Drone News

Saipem Testing Hydrone-R Resident Vehicle

Jul 14, 2019

Italian services firm Saipem said it has started functional testing on its Hydrone-R underwater resident vehicle at Sonsub facilities in Venice.The advanced underwater intervention drone is being launched in water for a comprehensive qualification…

Floater Sector Active Despite Market Volatility

Jul 08, 2019

Activity in the floating production sector has not been slowed by the recent volatility seen across global oil markets, according to a recent report by World Energy Reports (WER).Brent oil, which had reached as high as the mid $70 range earlier this year…

Oil Rises Toward $65

Jul 09, 2019

Oil rose towards $65 a barrel on Tuesday as OPEC supply cuts and Middle East tensions outweighed the U.S.-China trade dispute that has been dragging down the global economy and oil demand.OPEC and its allies led by Russia agreed last week to extend their supply-cutting deal until March 2020…

Esvagt Eyes Offshore Wind with New Hire

Jul 03, 2019

Esvagt, provider of emergency rescue and response vessels and related services to the offshore energy industry, said it has appointed a new head of business development to lead a push into new services, including in offshore wind.The Danish…

New Tech for Wind Blade Inspections

Jun 24, 2019

Drones and crawling robots outfitted with special scanning technology could help wind blades stay in service longer, which may help lower the cost of wind energy at a time when blades are getting bigger, pricier and harder to transport, Sandia National Laboratories researchers say…

Brent Oil Climbed 5% This Week

Jun 21, 2019

Brent oil rallied above $65 per barrel on Friday and was on track for a 5% gain this week on fears of a U.S. military attack on Iran that would disrupt flows from the Middle East, which provides more than a fifth of the world's oil output.Brent crude was up $0…

ICR Acquires Drone Company

May 09, 2019

UK-based asset integrity firm ICR has acquired drone inspection company Sky-Futures Partners. ICR says the acquisition facilitates the next phase of ICR’s inspection service offering. Sky-Futures has eight years of experience in 28 countries…

DEME Offshore, SABCA Sign Drone Pact

Mar 03, 2019

Two Belgian companies - Aerospace industry supplier SABCA and DEME Offshore - have formed a partnership to use drones for inspection services in the offshore wind energy industry.SABCA, a leading tier 1 aerospace industry supplier and DEME Offshore…

The “Disruption” in AUV Trends

Feb 15, 2019

Missions—it’s all a question of missions. The mission decides the payload, battery capacity, size and processing power of an autonomous underwater vehicle, or AUV. King among these is payload, from which market disruption is just waiting to happen…

Rise of the robot in offshore operations

Jan 10, 2018

2017 became the year that the oil and gas industry embraced robotics. Elaine Maslin reports on initiatives in the North Sea (first published in the January 2018 OE, access the full issue here). While the industry has long been using autonomous underwater systems and remotely operated tooling…

Technology trials point toward shorter shut-downs

Dec 22, 2017

A series of trials in the North Sea to test non-intrusive inspection (NII) techniques have shown that they can offer similar results to traditional intrusive methods. Non-intrusive inspection technologies could mean operators do not have to shut-in equipment…

OE17: We have big data - let's use it

Sep 07, 2017

Upstream has fallen behind its “poor cousin” downstream in terms of performance, according to Simon Flowers, Chairman, Energy and Chief Analyst, Wood Mackenzie.  “Over the last six years (2010-2016), upstream has had shocking performance…

Rising tides

Jul 01, 2017

Elaine Maslin examines the market for wave and tidal, and reports on industry efforts to drive down costs and eventually scale up. A Tocardo device, supported on a Damen-built “UFS,” at Hatston Pier…

Blueye Robotics launches underwater drone

May 19, 2017

Trondheim, Noway-based Blueye Robotics has developed an underwater drone called Blueye Pioneer, which the company says allows shipowners, vessel crew, and shipyards to perform hull inspections without the need of divers or ROVs (remotely operated vehicles)…

GE Ventures launches inspection services startup

Jun 13, 2017

General Electric’s (GE) investment arm GE Ventures on Tuesday announced the startup of Avitas Systems, which will use predictive data analytics, robotics, and artificial intelligence to deliver advanced inspection services to the oil and gas…

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