Oil and gas companies are testing robotics solutions on some of the industry’s more complex challenges to drive productivity and efficiency as well as mitigate risk. As oil and gas companies look to explore the potential of engineered robotics solutions to work autonomously or in conjunction with field operators, they are part of an industry-agnostic trend toward additional robotics testing. According to GlobalData, the global robotics industry is set to rise at a compound annual growth rate of 16% to $277.8 billion in 2025 from $98.2 billion in 2018.
In a June report, GlobalData identified Shell, ExxonMobil, Chevron, BP, Gazprom, Repsol, Equinor, Total, Saudi Aramco, Sinopec, and ADNOC as energy companies with considerable exposure to the robotics theme.
“Recent technological advancements are enabling operators to deploy robots in terrestrial, aerial, and underwater configurations to carry out tasks that may be too risky to be undertaken by field personnel. Moreover, aging infrastructure is necessitating regular inspection of these assets, and autonomous drones are being used due to their sheer number and issues related to accessibility,” said GlobalData analyst Ravindra Puranik.
From drones used in inspection operations to Equinor and partners’ unmanned Oseberg H platform currently serving as a pilot in the North Sea, the oil and gas industry is involved in myriad stages of robotics research, and development continues. Here, a small sample.
A consortium of 10 companies including Chevron, Shell, Gassco AS, and Vopak helped fund Petrobot, a 3-year joint-industry research project supported by a grant from the European Commission that served to create robotic tools for the inspection of pressure vessels and storage tanks. The project mobilized the complete value chain of robotics, technology, and inspection providers and end-users in the oil, gas, and petrochemical industries.
The Petrobot team developed three offline pressure vessel inspection robots and one online tank robot, used for inspecting tanks that contain product. Field trials tested the robots’ capabilities in detecting a range of potential defects such as weld cracks, pitting, and wall thinning.
In the Norwegian Sea, after extensive development and testing in Trondheimsfjorden (350 m water depth) in 2019 and 2020, plans are in place to pilot a snake robot—Eelume—at Asgard field in late 2020 or early 2021 dependent upon the test program progress. The autonomous underwater vehicle was developed by Eelume AS in partnership with Kongsberg Maritime and Equinor for subsea inspection, maintenance, and repair.
Additionally, Equinor is currently operating Empowered ROV (E-ROV). The E-ROV is a remotely operated tethered ROV that works with inspection, maintenance, and repair vessels that communicates via a buoy. “These concepts are stepping stones on our technology development staircase towards subsea operations with resident, tetherless-cableless underwater drones with autonomous functionality,” Equinor told OGJ.
Elsewhere, testing to improve reliability and develop additional functionalities of a robot developed and chosen as the winner of a 3-year competition of Total’s ARGOS (Autonomous Robot for Gas and Oil Sites) Challenge continues. Five international teams competed to develop a robot for routine, inspection, and emergency operations on oil and gas sites. The priority was to demonstrate the robots’ ability to operate in potentially explosive atmospheres.
Testing of the robot, developed by the Arogonauts team, a partnership between Taurob GMBH and the research group SIM at Technical University Darmstadt in Germany, is expected to be performed at a Total site in the UK. Functionalities to be developed include an articulated gripper arm. The aim is a robotics solution on an industrial scale by 2022, Total has said.
Regardless of industry, two major challenges to deploying robotics technologies are cost and reliability, GlobalData said.
Robotics are testing well in terms of reliability in enhancing operational efficiency in applications such as material handling and preparation of land drilling, the GlobalData report said, but whether the total cost of ownership of robots and drones has a positive effect on overall operational expenditure—regardless of industry—is still to be determined.
One counter, Puranik said, is the development of Robotics-as-a-service business models by technology and oil field service providers to drive deployment in field operations and reduce ownership cost uncertainty.
All the while, testing continues.
