Drones will help Kondaneft oil workers track methane emissions

Khanty-Mansiysk, 25 May, FederalPress. NK Kondaneft, a subsidiary of Rosneft, is actively using unmanned aerial systems: the company monitors the level of greenhouse gases and monitors the condition of pipelines at its fields.

Methane is a gas that is colourless and odourless. In the past, miners used to take cages with canaries underground to detect methane: as long as the bird was singing, they could work in peace. Then came more modern ways to detect leaks. Among them are drones with laser systems, which have started to be used at the production sites of NK Kondaneft.

Monitoring is carried out using a remote laser system. An array of information on the concentration of greenhouse gases and the volume of its distribution is created. The advantage of this approach is speed, mobility, and cost savings for the company. Oil companies no longer need to use helicopters to explore remote and inaccessible sites. By using this innovation, the cost of surveys has been reduced tenfold. And systematic monitoring reduces the impact of greenhouse gases on the atmosphere.

Earlier, the company introduced a domestic unmanned aerial system for system monitoring of production facilities at the sites of NK Kondaneft on the territory of the Erginsky cluster. The sites are located in a hard-to-reach swampy area. Therefore, oilmen started using drones.

The drones can spend 4 hours in the air and reach speeds of up to 130 kilometres per hour. They have a large margin of safety and reliability, are environmentally safe, and, taking into account the climatic conditions of Ugra, are able to fly and monitor oil production, treatment and transportation facilities at temperatures ranging from -45 to +45 degrees Celsius. They are equipped with HD video recording equipment with high sensitivity mode for day and night operations, as well as thermal imagers and laser designators.

The drones will fly over 20,000 kilometres over Kondaneft's fields by 2023.

The use of unmanned systems to monitor greenhouse gas leaks and the condition of field pipelines is carried out as part of Rosneft's strategy to reduce atmospheric emissions and ensure zero damage to nature and the environment. The company's global goal is to reduce the intensity of methane emissions at production facilities to 0.25 % by 2035.