remotely piloted aircraft in oil, gas and mineral ... · rpa in oil, gas and mineral exploration 18...

37
RAeS Conference “Towards commercial exploitation of Unmanned Aircraft” Thursday 11 th November 2010 Remotely Piloted Aircraft in oil, gas and mineral exploration and production activities Dr Joseph Barnard [email protected] Barnard Microsystems Limited 134 Crouch Hill London N8 9DX U.K.

Upload: others

Post on 16-Aug-2020

3 views

Category:

Documents


1 download

TRANSCRIPT

Page 1: Remotely Piloted Aircraft in oil, gas and mineral ... · RPA in oil, gas and mineral exploration 18 Object detection and identification at 600 feet from a moving aircraft. Above:

RAeS Conference “Towards commercial exploitation of Unmanned Aircraft”Thursday 11th November 2010

Remotely Piloted Aircraft in oil, gas and mineral exploration and production activities

Dr Joseph [email protected]

Barnard Microsystems Limited134 Crouch Hill

London N8 9DX U.K.

Page 2: Remotely Piloted Aircraft in oil, gas and mineral ... · RPA in oil, gas and mineral exploration 18 Object detection and identification at 600 feet from a moving aircraft. Above:

RPA in oil, gas and mineral exploration 2

Unmanned Aircraft

Dyke Weatherington, author of the DoD “Unmanned Systems Roadmap 2007 – 2032” summed up the role of military Unmanned Systems as being missions that were:

dull, dirty and / or dangerous.

In oil, gas and mineral exploration and production activities, there are additional potential roles for UA:

where they can get better quality data;

where the low operating cost allows them to be used on a routine basis.

Page 3: Remotely Piloted Aircraft in oil, gas and mineral ... · RPA in oil, gas and mineral exploration 18 Object detection and identification at 600 feet from a moving aircraft. Above:

RPA in oil, gas and mineral exploration 3

Unmanned Aircraft have already been used in Exploration & Production activities

Oil pipeline monitoring

Aeronautics Defence Systems provide pipelinemonitoring services in Angola to ChevronTexaco under a $ 4 million contract.

More recently, Aeronautics Defence Systems have provided a comprehensive coastal patrol service in Nigeria for $ 260 million, using a combination of unmanned aircraft, unmanned ships and Ground Control Stations.

from UAV SystemsThe Global Perspective 2005by Blyenburgh & Co

Page 4: Remotely Piloted Aircraft in oil, gas and mineral ... · RPA in oil, gas and mineral exploration 18 Object detection and identification at 600 feet from a moving aircraft. Above:

RPA in oil, gas and mineral exploration 4

The problems with satellite imagery

“It can take up to 14 days for the Low Earth Orbit satellite to be over the area of interest.”

“Satellite bandwidth is both limited and expensive at the present time.”

Clouds can obscure part, or all, of the underlying terrain of interest.

Page 5: Remotely Piloted Aircraft in oil, gas and mineral ... · RPA in oil, gas and mineral exploration 18 Object detection and identification at 600 feet from a moving aircraft. Above:

RPA in oil, gas and mineral exploration 5

Magnetic field surveys: a popular geophysical application of Unmanned Aircraft

A survey in which the Earth’s magnetic field is measured using high resolution, lightweight, Caesium beam magnetometers, mounted at the wing tips, as shown below.

MagSurvey Prion by Magsurvey Limited, from http://www.magsurvey.co.uk/

magnetometer

magnetometer

Page 6: Remotely Piloted Aircraft in oil, gas and mineral ... · RPA in oil, gas and mineral exploration 18 Object detection and identification at 600 feet from a moving aircraft. Above:

RPA in oil, gas and mineral exploration 6

Universal Wing surveys completed in 2007 from Princeton, British Columbia

26 MAR 2007 – 10 APR 20071,600 line km Alberta, Canada: $24k

16 APR 2007 – 30 AUG 2007>20,000 line kmNunavut, Canada: $300k

20 OCT 2007 – 23 NOV 2007>6,500 line kmNorthwest Territories, Canada: $97.5k

Quality magnetic field data

Unmanned Aircraft can fly at lower elevations and slowerthan manned aircraft and can deliver helicopter-like data quality at a fraction of the cost.

