Offshore inspection for Dubai Petroleum (photo: Cyberhawk)

As part of a framework agreement with Dubai Petroleum, Cyberhawk was appointed to inspect more than 350 risers on 63 offshore platforms. The inspection took only one month to complete, followed by the production of over 90 detailed engineering inspection reports.

The rationale behind Dubai Petroleum’s use of UAVs was to quickly complete detailed inspections of all their risers. Risers are traditionally a difficult area of an offshore platform to inspect; in the under deck and the splash zone, options for access, such as abseiling or scaffolding, are limited, extremely time consuming and very expensive.

Using UAVs as a scanning tool, the high-quality reports produced by the Cyberhawk team allowed the client to plan contact-based inspections or repairs. Additionally, now that a full inspection has been completed on all risers, defects can be tracked over time to understand their long-term degradation.

Daily reports were produced to notify Dubai Petroleum of potentially serious defects, with detailed inspection reports produced thereafter by Cyberhawk’s experienced oil and gas inspection team.

On the same project, an additional three elevated flare stacks and 24 bridges were inspected, maximising the value of the mobilisation.

Dubai Petroleum’s Asset Integrity Manager reports, “Having worked with Cyberhawk in the past, we understand and appreciate the potential on offer from UAV inspections. This confidence led us to use UAVs in a new area within our business; this risers survey project. The campaign was a great success and we are pleased with the outcome. The speed and efficiency with which this project was completed has proven that the scope and application of UAV inspection can be expanded for our requirements, and we look forward to continuing our relationship with Cyberhawk in the future.”

Tags: Cyberhawk, Dubai Petroleum