OVER 350 RISERS ON 63 OFFSHORE PLATFORMS INSPECTED IN A MONTH FOR DUBAI PETROLEUM USING UAVS

Sector
Oil Gas & Petrochemical
Region
Middle East

The rationale behind Dubai Petroleum’s use of UAVs was to quickly complete detailed inspections of all their risers. Risers are traditionally a difficult area of an offshore platform to inspect; under deck and in the splash zone options for access, such as abseiling or scaffolding, are limited, extremely time consuming and very expensive. Used as a scanning tool, the high-quality reports produced by the Cyberhawk UAV team allowed the client to then plan tactile inspection or repair. Additionally, now that a full inspection has been completed on all riser’s defects can be tracked over time to understand their longer term degradation.

A two-man team was mobilised to the platforms, consisting of an experienced UAV pilot and an oil and gas inspection engineer. Cyberhawk’s significant aviation experience of operating in more than 25 countries globally meant that we knew how to secure the necessary flight permissions from the Dubai CAA. Daily reports were produced to notify the client of potentially serious defects, with detailed inspection reports produced thereafter by Cyberhawk’s experienced oil and gas inspection team.

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On the same project, an additional three elevated flare stacks and 24 bridges were inspected, maximising the mobilisation. Dubai Petroleum’s Asset Integrity Manager reported: “Having worked with Cyberhawk in the past, we understand the potential on offer from UAV inspection. This confidence led us to use UAVs in a new area within our business, this riser survey project. The campaign was a great success and we are pleased with the outcome.

“The speed and efficiency with which this project was completed has proven that the scope and application of UAV inspection can be expanded for our requirements, and we look forward to continuing our relationship with Cyberhawk in the future.”

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