Offshore staff
LONDON – bp ventures has invested £3 million ($3.96 million) in Flylogix’s unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) business.
The company deploys its drones, combined with artificial intelligence, satellite communications and methane sensor technology supplied by SeekOps, to monitor and measure methane emissions.
Since 2018 it has worked with bp since 2018 to monitor its UK North Sea facilities. The UAVs take measurements with a focus on achieving consistent and reliable emissions reporting.
bp’s Aim 4 goal is to install methane measurement on all its main oil and gas processing sites by 2023 and achieve a 50% reduction in methane intensity across its operations.
David Hayes, managing partner of bp ventures, said: “Accurate emissions measurements are the basis upon which mitigation plans are based.”
During the flights, the drone manages itself autonomously with pilot oversight provided from the shore. It can fly up to 250 m (820 ft) from installations: Flylogix then live-streams data collected by a SeekOps sensor on its wingtip to the onshore support crew.
The sensor technology was designed by NASA for the Mars Curiosity Rover.
Flylogix will use the funds provided by bp and others to expand its services to new regions, such as the US, Norway and Trinidad & Tobago.
It also plans a crossover to the renewable energy sector, performing wind turbine blade inspections at offshore sites.
3/22/2022
