Latin America oil and gas drone services report

Constant monitoring and inspection are essential for healthy operation and safety of personnel at the workplace. Employing humans for inspection and monitoring is not only costly and time taking but risky to personnel.

Drone is expected to be one of the most promising technology in the coming years, and its demand for inspection and surveillance is increasing among the oil and gas companies. Rapid development in airborne robots and reduced costs is expected to make it easier to detect leaks and oversee infrastructure. Drone-based inspection can save oil and gas companies up to US$1 - 5 million per day in recovered production costs.

The downturn in the oil and gas industry has encouraged oil and gas operator companies and supply industry across the globe, including in the Latin America region to cut down on operating expenditure and apply innovative techniques, which offers similar efficient application at a reduced cost.

As part of cost optimization process and various benefits offered, more and more oil and gas companies in Latin America are embracing emerging technologies such as drone services which are safe, efficient, faster and less expensive, hence allowing them to minimise downtime and increase productivity.

In 2017, Skyx drone completed the inspection of more than 100 km of gas pipeline in Mexico, identifying more than 200 abnormalities in the pipeline, therefore reducing the cost and increasing the accuracy compared to manual inspection for the company.

Such activities are expected to further increase the adoption of drones in the oil and gas sector and in turn is expected to increase the demand of drone services in the region.

With the liberalisation of the oil and gas industry and increasing interest of foreign companies such as Exxon Mobil, Royal Dutch Shell, BP Plc, and Total SA are expected to light up some hope for the drone services in the country's upstream oil and gas industry. These foreign companies have started to use the drone in some of their projects outside Latin America.

In January 2018, the country awarded 19 out of 29 deepwater blocks. Total of 39 bids was received for the 19 blocks. The most aggressive bidder was Shell (won nine blocks) followed by Repsol, Petronas, Qatar Petroleum and PEMEX. These 19 blocks are estimated to receive around US$90 billion over the lifetime of the contract, in which foreign companies are expected to play a major role.

Increasing investment in the country's upstream sector by foreign companies are expected to create ample opportunity for the drone services market. D2R Technology announced strategic partnership with Texo Drone Survey & Inspection (UKCS) for Brazil. This partnership will result in D2R becoming company's official partner in Brazil. Texo DSI (UKCS) will provide its range of advanced UAV deployed survey and inspection solutions for various projects in Brazil.v

Read the article online at: https://www.worldpipelines.com/equipment-and-safety/23112018/latin-america-oil-and-gas-drone-services-report/