Offshore staff
BERGEN, Norway – Skyports Drone Services reports that it has partnered with Equinor to trial electric drone deliveries to oil installations in the North Sea. The project aims to demonstrate how on-demand cargo drone services can solve logistical challenges and improve safety and sustainability in the offshore environment.
The two-month flight program, launched in early September, marks the first time that daily, on-demand drone services offshore have been piloted from shore. The highly automated cargo drone, from Swoop Aero, flies distances of up to 114 km, operating cargo deliveries between Equinor’s processing center site in Mongstad on the west coast of Norway and three installations in the Gullfaks oil field in the North Sea, as well as intra-installation. The North Sea operations with Equinor are Skyports Drone Services longest flights to date.
Skyports Drone Services says that it has already operated dozens of flights for the project and is scheduled to operate hundreds more throughout the trial, carrying a range of cargo, including spare parts, equipment and care packages.
For Skyports Drone Services and Equinor alike, a key focus of the trial is to explore how the service can be scaled with minimal human intervention. The aircraft are remotely piloted by a small Skyports Drone Services team from the newly opened Equinor ROC in Bergen.
The aircraft fly automatically with Skyports Drone Services’ remote pilots overseeing the duration of the operations. Equinor staff located on the installations have been trained by Skyports Drone Services to load and unload cargo, switch and charge batteries, and safely interact with the drones, and have completed installation side activities for all flights conducted to date.
The companies say that early project results have been positive and highlight the ease with which deliveries could be extended to include additional installations.
09.15.2023
