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Introducing New Drone-Based Inspection Technologies to Safely and Consistently Deliver High Value Results


 Over the past few years ‘Drones’ (or Unmanned Aerial Systems as they are offcially called) have become an accepted part of the inspection ‘toolkit’ in upstream and downstream oil & gas. Yet, at the moment, their application in the oil & gas industry is still largely limited to pure visual inspection of tall structures (e.g., flares, communication towers and offshore jacket structures) or visual surveying of pipelines and construction sites with some occasional use of thermography as well. As drone technology is becoming more and more common, the call to expand their use with other inspection and surveying techniques is also becoming louder. Fortunately, developments are now underway to add capabilities, e.g. (i) ultrasonic thickness gauging (UTG), (ii) ultrasonic defect detection, (iii) detection of hydrocarbon leaks by Optical Gas Imaging (OGI), (iv) internal inspection of membrane LNG cargo tanks, (v) 3D mapping of structures through either LiDAR or photogrammetry, and (iv) ultra long range operations (5 hours flight time and above) to survey unmanned offshore facilities.
 By definition the oil & gas environment is challenging and high-risk. Thus, to introduce these technologies, it is not sufficient to ‘slap a new probe or sensor on a drone’ or to buy a new, more capable drone and then perform a few proof-of-concept flights for a successful operational introduction. The successful ‘hardening’ of new technologies for drone inspections or surveillance in a real-life operational environment requires the integration of equipment, crew capabilities, procedures and data management. Therefore, for every new step, a full development cycle has to be organised and managed. A bespoke safety case underpins cycle by generating the key elements from which (additional) training as well as operational procedures and data management tools/processes can be developed. Extensive trialing and milestone reviews are part of the process.
 Only if the young but growing ‘drone services’ industry and asset owners follow such a systematic development approach in a disciplined manner will it be possible to ensure the safety, consistency and quality of ‘drone-based inspections’. Without this, the outcomes will at best be disappointing. This paper presents the first comprehensive description of such an approach. Drone-based ultrasonic inspections are used as a real-life example.