Industries / Oil & Gas

Drone Inspection for Oil & Gas Facilities

Pipeline integrity walks that take days on foot. Scaffolding builds that cost six figures and delay turnarounds. Confined-space entries that put personnel at risk. Traditional inspection methods in oil and gas are slow, expensive, and dangerous — and regulatory pressure from PHMSA and OSHA only increases every year. Our FAA Part 107 certified drone operations deliver the same data faster, safer, and at a fraction of the cost across the Houston energy corridor and beyond.

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Services for Oil & Gas

Pipeline ROW Inspection

Systematic aerial survey of pipeline rights-of-way to identify vegetation encroachment, third-party activity, erosion, exposed pipe, and ground movement. Our flights cover miles of corridor in a single day, supporting PHMSA regulatory compliance and your pipeline integrity management program (IMP). We capture high-resolution orthomosaics and georeferenced imagery that integrates directly with your GIS and pipeline management systems.

Tank Farm & AST Inspection

Close-range visual inspection of aboveground storage tank shells, roofs, floating roof seals, and secondary containment berms. Our drone data supports API 653 tank inspection programs by providing detailed documentation of shell corrosion, roof membrane condition, pontoon drainage, staining patterns, and settlement indicators — all without erecting scaffolding or taking tanks out of service for rope access.

Flare Stack & Elevated Structure Inspection

High-altitude drone inspection of flare tips, derricks, columns, and distillation towers up to 300 feet. Eliminate the need for scaffolding, cranes, or manned climbing to assess refractory condition, tip erosion, structural connections, and wind guy anchors. Our thermal and visual payload captures surface defects invisible from ground level, with imagery resolved to sub-centimeter detail.

Facility & Refinery Monitoring

Recurring aerial monitoring programs for refineries, gas plants, compressor stations, and processing facilities. We detect corrosion under insulation (CUI) with calibrated radiometric thermal cameras, survey cooling tower fill condition, map laydown yards, and document unit turnaround progress. Flights are coordinated with your operations team to maintain continuous production with zero hot-work conflicts.

Zero Personnel at Height

Eliminate scaffolding, rope access, and manned climbing for external visual inspections on tanks, towers, and flare stacks — removing the highest-risk activities from your OSHA recordable exposure.

Regulatory-Ready Documentation

Deliverables aligned with API 653, API 510, API 570, and PHMSA inspection requirements. Timestamped, georeferenced imagery provides an auditable record for regulators and insurers.

No Shutdowns Required

Inspect operating equipment without production interruptions, hot-work permits, or unit isolation. Drone flights coordinate with live operations to maintain throughput during inspection campaigns.

Thermal Anomaly Detection

Calibrated radiometric thermal cameras identify corrosion under insulation (CUI), refractory degradation, heat exchanger fouling, and abnormal temperature gradients across piping and vessels.

GIS-Integrated Datasets

All imagery and survey data is delivered with embedded coordinates compatible with ArcGIS, QGIS, and your pipeline management system for direct overlay on existing asset maps.

80% Faster Turnaround

What takes a ground crew days to inspect is completed in hours by drone. Rapid data collection means faster reporting, faster decisions, and shorter intervals between integrity assessments.

Scope & Site Review

We review your inspection scope, P&IDs, and site access requirements. We confirm airspace authorization (LAANC or Part 107 waiver), coordinate with facility HSE, and submit a site-specific flight plan and Job Safety Analysis (JSA).

Mobilization & Flight Ops

Our FAA Part 107 certified pilots deploy with visual, thermal, and LiDAR payloads as required. Flights are coordinated with your control room and operations team to avoid hot-work zones, live flares, and restricted airspace. All operations follow your facility’s contractor safety requirements.

Data Processing & Analysis

Raw imagery is processed into orthomosaics, 3D point clouds, thermal maps, and annotated inspection media. Our team reviews every frame, flags anomalies, and categorizes findings by severity and asset location for your integrity management system.

Reporting & Integration

You receive a complete inspection package: annotated PDF report, raw and processed datasets, GIS layers, and an executive summary. We walk your team through findings and deliver data in formats that plug directly into your CMMS or asset management platform.

Why Drone Data

Why Oil & Gas Needs Drone Inspection

The oil and gas industry operates under some of the most demanding safety and environmental regulations in the world. OSHA 1910 and 1926 standards govern personnel exposure to heights, confined spaces, and hazardous atmospheres. PHMSA's pipeline safety regulations (49 CFR Parts 192 and 195) require operators to patrol and inspect pipeline rights-of-way at defined intervals. API standards — including API 510 for pressure vessels, API 570 for piping, and API 653 for aboveground storage tanks — mandate regular external visual inspections that traditionally require scaffolding, rope access, or full unit shutdowns.

The cost of these traditional methods is staggering. A single tank scaffolding build can exceed $80,000 and take weeks to erect and dismantle. Pipeline ROW patrols on foot or by helicopter burn through budgets while delivering inconsistent documentation. And every confined-space entry or work-at-height event carries an inherent risk of serious injury or fatality — risks that OSHA recordable incident rates confirm are disproportionately high in the energy sector.

Drone inspection addresses each of these challenges directly. UAS platforms equipped with high-resolution visual, thermal, and LiDAR sensors collect inspection-grade data without putting a single person in a hazardous position. Flights are completed in hours rather than days. The resulting datasets — georeferenced, timestamped, and delivered in standard engineering formats — provide an auditable record that satisfies regulatory and insurance documentation requirements.

Beyond compliance, aerial data gives operators a competitive advantage in asset management. Thermal imaging detects corrosion under insulation (CUI) before it causes a leak. Photogrammetric models track tank settlement and structural deflection over time. Volumetric calculations from drone survey data verify inventory and earthwork quantities to engineering accuracy. This is not a replacement for your mechanical integrity program — it is a force multiplier that makes every inspection dollar go further.

What You Get
Annotated PDF Inspection Reports Visual reports with annotated imagery flagging defects by severity, location, and recommended action.
GIS-Compatible Datasets Georeferenced orthomosaics, point clouds, and shapefiles in GeoTIFF, LAS/LAZ, SHP, and KML formats.
Radiometric Thermal Imagery Calibrated thermal maps with absolute temperature data for CUI detection and refractory assessment.
Volumetric Calculations & 3D Models Photogrammetric surface models for stockpile volume, tank settlement tracking, and earthwork verification.

Schedule Your Pipeline Inspection

Whether you need a one-time tank assessment or an ongoing pipeline ROW monitoring program, we are ready to scope your project and get boots — and drones — on site.

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