UAV-based remote sensing for the petroleum industry and environmental monitoring: State-of-the-art and perspectives

An unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV), popularly known as a drone, is an aircraft without a human pilot aboard. Recent developments in sensor technology and navigation systems have made drones a powerful and reliable basis for professional data acquisition. Today, the use of UAVs has expanded massively in the civil and commercial sectors and this technology has found its way into almost every industrial sector including the petroleum industry. Drone technology offers a great potential to revolutionize the mapping, monitoring, inspection, and surveillance procedures of the petroleum industry by providing a faster, safer, and more cost-efficient way of mass data collection. This article offers a review of the common UAV platforms and sensor systems and highlights the state-of-the-art and application examples of drone remote sensing in the oil and gas industry. Six broad areas are recognized comprising offshore oil spill detection, oil leakage detection, pipeline monitoring, gas emission sensing, remote facility inspection, petroleum exploration (i.e., land surveying, geologic mapping, and petroleum exploration), and environmental monitoring. Research gaps and open issues along with opportunities for further developments in each of these areas are highlighted.