“We use a high performance Cesium magnetometer (model G-823A) to provide high sensitivity of 0.004nT/sqrt(Hz) RMS. This facilitates high quality data acquisition.”

Page 7: Remotely Piloted Aircraft in oil, gas and mineral ... · RPA in oil, gas and mineral exploration 18 Object detection and identification at 600 feet from a moving aircraft. Above:

RPA in oil, gas and mineral exploration 7

From Christer Broman at ConocoPhillips

Page 8: Remotely Piloted Aircraft in oil, gas and mineral ... · RPA in oil, gas and mineral exploration 18 Object detection and identification at 600 feet from a moving aircraft. Above:

RPA in oil, gas and mineral exploration 8

What are the compelling capabilities of Unmanned Aircraft?

QinetiQ

Zephyr

Page 9: Remotely Piloted Aircraft in oil, gas and mineral ... · RPA in oil, gas and mineral exploration 18 Object detection and identification at 600 feet from a moving aircraft. Above:

RPA in oil, gas and mineral exploration 9

From a presentation by James Macnae at SEG 2006

Unmanned Aircraft can fly all night, night after night, at low levels (such as 50 feet AGL). UA made from carbon fibre create no induced eddy currents and lower magnetic fields.

Unmanned Aircraft can fly when the electrical and magnetic noise levels are low

Quiet period from midnight to noon

Page 10: Remotely Piloted Aircraft in oil, gas and mineral ... · RPA in oil, gas and mineral exploration 18 Object detection and identification at 600 feet from a moving aircraft. Above:

RPA in oil, gas and mineral exploration 10

Unmanned Aircraft can fly where pilots prefer not to go

As exploration activities move to the more hostile regions of the Earth, such as the Arctic Ocean, and to more politically unstable areas, expect to see a growing use of Unmanned Aircraft operating in areas where it would be irresponsible to expect pilots to fly:

low level, night flights over the Arctic Ocean;

flights over regions in which there is low level strife, where the larger manned survey aircraft provide target practice and some excitement for the locals.

Page 11: Remotely Piloted Aircraft in oil, gas and mineral ... · RPA in oil, gas and mineral exploration 18 Object detection and identification at 600 feet from a moving aircraft. Above:

RPA in oil, gas and mineral exploration 11

Unmanned Aircraft collect higher resolution data

Being smaller and always flying using precision navigation, the Unmanned Aircraft can fly closer to the ground (“tight drape”) and collect higher resolution data.

Page 12: Remotely Piloted Aircraft in oil, gas and mineral ... · RPA in oil, gas and mineral exploration 18 Object detection and identification at 600 feet from a moving aircraft. Above:

RPA in oil, gas and mineral exploration 12

The advantages of using Unmanned Aircraft in E & P activities

Unmanned Aircraft create less of a disturbance to the parameters being measured such as the magnetic, or, gravitational field, since they are smaller and are often constructed using non-metallic materials, typically carbon fibre. However, the instruments are closer to sources of electrical noise on the aircraft.

Unmanned Aircraft cost less to operate per line km, since:

o an Unmanned Aircraft operator can manage several UA at the same time;

o the Unmanned Aircraft uses less than 20% of the fuel used by a manned aircraft

Small Unmanned Aircraft are more environmentally friendly since they:

o require less materials to build and is easier to dispose of at the end of its life;

o use less fuel and creates less pollution per km travelled;

o make less noise in flight;

Unmanned Aircraft can routinely fly missions covering the same area, day after day, to perform measurements for use in change detection and data averaging:

o detecting a leak in an oil pipeline using differential thermal and / or SAR imaging.

