Sky-Futures, Drone services company, has completed the first drone inspection in Gulf of Mexico for the oil and gas industry.
Highlights:
- The drone inspection scope included the derrick, helideck and four cranes on a drill ship.
- Current inspection methods would have taken 17 days to complete the work while the drone took only two days to complete the inspection.
- The advantages seen in this kind of inspection are:
- Drone-inspection provides a safer, faster and cost-efficient technique.
- This prevent personnel being put at risk.
- This allows savings to be made by preventing unnecessary shutdowns.
- An inspection engineer and remote pilot who had completed oil and gas drone inspection training at Sky-Futures specialist training center in the U.K., were provided by Sky-Futures for the inspection.
The inspection comes just over 10 months after Sky-Futures received the 46th Section 333 Federal Aviation Authority Exemption Certificate to operate drones in the U.S. and had opened their first North America office in Houston.
According to BI Intelligence: Global spending on drones could add up to close to $100 billion over the next decade, with commercial uses – from farming and filming to pipelines and parcels – accounting for around an eighth of that market.
Source: Sky Futures
