs, pipelines and other infrastructure. We had contracts in place to support incident response applications when the FAA [Federal Aviation Authority] banned the use of unmanned aircraft systems [UAS] in the national airspace system," Gitlin told Rigzone.
The FAA has since become more flexible about the use of unmanned aircraft for certain commercial applications, paving the way for their use in the oil and gas sector in the United States.
"Last June, we received FAA certification for commercial UAS operations in support of BP in Prudhoe Bay. This was the first FAA-approved commercial UAS operation over American soil. Since that time we've delivered advanced information services to BP, including road and pad modeling, and our mission was expanded to include pipeline modeling. The FAA also expanded our operating area by more than 500 percent to an area larger than the state of Maryland," Gitlin said.
AeroVironment's solution for BP consisted of an integrated information service, using its Puma AE UAS and the firm's UAS operators. The Puma – which is used extensively by the U.S. military – uses advanced sensors to collect large amounts of data as well as a Cloud-based back-office data system that integrates the UAS data with geographic information to produce what Gitlin describes as "engineering-quality" reports.
12345
View Full Article
WHAT DO YOU THINK?
Generated by readers, the comments included herein do not reflect the views and opinions of Rigzone. All comments are subject to editorial review. Off-topic, inappropriate or insulting comments will be removed.
- ITEM Club: More Jobs Losses Expected in NE Scotland due to Oil Slump
- Shell Q&A: What Makes an Ideal Employer in Oil, Gas?
- Shell Takes First Place in Rigzone's Inaugural Ideal Employer Survey
- UK Government 'Must Recommit' to Oil, Gas Sector in Autumn Statement
- UK Government Gives Go-Ahead for Fracking in NW England
- ExxonMobil Racks Up Discoveries in Guyana Block Eyed by Chevron
- Oil Market Sentiment Has Improved Significantly
- EU, US Eye Collaboration on Nuclear Materials
- EU Electricity Export to Ukraine Up 94 Percent in Two Years
- China Coal Output Falls for First Time since Government Ordered More
- USA Driving Activity to Increase to All-Time Highs
- BP Pulse Buys One of Europe's Largest Truck Stops
- UK CCUS Plans Outdated: Think Tank
- TC Energy to Sell Prince Rupert Gas Pipeline Project to First Nation
- I Squared Eyes Full Ownership of Europe Gas Storage Firm
- Norway Regulator Blasts Proposal to Halt New Oil and Gas Permits
- Chinese Mega Company Makes Major Oilfield Discovery
- EIA Drops 2024 Henry Hub Gas Price Forecast
- EIA and Standard Chartered Offer Up Latest Oil Price Predictions
- Red Sea Region Sees Another Watershed Incident
- Chevron Oil Project in Kazakhstan to Cost $48.5B
- OPEC Voices Encouragement after IEA Affirms Support for Oil Security
- Biden Govt Bares Strategy for Freight Charging, Hydrogen Fueling Infra
- Ukraine Hits Third Russian Refinery In Escalating Drone Strikes
- Rystad Looks at the Buzz Around White Hydrogen
- VIDEO: Missile Attack Kills Crew Transiting Gulf of Aden
- Norway Regulator Blasts Proposal to Halt New Oil and Gas Permits
- Chinese Mega Company Makes Major Oilfield Discovery
- What Is the Biggest Risk to Offshore Oil and Gas Personnel in 2024?
- Is Peak Oil Demand Close?
- Vessel Sinks in Red Sea After Missile Strike
- JP Morgan, Standard Chartered Reveal Latest Oil Price Forecasts
- Exxon Rights in Stabroek Do Not Apply to Hess Merger with Chevron: Hess
- Rystad Forecasts Net Production of Top Permian Producers in 2024
- Analysts Reveal Latest Oil Price Outlook Following OPEC+ Cut Extension