Page 13: Remotely Piloted Aircraft in oil, gas and mineral ... · RPA in oil, gas and mineral exploration 18 Object detection and identification at 600 feet from a moving aircraft. Above:

RPA in oil, gas and mineral exploration 13

However, Unmanned Aircraft have not yet seen widespread deployment...

Unmanned Aircraft are not permitted to fly in un-segregated air space.

UA do not have a protected aeronautical frequency band.

UA are not sufficiently reliable. Many Unmanned Aircraft in use today are single engine experimental or state aircraft, and experience human, mechanical and other failures.

Many UA have not yet clocked up sufficient flight hours to provide data for a convincing safety case, without which the National Aviation Authorities, such as the FAA, the CAA, will not issue of Certificate of Authorization (“COA”) to fly even in restricted air space.

There are legal uncertainties surrounding an Unmanned Aircraft crash that need to be resolved in a court case. This uncertainty increases the insurance costs, and can blow the business case out of the water. Even without the legal uncertainties, insurance costs are inversely related to flight hours, and one typically needs $10 million of insurance cover.

UA do not yet have a detect and avoid system to enable them to detect and avoid other airborne objects, such as the farmer flying a Cessna in the Canadian outback.

Government security services need to be sure the Unmanned Aircraft cannot be used by criminals or terrorists.

Page 14: Remotely Piloted Aircraft in oil, gas and mineral ... · RPA in oil, gas and mineral exploration 18 Object detection and identification at 600 feet from a moving aircraft. Above:

RPA in oil, gas and mineral exploration 14

It will take a few years before we see UA in widespread commercial applications...

UA systems developers are getting their flight hours and experience in the military sector.

Page 15: Remotely Piloted Aircraft in oil, gas and mineral ... · RPA in oil, gas and mineral exploration 18 Object detection and identification at 600 feet from a moving aircraft. Above:

RPA in oil, gas and mineral exploration 15

Page 16: Remotely Piloted Aircraft in oil, gas and mineral ... · RPA in oil, gas and mineral exploration 18 Object detection and identification at 600 feet from a moving aircraft. Above:

RPA in oil, gas and mineral exploration 16

sniper

Militia with RPG

children

Militia with AK47

IED

Civilians

Page 17: Remotely Piloted Aircraft in oil, gas and mineral ... · RPA in oil, gas and mineral exploration 18 Object detection and identification at 600 feet from a moving aircraft. Above:

RPA in oil, gas and mineral exploration 17

Aerial photography: the most popular civilian application of Unmanned Aircraft

Photo taken with a midsize Canon G10

This, however, is not good enough for use in oil and gas pipeline monitoring.

We need to be able to read number plates and identify faces and objects from at least 600 feet with no image enhancement to enable real time data interpretation on the unmanned aircraft.

Page 18: Remotely Piloted Aircraft in oil, gas and mineral ... · RPA in oil, gas and mineral exploration 18 Object detection and identification at 600 feet from a moving aircraft. Above:

RPA in oil, gas and mineral exploration 18

Object detection and identification at 600 feet from a moving aircraft.

Above: side looking photograph using a 100mm MACRO lens and camera travelling at 30 mph.

In the above photographs, using a professional “L” series image stabilised Canon lens:ISO setting = 800shutter speed = 1/2,000 second

Page 19: Remotely Piloted Aircraft in oil, gas and mineral ... · RPA in oil, gas and mineral exploration 18 Object detection and identification at 600 feet from a moving aircraft. Above:

RPA in oil, gas and mineral exploration 19

Exploration and Production activities take place throughout the world...

From a climate point of view, the Arctic region has some of the most severe weather conditions one could encounter:

total darkness (in winter time)

temperatures: drops to -40C

spray icing

snow and ice

Part of the Trans Alaska Pipeline, from http://www.usgs.gov

Page 20: Remotely Piloted Aircraft in oil, gas and mineral ... · RPA in oil, gas and mineral exploration 18 Object detection and identification at 600 feet from a moving aircraft. Above:

RPA in oil, gas and mineral exploration 20

Exploration and Production activities take place throughout the world...

