Re-thinking Oil Operations: Drones and crowdsourcing improve industry procedures and policies.

• Author: Orr, Vanessa
• Position: Oil & Gas

As technology advances, it often creates opportunities for companies to consider doing things differently. This generally holds true for the oil industry, where technology is used to provide a more safe work environment, improve cost-efficiencies, and even create a collaborative "cloud" space where employees can crowdsource new ideas.

UAS Increase Safety, Efficiency

Three years ago, Alaska Aerial Media became the first Alaska-based company to receive Federal Aviation Administration approval to fly drones, otherwise known as unmanned aerial systems (UAS) for commercial purposes. And while the original plan was to use the drones for cinematography, co-owner Beau Bivins and his partners quickly realized that this technology had many other applications.

"Back in 2014, there were about ten reality shows shooting in Alaska, so we were using drones mainly for production-related work," says Bivins. "About two-and-a-half years ago, we began to focus our attention on other uses for the systems, including infrastructure inspection and surveying services. Now we work with a number of oil and gas companies, providing everything from surveying to inspection services and consulting services; it all depends on what they need."

One of the most important uses for the company's drones is live flare inspections, which traditionally require an oil company to shut down production while an employee performs a visual inspection and fixes whatever problems might be found. In addition to losing production time, this old-school method put employees in harm's way.

"The biggest benefit of using an unmanned aerial system is that it decreases risk," explains Bivins. "By using a drone, you're not exposing a human to the dangers of active high-pressure facilities.

"The second biggest benefit is the cost perspective; to inspect a flare field, you have to shut down the production facility, which can take a day or two. Inspecting the flares takes another couple of days, and then it takes time to ramp back up to full production," he adds. "If a facility produces tens of thousands of barrels a day at $60 a barrel, it could cost the company millions to shut down a facility for that long. Because drones can be used while the facility is up and running, it continues to operate at the same capacity and to meet regular production rates."

When a company is looking at annual or biannual inspections, those costs can quickly add up. Drones also save on the amount of time an employee...