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BP was one of the early adopters of
drones, the report notes. It conducted
pilot studies at its Alaskan oil fields in
2006, evaluating the drones' usefulness
in monitoring gravel road conditions and
ensuring safe and efficient truck traffic.
BP was the first U.S. oil and gas company
to receive a license to operate commercial
drones, teaming with AeroVironment in
2013 to expand its drone usage. BP now
uses drones, crawlers and other robotic
technologies to undertake risky tasks in
its operational areas, GlobalData says.
GlobalData cites a number of companies for their drone work:
· Chevron is applying augmented reality to drone feeds for evaluating field
equipment and infrastructure during inspection and monitoring operations. The
company also is experimenting on using
drones in the event of industrial accidents,
particularly for assisting in oil spills.
· ConocoPhillips is deploying drones
to inspect and monitor its assets in the
United States, North Sea and Australia.
At the Judy Field in the North Sea, ConocoPhillips is using drones to inspect the
unmanned offshore production platform,
as well as oil tankers for defects on their
exterior and in cargo spaces.
· Equinor is investing in a range of
emerging technologies as it seeks to transform its operations using digitization.
The company is involved in developing
robotics and drone technologies to leverage
their maneuverability in plant facilities
that may be inaccessible to field technicians. Equinor is expected to increase its
drone usage as it embarks on automating
oil field operations in the North Sea.
· ExxonMobil has worked on developing drone technologies since 2012. It
has deployed drones for aerial surveillance
and inspection of operations in North
America, the United Kingdom and Australia. ExxonMobil mainly has targeted
offshore platforms, and refining and petrochemical complexes.
· Royal Dutch Shell uses drones from
Aeryon Labs for flare stack inspections
at its facilities, and is conducting pilot
studies at its Houston technology center.
The company intends to assess drone capabilities for asset inspections using combinations of sensing devices and drone
technologies.

subsurfaces of storage tanks and marine
vessels. According to the report, merging
drone data with advanced data analytics
allows companies to predict equipment
health and potential malfunctions.
As part of their campaign to lower
methane emissions, GlobalData says many
companies are investing in a wide range
of sensing technologies that either can
be permanently installed on a target asset
or mounted on drones to obtain real-time
data. It cites Equinor's investment in a
research program to develop laser-based
sensors to detect methane leaks.
Drones provide birds-eye views of de-

velopments in the event of industrial accidents or natural disaster, "Drones in Oil
& Gas" says. "Real-time drone imagery
and video analytics can help map oil spills
or fire incidents," it describes. "It can
enable companies to coordinate emergency
responses and direct resources to the right
places while ensuring personnel safety."
Technology companies are experimenting with drone reliability for delivering products both in and beyond visual
line of sight, GlobalData says, adding
drone uses can be adopted in the context
of oil and gas to transport payloads to
distant production platforms.
❒

Key Trends
Operators can customize drones to include sensors and visual inspection technologies such as cameras and thermal imagers to perform close-range nondestructive
inspections of oil and gas assets to detect
flaws or defects, GlobalData says. It notes
this approach is proving very efficient in
evaluating pipelines, exterior surfaces and
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