Based on our current Unmanned Aerial System (UAS) flying operations with oil and gas majors, we now see the inspection industry complementing their ground sensors with the introduction of aerial remote sensing and information delivery technologies at scale, as a way to mitigate these costs and obsolescence issues.

1. The Benefits of Flying Unmanned Aircraft
Systems at Scale for Asset Managers
The goal of all asset integrity managers — regardless of which
industry they are working in — is to extend the life of their assets
through inspection and maintenance programs.
Leveraging ground sensor technology and an IoT-type platform,
industries have moved from “reactive” maintenance in which repairs
and maintenances are scheduled following recurring physical visits
at sites, to “preventative” maintenance — providing more frequent
and repeatable data sets from the assets that can be collected real-
time, and compared to detect trends. Once analyzed these trends
allow asset managers to implement preventative actions, reducing
the long-term cost of maintenance, extending the availability and
the life of the assets and increasing the overall field production.
However, the major downsides of implementing ground sensors on
numerous assets over broad areas are limited return on investment
if the asset production life cycle is less than 10 years, and
obsolescence of the technology if the asset life cycle is more than 10
years.
Based on our current Unmanned Aerial System (UAS) flying
operations with oil and gas majors, we now see the inspection
industry complementing their ground sensors with the introduction

2. of aerial remote sensing and information delivery technologies at
scale, as a way to mitigate these costs and obsolescence issues.
There are many reasons why Beyond Line of Sight (BVLoS) UAS
flying operations have not yet fully been integrated into civilian
operations and, as a result, most industries limit the role of
Unmanned Aircraft Vehicles (UAVs) to close inspection of vertical
infrastructure or capability demonstration. This is primarily due to
the perceived restrictive nature of airspace regulations when it
comes to the integration of UAS into the civilian airspace.
Airspace regulatory bodies such as the Federal Aviation
Administration (FAA) and Civil Aviation Safety Authority (CASA)
have begun opening a portion of the sky to Line of Sight UAS
operations (e.g., Part 107 in the US). A lesser known fact is that the
same airspace regulatory bodies may consider BVLoS flying
operations based on a safety case (e.g., Section 2210 of the FAA
Extension, Safety, and Security Act of 2016 for operations
associated with critical infrastructure in the US). This means that
with proper coordination and management of a client’s timeline, it
is possible to conduct BVLoS UAS flying operations today —
provided that the UAS operator mitigates the risk of introducing a
UAS into the civilian airspace with operational and technological
remediation.
The benefit that Line of Sight (LoS) remote sensing operations bring
to industrial operations is now well known and shared in the
industry in particular, for vertical infrastructure inspection.
However, what is underestimated is the same benefit applied at
scale, over an entire basin thanks to BVLoS UAS operations.
A case in point is the flying operations conducted by Insitu in
Australia to remotely inspect Shell QGC’s LNG assets with the
support of Boeing Phantom Works International, where the
ScanEagle UAV flies every week of the year over the Coal Seam Gas
field in the Surat basin into an unsegregated civilian airspace.

3. Our experience flying ScanEagle UAS BVLoS over broad areas
(1,000+ square kilometers) shows that the productivity of ground
teams in charge of the assets can be significantly improved (up to
20%). Indeed, the number of assets being inspected per day can by
multiplied by a factor 10X using BVLoS UAS operations. This allows
any given team to review all their assets in one day, and focus the
rest of the week doing “things” (planning, fixing, repairing,
maintaining, etc.), reducing the number of hours spent on
unproductive tasks (driving, inspecting visually mundane check
points, drafting manual reports, etc.).
Another significant benefit of utilizing an UAS BVLoS as part of an
asset management operation is how it enhances the safety of the
ground teams. With the introduction of broad area remote
inspection, the average distance driven every year diminishes
drastically (down 500,000 kilometers per team, per year on
average). This, in turn, statistically reduces road hazard accidents.
Another more anecdotal but equally important safety aspect is the
ability to detect threats to ground teams before exposing them to
risks (e.g., wildlife or leaks).
The above benefits augment the primary gain of utilizing a UAS
BVLoS to inspect assets over broad areas, which is the
improvement overall in asset availability. Being able to constantly
monitor the assets and detect issues before they arise enable the
ground teams to deploy preventative maintenance, changing the
way they conduct their operations in order to achieve a very high
level of sustained production, and reduce the asset down time (up
to 66 percent reduction) when needed. The true economic value
here is at such a scale that it is difficult to define (or share) but the
potential is certainly huge.
In summary, the benefits of remote sensing using UAS BVLoS at
scale are “no brainers” for asset managers, and the winning asset
managers will be the ones making the most of the existing

4. technology and regulations, and leveraging them to get an edge over
the competition with the most cost-effective operations. UAS BVLoS
operation is one of these rare remote sensing technologies of the
future than can be deployed in your everyday operations!
To know more, Visit: Insitu.com