Control of integrity and security of Gazprom Neft's facilities in Noyabrsk and Muravlenko

ZALA AERO continues to successfully perform aerial terrain monitoring at Gazpromneft-Noyabrskneftegaz and Gazpromneft-Muravlenko.

ZALA's unmanned aerial systems perform continuous monitoring of the terrain to control the integrity of pipeline transport, as well as the condition and fire situation in the forests at the company's fields.

The flights are performed by unmanned aircraft ZALA421-16E, a universal and the most popular UAV for aerial monitoring. Its technical characteristics allow the aircraft to be used in harsh weather conditions of the Yamalo-Nenets Autonomous District, as the UAV can be operated in winds of 15 m/s and temperatures as low as -50 °C.

During the flight, the aerial survey data is transmitted to the operator in real time and recorded on board the UAV, thus allowing to promptly identify changes in the landscape, the condition of oil pressure pipeline routes or unauthorised actions by third parties.

Since 2022, a specialised software product based on neural networks has been introduced into the aerial survey process to analyse the acquired images, recognising situations such as ground disturbance or illegal tapping. Thanks to the data processing system, data decoding is performed faster and with minimal human error. In addition, the system makes it possible to promptly notify the Customer's responsible persons about detected situations.

"Gazprom Neft-Noyabrskneftegaz became the first subsidiary of Gazprom Neft to use unmanned aerial vehicles at its fields since 2014. ZALA aviation systems monitor the integrity of pipelines on a daily basis, as well as the condition of the forest fund during the firefighting regime. Over the entire period of operation, the total flight time of the drones has exceeded 650,000 kilometres.