Sky-Futures, which flies drones around oil rigs and gas pipelines to check for any problems, said yesterday it was taking its technology inside potentially hazardous tanks used in the sector.
The firm, which has offices in Middlesex, Aberdeen, the US, Malaysia and Abu Dhabi, is claiming a world first in the delivery of commercial drone-based internal tank inspections for the global oil and gas market.
Its move into inspections inside critical parts of oil and gas production follows a tie-up with Swiss drone manufacturer Flyability.
Sky-Futures said its new preferred partner status gave it priority access to specialist drone hardware, while the two companies would work together on rapidly developing and growing “market leading” internal tank inspection technology and associated software to significantly improve safety, cut costs and improve efficiency in the industry.
Current internal tank inspection techniques require people to climb inside dangerous and potentially chemically hazardous tanks,” Sky-Futures said, adding: “This process is fraught with danger, time-consuming and delivers low quality data sets.
“The Flyability and Sky-Futures drone-based solution allows inspections to take place without personnel entering the tank, significantly reducing risk to life and improving both the quality and repeatability of the data sets.
“This combination of benefits not only reduces risk and cost but, through the Sky-Futures cloud and data analysis software, will allow clients to identify trends with identified anomalies.”
Sky-Futures chief technology officer Adrian Karl said: “Working with Flyability, we will be able to rapidly deploy this innovative internal tank inspection capability – offering clients more efficient operations, planning and maintenance of their internal tank infrastructure.”
Flyability chief executive Patrick Thevoz added: “This partnership with Sky-Futures is an important milestone on our path to increase efficiency and decrease risk for our oil and gas customers.
“Our collision-tolerant drone technology allows clients to perform inspections in areas out of reach of any other current technology.”
Founded in 2009, Sky-Futures is backed financially by helicopter operator Bristow Group and London-based venture-capital fund MMC Ventures.
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