Opeimizing Operation Oversight of Bahrain Field through Aerial Survey

Abstract

The Bahrain Oil Field is located in a desert environment in the south-central area of the Kingdom of Bahrain and spans approximately 25% of the island. The Bahrain Field was discovered in the early 1930s and is recognized as the first oil field developed in the Arabian Gulf. Recently, Tatweer Petroleum introduced advanced Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAV), also known as (Drones), to address the unique needs of its daily operation by providing a safe, efficient, and cost-effective maintenance and inspection solutions. This paper demonstrates the valuable benefits of utilizing UAV (Drones) in the oil and gas industry in three main areas: ‘Security, Surveillance, and Emergency Response,’ ‘Inspection and Maintenance,’ and ‘Surveying and Mapping.’ Under the Security and Surveillance front, Tatweer Petroleum is facing operational safety issues and security threats that require real-time response solutions, and the need to provide rapid, precise, and reliable situational awareness. Tatweer’s Drones support the Security team with dynamic perimeter surveillance, intruder alerts, and critical equipment and process monitoring. Additionally, the Drones are used to support the emergency response team as a professional tool for rapid aerial incident investigation, evacuation, monitoring, and remote hazard detection. Preventive maintenance inspection is another application area where Drones can play a vital role. This is especially true when it comes to inaccessible operational assets due to their physical location (e.g. overhead power lines insulators), sheer magnitude (e.g. solar cell farm), or an inherent process hazard (e.g. flare stacks). Airborne cameras with advanced spectral imaging technology and powerful magnification optics can capture, analyze, and identify particular anomalies such as oil or gas leaks and pre-failure overheats, and provide vivid close-up images of fatigued structures and micro failures in plants and assets. This is a great cost-effective and efficient method for inspection and failure prevention. Surveying and mapping an industrial environment is time-consuming, difficult, and often dangerous. Tatweer Petroleum used the Drones to allow surveyors and mappers to collect unlimited aerial data with precise measurements, while saving time, money, and manpower. It also provides premium processing and analytics capabilities to support critical processes such as stock pile volume measurements, terrain mapping, site planning etc. The Drones are preprogrammed to automatically cover any particular area in the Bahrain Field. The survey data produces highly accurate, best-in-class orthophotos and digital elevation models.