Until now, methods of surveying, detecting, and locating leaks in the oil and gas fields have been inefficient and costly to conduct. Workers have risked their lives to climb high-rising stacks and inspections have caused lengthy activity shutdowns.
Flare stack inspections
Drones can obtain detailed optical imagery of flare stack heads, detecting any form of damage that may be detrimental to the operation of the flare stacks, including damage to piping, structural abnormalities and various other internal and external inconsistencies.
Case Study:
Client: Major Oil & Gas Company in the UAE
Scope: Conducting a full optical inspection survey for 4 stacks in a gas processing facility, in order to gather all the necessary information on issues like defects or missing parts, and to assess the stability of the aluminum shield and other parts.
The activity had to be performed with the outmost care and attention to HSE, to match the facility’s impressive safety performance: more than 100,000,000 man-hours without Lost-Time Injury (LTI), according to the OSHA standards.
Results: With the flare stacks in operation and without any down time, our drones were able to take photographs, thermal images and Infra-Red videos to prioritize any refurbishment works along the following locations:
- Bottom to Flare Tip (All around)
- Flare stack circumference weld joint locations;
- Overall integrity of the flare stack including platforms, supports, and ladders with proper elevation marks and directions;
- Guywires and guywires anchors.
- At Flare Tip (All around)
- Flare tip mounting flange connections at both top & bottom with bolting to know any loosening.
- Pilot gas manifold flange connections.
- Pilot gas mixer threaded connections.
- Ignition gas flange connections.
- Thermocouple conduit threaded connections / junction box etc.
- Overall steam manifold piping and flange connections.
- Overall central steam pipe and flange connections.
- Steam spider tips.
- Overall flare pilot assembly and support locations.
- Pilot tip condition and overall view.
- All grating plates / piping & supports / platforms/handrails.
- The chain pulley & davit tip details.
- Roundness of the tip.
- IR Thermography Video providing information about flame lift.
Other uses that drones can have in the Oil & Gas industry:
- Oil pipeline inspections:
Using drones, we can inspect thousands of km of pipelines and with special cameras and sensors, we can easily detect pipes’ condition or oil and gas leaks.
- Offshore oil platform inspections:
Drones can fly within meters of the offshore platform, whilst sending real-time information from different angles to the operator on the rig.
- Gas emissions monitoring:
Through highly sensitive optical sensors we can monitor gas emissions over critical sites and large areas that are otherwise difficult to cover, allowing safe 3D mapping of drill sites, gas pipelines, landfills and other operations.