Did you know that the Colombian state-owned petroleum company ecopetrol uses aquatic drones as a technology for new exploration activities?
There is a very marked limitation when performing diving activities in deep offshore waters for oil exploration activities referred to the fact that sailors can only perform their operations at a maximum depth of 1 km, however the proposal of ecopetrol which is the Colombian state oil company is to start using aquatic drones and facilitate the minimization of these operations.
In the Guajira peninsula, in an area of approximately 10 thousand square kilometers, ecopetrol estimates to be able to carry out an exploration to discover new oil reserves using four unmanned aquatic drones.
These drones are very important to carry out exploration activities in the waters of the Colombian Caribbean Sea in this area of the Colombian Guajira, since by means of these equipment it is intended to measure currents, temperature, salinity, pressure, concentrations of components such as dissolved oxygen, dissolved organic matter and chlorophyll in these oceanic waters.
With these measurements and depending on the concentrations found of some materials of organic origin, the existence of hydrocarbon in the area may prevail, however with these equipments not only ecopetrol is limited to obtain these parameters, but they can also detect hydrocarbon seepage that may occur naturally on the seabed, this last measurement referred to seepage may be the most potential indicators of the presence of oil and natural gas, so if so, they will be ready to acoustically monitor the study area during seismic operations.
Technology is increasingly immersed in oil activities to facilitate work and minimize operational risks, the other thing to consider is that exploration activities have high risk of error to discern the existence of hydrocarbons, so the use of aquatic drones can also help to increase the probability of deciding whether to drill in this area having a high certainty that there is hydrocarbon.
Reference consulted and recommended
Aquatic drones, Ecopetrol's strategy for new explorations
Technology is really getting more advanced. I have heard of other types of drones but not aquatic drones. It is good to know that drones can now be used to monitor seismic operations. Thanks for sharing buddy
Interesting application for drones, really this technology finds many uses, and especially in this case that deep water exploration represents a risk for divers, the oil industry must use all the technological tools that are available to improve their activities and reduce their impact. Thank you for informing us of this news my friend, best regards.
Hello @carlos84
Here in Colombia I recently read that drones will be used to take photos from above when traffic accidents occur, so it seems to me that the use of drones in many other areas will become commonplace.
Greetings dear friend @carlos84.
As usual you share with us another great delivery related to the hydrocarbon area, actually I did not know that ECOPETROL was implementing drones for oil exploration activities, this is another example of the great influence of technology in our lives.
Thanks for sharing such interesting content with all of us. Best of luck.