Drones are a rapidly improving technology. More and more industries are adopting them, including the oil and gas industry. The global market for drones in oil and gas is expected to reach 16.72 billion USD by 2025, growing at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 35.24% from 2019 to 2025.
In 2013, BP became the first oil and gas company to receive a license to operate drones. Several oil and gas companies have followed suit since, including ExxonMobil, Royal Dutch Shell, Chevron, ConocoPhillips, Equinor, and Gazprom.
So what drives the exponential growth of drones in oil and gas? It’s their ability to digitize and optimize oil platform operations. In the last decade, oil and gas companies have harnessed the mobility and perspective of drones to innovate workflows and save money.
In this article, we’ll go over 5 major benefits to using drones in oil and gas operations: safer and faster inspections, better leak detection capabilities, reduced asset maintenance costs, emergency response, and more accurate data collection.
Table of Contents
Safer & Faster Inspections
Inspecting oil wells and offshore rigs used to require surveyors to climb tall ladders, walk along catwalks, operate large cranes, and rappel down great heights with harnesses. And all this was done in close proximity to harmful chemicals and dangerous equipment. Traditional oil inspections are dangerous to say the least. But drones are making inspections much safer. Drones can fly to great heights and through toxic chemicals with ease, so there’s no need to put personnel in harm’s way.
Drone inspections are also faster. While traditional oil and gas inspections can take several days to complete, drones fly directly to a target at command, perform comprehensive checks, and eliminate the need to shut down operations. They can also quickly inspect hard-to-reach areas, whether it’s an oil and gas site, pipeline, storage tank, or offshore platform. For example, a drone can easily fly to overhead pipes to check on flames, flares, and smokestacks. Nearly every stage of petroleum production benefits from close-eyed inspections by drones.
The introduction of drones in the oil and gas industry has been a game-changer. Inspections can be performed instantly without putting technicians at risk.
Drones inspect better because of their advanced cameras. For one, drone cameras can zoom up on areas to snap images and record video without losing quality. They produce crystal clear images with unmatched detail. Plus, different cameras and sensors allow drones to perform multiple tests in one flight. Drones can be equipped with heat infrared cameras for thermal imaging along with temperature, chemical, and measurement sensors. Some drones even have omnidirectional obstacle avoidance sensors to prevent crashes, so you can rest assured they won’t damage your site. Together, these cameras and sensors allow drones to perform comprehensive checks at record speed.
Better Leak Detection Capabilities
Methane leaks from US oil and natural gas supply amount to 2.3% of the country’s entire gas production. That’s 13 million metric tons of lost methane every year. Obviously, gas leaks present a huge supply chain inefficiency. But they also pose a serious threat to surrounding communities and environments.
Before drones, oil and gas companies tried to detect leaks by mounting fixed detectors at high-risk spots in facilities and along pipelines or by having inspectors occasionally check areas with portable detectors. However, these traditional leak detection methods can be costly and inefficient.
What's included in the PDF...
The complete step-by-step beginners roadmap for infrastructure inspections
Crucial factors of success when implementing a drone program
The game-changing advantages of utilizing drones for inspections
Drone-based leak detection is faster and more comprehensive. For example, drones can easily detect spills and corrosion in flare stacks that are high off the ground. And since they can get to hard-to-reach areas in record time, they can perform checks more often and lower your potential clean-up costs by as much as 90%.
Drones can even prevent structural collapse and address potential issues before they put workers and facilities at risk. For example, along with oil, wells pump up saltwater (aka produced water). It’s a byproduct of oil extraction that must be separated from the oil and disposed of properly, but it often leaks. Drones can help you proactively detect saltwater leaks to prevent serious damage.
Reduced Asset Maintenance Costs
With faster, safer, preventative drone inspections inevitably come cost savings. Drones can save millions of dollars in asset maintenance costs. For example, they reduce the amount of scaffolding and other temporary structures needed for inspections. This alone frees up considerable time and budget.
