Abu Dhabi National Oil Co. and Total SA will use drone aircraft and robotic vehicles to place and retrieve sensors in a pilot 3D seismic survey in Abu Dhabi.
The pilot will use Total’s proprietary Multiphysics Exploration Technologies Integrated Systems (METIS) system, which the French company tested in 2017 in Papua New Guinea.
Khadija Al Daghar, ADNOC vice-president, research and technology development, said the collaboration aims “to be able to jointly develop a safer, faster, more efficient, and cost-effective acquisition system to acquire 3D and 4D high-resolution seismic images of the subsurface, which can be processed in real-time.”
The pilot will test the versatility and upscaling ability of the system in 36 sq km of desert.
Six aerial drones will drop sensors, which will be retrieved by an unmanned ground vehicle.
