Austrian company Schiebel has demonstrated its Camcopter S-100 to a large European oil and gas corporation in Rivers State, Nigeria, to monitor and control oil and gas infrastructure, both onshore and offshore.
The demonstration took place between 27 and 30 January, Schiebel said. Representatives of the Nigerian Civil Aviation Authority, the Nigerian Air Force, the Nigerian Navy, the Nigerian Army, Kongsberg Geospatial and local UAS service provider Aerial Robotix, among others, attended the event.
The S-100 completed a number of day and night flights monitoring pipeline Rights-of-Way (ROW), inspecting oil and gas wellheads/facilities and performing first-line maintenance checks, including detection of leaks and fluid levels of storage tanks. The S-100 was also able to detect various third party illegal activities on the client’s pipeline ROW. Kongsberg Geospatial’s IRIS UAS situational awareness application supported the safe conduct of this Beyond Visual Line Of Sight (BVLOS) operation.
“We were approached by one of our clients to carry out proof of concept BVLOS trials in Nigeria with a proven, reliable UAS that could safely carry the client’s payload,” said Tudor Moss of Aerial Robotix.
“Monitoring and maintaining remote oil and gas facilities is a challenging and dangerous task that can derive considerable benefits and cost-savings from the use of unmanned systems,” noted Hans Georg Schiebel, Chairman of the Schiebel Group.
The S-100 Vertical Takeoff and Landing (VTOL) UAS requires no prepared area or supporting equipment to enable launch and recovery. It operates by day and by night, under adverse weather conditions, with a beyond line-of-sight capability out to 200 km. It has a service ceiling of up to 5 500 metres and carries a 34 kg payload up to 10 hours.