In addition, drones can run inspections without needing to shut down oil operations. Normally, flare stacks and boiler tanks need to be shut off several days in advance for an inspection, so they are safe for human entry and interaction. Not the case with drones, they can quickly inspect facilities and assets without risking harm to anyone. This way, oil platforms can run longer, so you don’t lose out on valuable time and profits.
Drones also allow you to cut down on labor costs. Rapid drone spot checks can reduce inspection time by as much as 80%. This means you need fewer workers to work fewer hours. Plus, you save on travel costs associated with bringing in surveyors.
Video Credit: DJI
By replacing some manual labor, drones help you reduce health-related costs, too. By requiring less manual work that is dangerous, you’ll have lower health insurance premiums and personal protective equipment (PPE) to pay for. Minimizing danger also helps you gain back work hours lost to injuries. Employees won’t get hurt as much if they’re not exposed to as many hazards. And you’ll have fewer workplace accidents to report to the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) to ensure you can continue operating at full speed.
Ultimately, drones help you save on several maintenance costs, which in turn frees up funds to conduct more frequent drone inspections. And the more frequently you conduct aerial inspections, the more you can prevent costly damage. In other words, drones are an all-around cost-saving machine.
Emergency Response
Whether it’s a natural disaster or a mechanical blowout, disasters happen. So it’s important to have a strategy in place when they do. Drones can help you respond quickly and efficiently. Unlike manned aircraft that need a pilot and lead time to be ready for takeoff, drones can launch immediately. Their speedy deployment can save precious time when disaster hits.
Drones have also been previously used to assist during tank fires. Since they can withstand extreme temperatures, they are well suited for monitoring a fire’s progression. They can livestream information back to responders, and even zoom in on where the holes in tanks are located. That way, firefighter hose teams know exactly where to focus their foam spray. Plus, drones can monitor the integrity of the foam blanket, so you know how much foam to reapply as older foam breaks down.
Drones can also ensure emergency response equipment is set up in the right spots. After the fire subsides, drones can measure remaining tank levels with thermal cameras to assess your total losses. All this makes drones a huge asset in responding to tank fires.
Oil spill disasters can also be mitigated as well. For example, BP’s Deep Water Horizon marine oil spill is the worst recorded in history. It spilled a total of 210 million gallons of oil into the Gulf of Mexico and the surrounding area.
Pilots would be able to locate and determine the impact of a spill in no time by flying the perimeter while equipping responders with photos, live video streams, and GPS coordinates. And many drones have long-lasting batteries, so they can stay in the air for hours. Drones can also assess how well containment efforts are going by creating before and after maps. That way, you can identify lingering oil slicks and know where to concentrate your cleanup efforts.
More Accurate Data Collection
Drones can collect better data than humans can because they can get much closer to infrastructure. Even planes and helicopters can’t get as close to some areas as drones can. As a result, drones recognize trends undetectable to humans.
Part of the reason drones offer more accurate data is their wide range of cameras and sensors that allow them to produce better visuals. Together, these advanced technologies increase both the scope and the value of drone data.
In addition, drones provide information faster. They can upload data to the cloud for quick, real-time processing. Mapping software can process topographical and geological data, for example, to create models that identify promising oil and gas drill sites. Analytical software can help you improve on past performance. Live drone footage can help you brainstorm and collaborate with others on the best way forward.
Perhaps most importantly, drones allow you to calibrate repeat missions with visual machine learning algorithms. This cuts out the manual process of configuring flight routes every time you use a drone. Instead, artificial intelligence can learn a flight path to perform regular, automatic spot checks and collect routine data. Over time, repeating the exact same inspection ensures your data is accurate and precise.
Get Started With Using Drones in Oil and Gas
Drones have a bright future in the oil and gas industry. Though many companies have yet to realize the full potential of drones, drones are revolutionizing the way oil operations are run.
If you want to implement drones in your oil operations, The Drone Life can help. Our drone pilots have years of experience in flying all types of drone missions. Together, we can identify inefficiencies in your workflows to save your company time and money. Schedule your free consultation today.
What's included in the PDF...
The complete step-by-step beginners roadmap for infrastructure inspections
Crucial factors of success when implementing a drone program
The game-changing advantages of utilizing drones for inspections