In North Africa and in the Middle East, a survey plane could encounter:

temperatures that reach +50C during the day;

abrasive sand storms.

Above: pipeline in Saudi Arabia.

Right: Satellite photograph of a dust storm showing fine sand from Morocco and Western Sahara (below Morocco) being blown over to Lanzarote and Fuertaventura.

Canary Islands

Morocco

Page 21: Remotely Piloted Aircraft in oil, gas and mineral ... · RPA in oil, gas and mineral exploration 18 Object detection and identification at 600 feet from a moving aircraft. Above:

RPA in oil, gas and mineral exploration 21

Quite sophisticated image processing and interpretation capabilities are needed.

Both human and computer based image interpretation are used because of concerns about the capabilities of automated image processing and interpretation.

However, on a typical 5 hour mission, we collect 54,000 high resolution (21 MPixel) digital photographs so human photo interpretation is difficult to sustain.

Page 22: Remotely Piloted Aircraft in oil, gas and mineral ... · RPA in oil, gas and mineral exploration 18 Object detection and identification at 600 feet from a moving aircraft. Above:

RPA in oil, gas and mineral exploration 22

Quite sophisticated image processing and interpretation capabilities are needed.

Both human and computer based image interpretation are used because of concerns about the capabilities of automated image processing and interpretation.

However, on a typical 5 hour mission, we collect 54,000 high resolution (21 MPixel) digital photographs so human photo interpretation is difficult to sustain.

Page 23: Remotely Piloted Aircraft in oil, gas and mineral ... · RPA in oil, gas and mineral exploration 18 Object detection and identification at 600 feet from a moving aircraft. Above:

RPA in oil, gas and mineral exploration 23

Many geophysical survey instruments weigh less than 10 kg

High resolution (24.6 MPixel) digital camera

1.55 um InGaAs based near infrared and thermal imaging cameras

Polarimetric (dual polarization) hyper-spectral imaging system

Scanning LIDAR or mm RADAR unit for digital elevation mapping (DEM)

Caesium or Potassium magnetometer for use in magnetic mapping

Quantum cascade laser for ethane detection

Miniature SAR (such as the ImSAR NanoSAR)

Payload = 4 Kg (10 kg is better)

Above: the 1 kg short range NanoSAR from ImSAR, http://www.imsar.net/ has flown on a Scan Eagle

Page 24: Remotely Piloted Aircraft in oil, gas and mineral ... · RPA in oil, gas and mineral exploration 18 Object detection and identification at 600 feet from a moving aircraft. Above:

RPA in oil, gas and mineral exploration 24

Other geophysical survey instruments weigh more than 100 kg

Gravity meter (absolute or gradient): 450 kg + (could be made lighter, but needs research)

Gamma ray sensor: ~250 kg (very difficult to make lighter)

Airborne ElectroMagnetic (AEM) probing: 1,000 amp pulses, 4 mSec long into a 24 m diameter, 6 turn, coil.

Fugro Airborne Services AEM aircraft fitted out with a large electromagnetic coil.

Page 25: Remotely Piloted Aircraft in oil, gas and mineral ... · RPA in oil, gas and mineral exploration 18 Object detection and identification at 600 feet from a moving aircraft. Above:

RPA in oil, gas and mineral exploration 2525

A 2 amp current is passed through the coil wrapped around the Advanced Ceramics Silver Fox, shown above. The current in the coil is modulated at 88 kHz. A sensing coil towed behind the aircraft detected the signals from the underground targets, enabling the Unmanned Aircraft to detect underground tunnels and buried wires.

Work reported by Mark Patterson.

However, low level flying does enable the UA to perform AEM surveys.

