"Gazprom Neft expands environmental monitoring using ZALA drones
"Gazpromneft-Khantos" launched an aerial monitoring system for oil pipelines and production infrastructure of the enterprise in the Khanty-Mansi Autonomous District.
An unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) monitors the condition of more than 250 kilometres of field oil pipelines at oilfields in Yugra. It is used to monitor the integrity of the pipelines and the situation at production facilities. This allows minimising environmental risks, as well as identifying possible ignition sources during the fire-hazardous period and controlling the flood situation in spring. Modern technological equipment improves the safety of the Company's infrastructure operation and significantly reduces response time to emergency situations.
The ZALA 421-16E unmanned aeroplane is equipped with photo and video recording systems. It is designed to remotely observe and determine the coordinates of objects at any time of day at a distance of more than 50 kilometres with online image transmission. Since April 2019, the specially modified drone has surveyed the condition of pipelines of such fields as Yuzhno-Priobskoye, Zimneye and Alexander Zhagrin. By the end of 2019, it is also planned to use it to survey the Orekhovo-Yermakovskoye and Yuzhnoye fields. In the future, the air monitoring system will cover all Gazprom Neft-Khantos production facilities.
"Today, the oil and gas industry is one of the key customers and developers of high-tech products. Innovations allow us to successfully solve production tasks and strengthen the company's technological leadership while maintaining harmony with the environment. High standards of industrial and environmental safety are a priority for us. And the latest Russian drones help us in solving this task by ensuring prompt monitoring of the state of production infrastructure even at the most remote facilities," said Alexey Kan, General Director of Gazprom Neft-Khantos.
Solutions using unmanned technologies are already an integral part of Gazprom Neft's production process. Today, over 60% of the total length of the company's pipelines (about 7,000 kilometres) are partially or fully monitored using UAVs. Such aircraft were first tested in 2014 to monitor the technical condition of Gazprom Neft-Noyabrskneftegaz's oil pipelines. The tests showed the high efficiency of the technology, and the UAVs were accepted for commercial operation. Since then, the total distance travelled by drones in the course of monitoring the facilities of this enterprise has exceeded 500,000 kilometres. Gazprom Neft-Orenburg is also monitoring its production infrastructure using UAVs. Pilot testing of the aerial monitoring system has begun at Messoyakhaneftegaz facilities.
The company plans to save more than 3.5 million roubles on pipeline monitoring alone by the end of 2019, and about 6 million roubles in 2020.
