Session Recap: Energy Drone & Robotics Summit Asset Owner/Operations Roundtable
/At this year’s Energy Drone & Robotics Summit, we heard a panel of asset owners talk about how they use drones and the data they produce in the Energy Asset Owner/Operations Roundtable.
The panel was moderated by Suzanne Lemieux of the American Petroleum Institute (API), and the panelists were:
Shankar Nadarajah, ExxonMobil
Josh Buchanan, Chevron
Katherine Papageorge, Chevron
Marty Robinson, Dow
EDR Summit On Demand
This summary article is great—and I’m definitely biased, but you can also watch this and other 2023 Energy Drone & Robotics Summit sessions on demand.
Key Discussion Points
The panel covered a lot of ground, but some of the main takeaways included:
Streamlining Workflows: Panelists emphasize the importance of seamlessly integrating drone technology into existing operations to streamline workflows, reduce downtime, and enhance safety.
Safety and Automation: Safety and automation are key drivers for adopting drone technology in industrial settings, reducing the need for manual intervention and risky tasks.
Data Utilization: Effective data management and organization are crucial for making the most of drone-collected data. AI/ML technology plays a significant role in processing and extracting insights from unstructured data.
Challenges: Challenges include scaling, regulatory compliance, internal buy-in, data security, and privacy. Organizations need to address these challenges to successfully implement drone programs.
Collaboration: Collaboration between different departments and stakeholders within organizations is essential to maximize the benefits of drone technology.
Scalability and Standardization: Scalability and the need for standardized solutions are central themes for future drone programs, especially at the enterprise level.
Behavioral Changes: Encouraging behavioral changes within organizations to promote drone adoption is critical for success.
Future Focus Areas: Future focus areas include methane detection, drone-in-a-box solutions, baseline facility imagery, and navigating international regulations for UAV implementation.
We’ll go into some of these in this part and others in part 2.
How We Got Here
Each of the panelists gave an overview of their role in their company’s drone programs as well as the history of drones at the organization.
Shankar Nadarajah was brought into ExxonMobil to drive scale and agility in their drone based asset inspection program. “We saw a lot of big wins in Baytown Refinery where I started, and they wanted me to try to replicate those credits, savings, and personnel safety at scale across the globe. And the only way we saw the ability to do that quickly was to immediately start up a program that was heavily third party driven.” The company uses a robust cloud-based management platform and has since expanded into a hybrid network with in-house drone pilots in addition to continued third-party partnerships.
Katherine Papageorge said the Chevron model of operations in this area is pretty decentralized. She was asked to stand up a drone program for her business unit at the time, which she said, “Had seven pilots, five vehicles, and we started doing pretty large scale reporting for regulatory requirements, vegetation assessment, and monitoring—and really showed how valuable some of that data was. Our in-house ability to collect it expedited a lot of our business processes associated with decommissioning.”
Josh Buchanan added some history about drones at Chevron. “Larry Barnard really was the grandfather of drones at Chevron. He’s very passionate, very knowledgeable, kind of got it in front of people, and started building that kind of grassroots support.”
Marty Robinson said Dow has a hybrid system. “We have our aviation group. It has its own drone department that manages globally, but services the US backed up by third party service providers, especially for internal flights. Globally, we have focal points in all the different regions and they manage with Dow Aviation to have best practices and everything with those local service providers.”
Drone Program Challenges
After introductions and a bit of history, the panel jumped right in with what they see as the biggest challenges and opportunities. Each panelist put in their two cents.
Marty Robinson said his biggest challenge at Dow is going beyond what they have now—taking the next steps. They’re working on adding drone-in-a-box solutions, increasing footprint, upping the number of drones flying, and going beyond inspection and maintenance.
Josh Buchanan echoed that response and said his challenge at Chevron is scaling all around, especially in data management and pulling insights from that data. They’re working toward automated insights, which Buchanan says, “I can only get that when I have the right SMEs reviewing the right data at the right time so that I can efficiently build the models and then deploy those models.”
Katherine Papageorge said her biggest challenge is in fluency across her business unit at Chevron. They have big goals in the Permian Basin, and as employees in the field learn about drone capabilities, they need to work within the rules. Papageorge said, “I sometimes run around after them telling them that they can't just pull out their brother-in-law's drone and fly it in a facility.” She continued, “It takes a lot of legwork just building some of that awareness of competencies, regulatory compliance abilities, and just sharing the word of what we do.”
Shankar Nadarajah said he sees his challenge and opportunity at ExxonMobil as managing customer expectations. “We're getting even more information to help tell the story on how to unlock the business problem at hand. And so my customers all want us to drive automation to a scale where we can have a second set of computers operating and overseeing all of our refineries and upstream production facilities and informing us before anything happens. So pretty much predictive maintenance. And to get to that point, you need a sense of automation at a whole new level.”
Return on Investment (ROI) and Business Cases
Next, moderator Suzanne Lemieux asked the panel about what they see as the highest-ROI or best use-case applications for drones in their organization or area.
Katherine Papageorge talked about how calculating a monetary ROI isn’t as clear-cut from an upstream business unit standpoint. She said, “As someone who talks to management, I hate having to say anything is ROI because it's often a cost avoidance or a safety consideration. She said you may not be able to put a dollar number to the safety benefits of fewer drivers and fewer hours on the hazardous road, but the company sees the benefits of drones that can make that safety difference. “When you can put it in terminology of metrics around decreased drive time and decreased personnel exposure to high risk conditions, that really resonates with our management.”
Shankar Nadarajah added onto what Katherine said: “It's very hard to find labor in some of these areas of the country.” He’s focused on ExxonMobil’s growth goals in the Permian Basin, saying, “Some of our largest locations that have wide coverage, limited number of resources, constrained resources, and a lot of assets to inspect—those are big ROI for us—but we need automation.”
Josh Buchanan added comments about planning work. He said, “At the end of the day, what people are really good at is doing work. At Chevron, we're trying to minimize how much time people spend planning work and instead…sending people out there to do what they're best at, which is doing the work.”
Marty Robinson was clear on Dow’s priorities: “Our focus still has really been confined space entry elimination, which is the most hazardous activity that we do in our facilities.” His team is working on having drones that, what they call, “do work” like welding and grinding to keep humans out of confined and hazardous spaces.
Read Part Two Now!
All that knowledge came from just half of this great session.
In a future Energy Drone & Robotics Coalition story, we’ll walk through the rest of the conversation, including the challenges of scaling, data management, and what’s ahead for 2024.
Can’t wait? Watch the full panel (and other sessions) on demand now.