Page 26: Remotely Piloted Aircraft in oil, gas and mineral ... · RPA in oil, gas and mineral exploration 18 Object detection and identification at 600 feet from a moving aircraft. Above:

RPA in oil, gas and mineral exploration 26

A suitable range for an Unmanned Aircraft engaged in geophysical survey work

A development survey typically covers an area of 20 x 20 = 400 square kilometers:

o total distance for 100m scan line separation = 4,800 kmo typical cost for a manned survey = $ 60,000o performed in 8 flights, each with a 600 km range use 1 or 2 UA

For a typical exploration survey covering a 100 x 100 = 10,000 square km region:

o total distance for 250m scan line separation = 44,000 kmo typical cost for a manned survey = $ 600,000o performed in 72 flights, each with a 610 km range use 4 to 6 UA

One of the longest oil pipelines in the world is the 1,768 Km Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan (BTC):

o locate UA base in each of the three countries: 445 km in Azerbaijan245 km in Georgia1,078 km in Turkey

A UA with a range of 600 to 800 km would be suitable for the above work.

Suitable Range = 600 km to 800 km

Page 27: Remotely Piloted Aircraft in oil, gas and mineral ... · RPA in oil, gas and mineral exploration 18 Object detection and identification at 600 feet from a moving aircraft. Above:

RPA in oil, gas and mineral exploration 27

Caution over Unmanned Aircraft System prices: UA Systems can be expensive.

The price of an Unmanned Aircraft System can exceed the cost of a light manned aircraft.

Unmanned Aircraft have high Non Recurring Engineering (“NRE”) expenses. The NRE costs of the Cessna are in the past. The Cessna is produced in larger quantities on equipment that has been written off.

Page 28: Remotely Piloted Aircraft in oil, gas and mineral ... · RPA in oil, gas and mineral exploration 18 Object detection and identification at 600 feet from a moving aircraft. Above:

RPA in oil, gas and mineral exploration 28

The military requires Unmanned Aircraft:

with long endurance times, to enable them to loiter over an area of interest and watch what is going on below;

that are not easily seen, or heard, as they loiter over an area of interest;

that are agile, so they can escape any attack that might be mounted against them;

now, with the expectation that reliability will improve with time, usage and production.

AAI Shadow 200 Unmanned Aircraft with US Forces in Iraq (photo supplied by AAI Corp).

Page 29: Remotely Piloted Aircraft in oil, gas and mineral ... · RPA in oil, gas and mineral exploration 18 Object detection and identification at 600 feet from a moving aircraft. Above:

RPA in oil, gas and mineral exploration 29

For geomagnetic survey and pipeline monitoring work, we require UA:

with a long range, to enable the Unmanned Aircraft to cover a large survey area, cost effectively, between refueling;

with low vibration engines to enable distant object identification from photographs, and to increase the reliability of the Unmanned Aircraft;

with a low magnetic “signature,” so as not to perturb the sensitive measurements being made;

that fly on a well controlled flight path, to minimize the overlap required between scan lines, to maximize measurement accuracy and enable the use of interferometric SAR;

with a high reliability from the outset.

Page 30: Remotely Piloted Aircraft in oil, gas and mineral ... · RPA in oil, gas and mineral exploration 18 Object detection and identification at 600 feet from a moving aircraft. Above:

RPA in oil, gas and mineral exploration 30

What we were told by the oil, gas and mineral E & P people.

An unmanned aircraft in which we might be interested should:

have two engines, and be able to fly on one (two Cs beam magnetometers cost $40,400);

have a maximum takeoff weight, including fuel, of less than 80 kg (low crash damage);

carry a payload that can weigh up to 4 kg, although 10 kg would be better;

be able to fly at least 300 km (700 km would be even better);

have a low magnetic signature and have a carbon fibre (non-metallic) construction;

be able to takeoff from, and land on, an unprepared grass field;

be transportable in a van;

be usable in countries such as Libya, Algeria, Nigeria, Egypt, Iraq and Pakistan;

cost less than $15 per line km to operate;

form part of a managed service business model, or be available for outright purchase.

Page 31: Remotely Piloted Aircraft in oil, gas and mineral ... · RPA in oil, gas and mineral exploration 18 Object detection and identification at 600 feet from a moving aircraft. Above:

RPA in oil, gas and mineral exploration 31

Example of a long range unmanned aircraft developed for geophysical work.

