The adoption of unmanned aircraft systems (UAS) and drone technology is becoming increasingly prolific within the petrochemical and oil and gas sectors.
In order to help industry leaders navigate safety concerns and best practices for applying this technology to their companies’ processes, API has introduced its Guide to Developing an Unmanned Aircraft Systems Program.
“Our guide walks through considerations for developing your program,” said Suzanne Lemieux, UAS lead and manager for API. Speaking at the Energy Drone & Robotics Summit held recently in The Woodlands, Texas, Lemieux said the guide is a resource of “common questions, considerations and areas that a company may need to dig more deeply into as they consider how to develop or improve a UAS program.”
Seven years in the making, the guide, Lemieux said, is designed to be “open, easily accessible and editable.”
Lemieux noted the complexity of the industry’s supply chain, observing the operations within that supply chain call for heavy scrutiny to ensure optimum safety.
“Looking at flammable liquids, hazardous materials, caustic chemicals, etc., you get a very complex operating environment where safety is the key factor for our workers, assets, operations and the communities we are in,” she said. “So anything that’s introduced into this environment needs to be well understood and thought out.”
Many companies already employ traditional aviators, fixed-wing and helicopter assets in their manned aviation projects and know how to operate safely, Lemieux observed.
“They incorporate safety into their plans and policies,” she said. “But on the UAS side, a lot of this is very new — not just the technology, but also how they’re operated and who’s operating them. We wanted to look at how we think about those things as we develop a program in this industry.”
Benefits and challenges
Lemieux pointed to the tremendous opportunities for UAS applications across the oil and gas sector, including inspection technologies and emergency response.
“And removing the human element in the line of operations is a considerable benefit for safety,” she added.
Another opportunity exists in the potential for cost savings.
“There’s a great return on investment when you’re taking some of these fixed-wing assets out and you’re removing people from the operation,” she said.
Lemieux said she recognizes that, alongside the many benefits of UAS technology, challenges exist.
“These are complex systems with really ingrained safety practices,” she said. “Innovation is how we’ve climbed from being dependent 10 years ago to being the world’s largest oil and gas producer today. That’s due to technological innovation and efficiency. We really want to use these systems, but that safety component’s the biggest part of what we need to establish first.”
In addition to risk management strategies and developing standard operational procedures and safety manuals, the guide also considers how to comply with existing regulation governing UAS technology.
“How do you incorporate your lawyers, your records management strategies, all these different established policies that need to apply to these systems?” Lemieux asked.
API’s guide is a “step-by-step consideration” of all of these factors, she concluded, adding, “It’s not prescriptive by any means. Our members always want flexibility in how they’re going to choose to implement any systems. We just tried to make it more user-friendly, and I think we got there.”