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Drone application in the oil and gas sector
2020-12-23

Russia ranks 3rd in the World in the list of countries for oil production. The length of main pipelines in Russia is more than 250 000 km. Many pipelines often run in hard-to-reach areas of our country, which makes it difficult to monitor the condition of pipelines and increases the risk of illegal activities and violations. It is in such cases drones become an integral part of the oil and gas industry.
What can unmanned aircraft systems be used for in the oil and gas sector?
- Geological survey of the surface
- Monitoring of the processes of construction and repair works
- Environmental monitoring
- Day and night patrolling of extended objects
- Inventory of infrastructure facilities and security zones and others
And this is an incomplete list of tasks solved with the help of drones. Moreover, aerial monitoring can be applied to every stage of oil production and transportation.
To perform the work, a drone alone will not be enough, it is important to have high-quality equipment (photo and video camera, thermal imager, lidar, etc.) and programs for processing photo and video materials.
For Russian oil and gas companies, it is convenient to work with domestic companies, as it opens the possibility to test UAVs in the field, offices, and service centers are located closer to the company itself, which reduces transport expenses, and the process of signing official documents for conducting services or buying drones becomes easier than with a foreign company.
Of all domestic developers, it's good to mention ZALA AERO GROUP. To perform aerial monitoring, the company develops its own UAVs, payloads, and software for data processing based on artificial intelligence. Moreover, ZALA AERO became the first organization in Russia that started using a laser gas analyzer to search for methane leaks on unmanned ZALA systems.
In the very near future, more and more companies in the oil and gas sector will begin to introduce unmanned aerial vehicles into operational processes to obtain high-quality data. The use of UAVs is a great benefit in almost all key production processes in the oil and gas industry.
The drone market has grown steadily and continuously over the past several years. The technology is here to stay and is becoming more prevalent across numerous industries. But 2020 was a unique year due to Covid-19. Overall, respondents even felt that the changes in business models triggered by the lockdowns would actually have a positive impact on the drone industry in the long run.
The Russian Foreign Ministry said that the country is beginning the procedure for withdrawing from the Treaty on Open Skies.
The project, which is part of the Canadian Space Agency's Earth observation applications development program (EODAP), was aimed at identifying and monitoring lake ice levels, as well as detecting cracks and pressure ridges to raise awareness among local communities and first responders about the risks of moving lake ice.
Reports

The drone market has grown steadily and continuously over the past several years. The technology is here to stay and is becoming more prevalent across numerous industries. But 2020 was a unique year due to Covid-19. Overall, respondents even felt that the changes in business models triggered by the lockdowns would actually have a positive impact on the drone industry in the long run.