The twin engine InView UAS, specifically developed for use in civilian applications.

Page 32: Remotely Piloted Aircraft in oil, gas and mineral ... · RPA in oil, gas and mineral exploration 18 Object detection and identification at 600 feet from a moving aircraft. Above:

RPA in oil, gas and mineral exploration 32

The InView unmanned aircraft takes about one hour to both assemble and test.

Big wheels for operation from rough terrain

Forward mounted engines to get the correct centre of gravity:two engines for added safety.

Very light tail section to get the correct centre of gravity

Modular construction for ease of transportation

Page 33: Remotely Piloted Aircraft in oil, gas and mineral ... · RPA in oil, gas and mineral exploration 18 Object detection and identification at 600 feet from a moving aircraft. Above:

RPA in oil, gas and mineral exploration 33

The ability to take-off from, and land on, a rough field is an important advantage.

Flaps deployed, the InView comes in for a precision landing in a grass field.

Page 34: Remotely Piloted Aircraft in oil, gas and mineral ... · RPA in oil, gas and mineral exploration 18 Object detection and identification at 600 feet from a moving aircraft. Above:

RPA in oil, gas and mineral exploration 34

for scientific, commercial and state missions Wingspan 4 m

many safety features, including two engines Payload 4 kg

modular and easily transportable MTOW 20 kg (with payload, no fuel)

can take-off from an unprepared field Endurance 7+ hours

capable of very slow flight Loiter speed 24 kph

high performance sensors Max speed 112 kph

manual and dual mode autopilot flight controller Fuel AVGAS 100LL

on-board computer power for use in real-time sensor data processing Propulsion

2x SAITO FG-30 engines

Total Power = 3.6 kW

Overview of the InView unmanned aircraft developed for geophysical work.

Page 35: Remotely Piloted Aircraft in oil, gas and mineral ... · RPA in oil, gas and mineral exploration 18 Object detection and identification at 600 feet from a moving aircraft. Above:

RPA in oil, gas and mineral exploration 35

Payloads can be carried in the InView fuselage and in under-wing pods.

Under-wing mounted magnetometers,and / or cameras form a stereo pair

Forward looking, high resolution, camera

Down looking, high resolution, camera

Rear looking, high resolution, camera

Side looking, high resolution, cameras are also supported, looking through side windows.

Page 36: Remotely Piloted Aircraft in oil, gas and mineral ... · RPA in oil, gas and mineral exploration 18 Object detection and identification at 600 feet from a moving aircraft. Above:

RPA in oil, gas and mineral exploration 36

In conclusion

Lightweight Unmanned Aircraft have much to offer in oil, gas and mineral exploration and production activities: quality data, lower operating costs and less pollution.

This is realized by staff in oil, gas and mineral exploration and production companies.

The biggest concern expressed to us by staff in the oil, gas and mineral industries has been the UA regulatory issues in the countries in which they wish to operate.

Things move very, very slowly in oil, gas and mineral companies. The attitude is one of let’s avoid risk and wait until someone else does it first: “the race to be second”.

On the regulatory side, work is underway at EuroCAE WG-73, EUROCONTROL, the US RTCA SC-203, the CAA, the FAA, the Australian CASA, to name but a few organisations, to develop recommendations to enable Unmanned Aircraft to fly in un-segregated air space.

A huge amount of experience is being gained in military operations.

Progress in the civilian application of unmanned aircraft is slowly starting to pick up.

Please feel free to contact me at [email protected]

Page 37: Remotely Piloted Aircraft in oil, gas and mineral ... · RPA in oil, gas and mineral exploration 18 Object detection and identification at 600 feet from a moving aircraft. Above:

RPA in oil, gas and mineral exploration 37

RAeS Conference “Towards commercial exploitation of Unmanned Aircraft”Thursday 11th November 2010

Thank you.

Dr Joseph [email protected]

Barnard Microsystems Limited134 Crouch Hill

London N8 9DX U.K.